Edwards' Affair: Everything Wrong with the Mainstream Media and Today's Politics

When we covered it a few weeks ago, we were poo-pooed by the usual suspects that there was no way a story that John Edwards had a rendezvous with his alleged mistress at a Beverly Hills hotel prior to appearing at an event with Mayor Villaraigosa.  Because, among other things, the story came from reporters at the National Enquirer, there was no way it could be true.


I guess we found out that wasn't the case.

When the story hit, the mainstream media didn't cover it.  Now it wasn't laziness or indifference but actual self-censorship in at least one case.  Blogger Mickey Kaus has uncovered an LA Times memo (written by former non-MSM blogger Tony Pierce) directing it's bloggers not to talk about the issue.

From: "Pierce, Tony"

Date: July 24, 2008 10:54:41 AM PDT

To: [XXX]

Subject: john edwards

Hey bloggers,

There has been a little buzz surrounding John Edwards and his alleged affair. Because the only source has been the National Enquirer we have decided not to cover the rumors or salacious speculations. So I am asking you all not to blog about this topic until further notified.

If you have any questions or are ever in need of story ideas that would best fit your blog, please don't hesitate to ask

Keep rockin,

Tony

So the questions we're left with are why did the LA Times seek to block the story? And what connection does the Mayor have in this considering his tangential role in the events of the day and his longstanding association with Edwards.

Enquiring minds want to know!

Late Morning Addenda

JM, Riverside, 2.25.08


Joseph Mailander a guy in la • elsewhere • email

Every day, every night, a few dozen RVs, campers, and vans call Riverside Drive between Glendale and the 2 home. Homeless? In need of help? In need of ticketing? No. In need of nada. Displacing these would cost the City more than the effort is worth. But they do make for a sorry case, and speak to the need for market-driven, rather than government-driven, affordable housing in the City.

The government has already had over a decade to install a missing rung or two on the housing ladder, and it has failed, even despite two precipitous home price drops. Find a planning chief with the talent to give the market a chance to supply the missing rungs, rather than one who throws up her hands and says she's powerless to do anything but issues permits for anything that comes along.

He remains our friend, and he remains a beacon: Zuma comes up big with a story that sounds eerily like another Prop S in the incubator. The kleptomanic City has tried to clip its own Department, the DWP, for an extra $63 million. An adjudicant (not sure what kind---Zuma says "a Court") has said, Let's have a real trial about this. If the past is prelude, this ongoing battle won't see much print, so stay tuned here and there.

And bookmark Zuma while you're there, especially because...

Russ Stanton's new regime's decision to put the Times' content-free blogs above news on pages like this one is awful. It's just plain awful. The Times is apparently so scared of local news-aggregator and publicity-driven blogs that they're now apparently going to do their own aggregating, using bloggers to lead in to their own stories---which of course does nothing but create an extra layer between you and content, one of the biggest of Internet no-nos. Has Russ ever been sold a bag of goods!

If this is Tony's idea, well, it's the first time I've known him to falter badly on an Internet matter.

The reason people read aggregator blogs is not because they like having a filter. It's because they cotton to a particular narrative voice. They may like or hate the voice, but it's the voice that's really what's getting read. The voice makes its own narrative interesting by stitching in the stories of others; and the voice gets easier and easier to tune out when it is obliged to hype. A good aggregator's voice is typically a writer's, not a publicist's---and that's why it's sad to see a writer like Veronique de Turenne subordinated to a publicist's role at the Times.

Speaking of subordinate publicist voices: the paper also wants to get more bloggy about books, so, rather than find an actual literary voice, it hired someone who sometimes links to people who sometimes read them.

Blog Wars

Blog Wars Part 1: As Joe reported, LAist's Tony Pierce gets hired by the LATimes. In a lot of ways LAist is a good blog and its one I read daily. The story is also picked up on blogging.la and the comments start to fly by the pro and anti Pierce forces. Nothing we're not used to here. Then in comments on his own post, blogging.la's David Markland questions the impact of LAist's local coverage on their ratings as opposed to their prolific gossip and pop culture. Despite that, Markland gives props to the blog and Pierce.

Following which, Pierce posts an overly defensive, ballistic screed accusing Markland of lying and being jealous.

I'm not sure I got that from David's comment. However Tony's histrionics now make me question the wisdom of the Times' pick. But whatever. I've always preferred Markland's writing anyway, nothing personal to Tony. Even when I called Markland an idiot.

Blog Wars Part 2: Angelic Blog posted a list of all the current development projects Downtown. Westchester Parents blog posts an article urging a moratorium on new construction until the water crisis can be solved and links to Angelic's list. Then, Angelic refers to Westchester as BANANAs. Westchester accuses Angelic of getting testy. Finally in comments on Westchester, Angelic's rico denies being testy and tells Westchester that if the BANANA shoe fits, wear it.