NPR reports that FOX Knew About the E-mails
Fox knew about the disgusting emails as much as a year ago. Gee, I wonder why they didn't break the news.
I couldn't find if this had been posted earlier. If so, I will delete.
Reporters and editors at Florida's St. Petersburg Times, The Miami Herald and the Fox News Channel all say they obtained e-mails that seemed to be between Rep. Mark Foley and a former congressional page -- but that they didn't have enough to go public with the story.
The reporters sought more information.
"We verified the accuracy of the email we had," says Neil Brown, executive editor of the St Petersburg Times. "We also spoke with congressman Foley and spoke with the boy's parents. Congressman Foley told us we had misinterpreted it -- and in fact maybe a page had misinterpreted it."
And there it largely stood for nearly a year.
http://www.npr.org/...
You notice that it is the St. Petersburg Times reporters who tried to get information--not FOX. It seems the reporters were not interested enough to dig past Foley, who, of course, said they were misinterpreted and the boy's parents, who were trying to protect their son.
ABC's Brian Ross got those same e-mails, but he saw the seriousness of the e-mails and found a way to crack the story open. He recognized that the emails were unusual coming from a 52-year-old Congressman to a high school junior. He was unable to confirm the emails with the former pages--so he went to Foley's aides. Foley's press secretary verified them but insisted that they were harmless, that "Mark is just overly friendly."
Ross still felt that there was more to the story and found a way to break the story last Thursday. An ABC producer called Foley's office and read some of what they had gotten, "Not even the worst of it," Brian says.
Twenty minutes later Foley's chief of staff called back to tell him that Foley was resigning but that they wanted to make a deal not to post the instant messages.
Thank goodness Brian kept digging.