Remember when the press was supposed to act as a check on the abuses of government? Florida papers had copies of the emails and IMs over a year ago and
refused to run with them.
Meanwhile, Florida newspapers -- who were leaked copies of the e-mail with the Louisiana boy last year -- defended their decision not to run stories. Both The St. Petersburg Times and The Miami Herald were given copies of the e-mail, as were other news organizations, including Fox News.
"Our decision at the time was ... that because the language was not sexually explicit and was subject to interpretation, from innocuous to 'sick,' as the page characterized it, to be cautious," said Tom Fiedler, executive editor of the Herald. "Given the potentially devastating impact that a false suggestion of pedophilia could have on anyone, not to mention a congressman known to be gay, and lacking any corroborating information, we chose not to do a story."
How hard was it to get corroborating information if ABC News was able to do it? Is ABC News really that much more competent than the St. Petersburg Times and the Miami Herald? Apparently so. A sad state of affairs.
One of the right-wing conspiracy theories currently making the rounds is that this was all coordinated for best impact right before the election. If there was coordination, this would've broken in three or four weeks. We had plenty of rope to hang the administration with this week with Condi's problems, the NIE, and so on.
Rather, it turns out that several news agencies had information that Foley was a child predator and chose to sit on the story rather than do real reporting -- you know, the stuff their readers supposedly pay for. And as a result of their negligence, a sexual predator continued to roam the halls of Congress.