Bad Day for Journalism?

I was reading my local central NJ newspaper, The Courier News, and became very angry.  A local republican Assemblyman, Peter J. Biondi, emailed two allegedly racist and sexist jokes to a group that he regularly emails.  However, the paper did not publish the "jokes" and has not since the story broke several days ago.  They stated in article

The Courier News has declined to publish the jokes because of their nature.

 
Today, The Courier News published an editorial "Biondi was foolish, not a racist"  The editorial argues that Biondi made a mistake, he apologized and they urge his constituents "to accept his apology and move on".  At the same time, their readers have been unable to form their own opinion since the paper has not published the "jokes" and hence my anger.  

Further discussion and poll below the fold.      

I attempted several searches for the exact "jokes".  It appears that no news outlet has published the jokes after searching Google and Jersey blogs.  Of course, no other newspaper had an editorial advising it's readers to move on either.  The Courier News summerizes the jokes as  

One joke involved a Ku Klux Klan lynching and a racial stereotype. The other involved the Rev. Jesse Jackson and could be interpreted either as a racist comment or a political comment, or maybe both.

Assemblyman Biondi sent the emails to a group which included a municipal prosecutor, tax assessor, a former mayor, and the city republican chairman.  It is important to note that the email was a personal email account and not his public/government email address.  

I feel the entire "jokes" should be published since they were sent by a publicly elected official and to other public officials.  I became angry when the paper published an editorial urging their readers to "move on", but never had the respect for their readers to publish the jokes so it's readers could make a fully informed decision on how to react.  The "jokes" are obviously newsworthy if the paper felt the subject deserving of an editorial.  
 
For the full story, Biondi met with several NJ ministers and had a phone call with the Rev. Jesse Jackson to apologize.  Biondi also appologized on a state radio program, the Jersey Guys.  Ironically, the Jersey Guys have been known to engage in inappropriate discourse under the guise of comedy - the Garden's State's version of Imus.  The ministers and Jackson appear inclined to forgive him (of course, they also know the exact language and joke that was forwarded by Biondi).  

What is your opinion? Has Imus scared the Media away from race sensative items? Should it be published?  Am I just an old crank who is too curious?