John Edwards Affair: December DBKP Montross Story Confirmed Yesterday

DougRoss@Journal, DBKP December stories Confirmed:

Eric Montross Angle Valid


"Come on, guys! I told you it was OK to write about it, but this is too much!"

[The following is published not to toot our own horn. Okay, okay--maybe a little. The impetus is to record where this information was first published; as well as how much time elapsed before a member of the traditional media confirmed it.]


Another part of the John Edwards story uncovered by bloggers was confirmed--almost eight months after it was first reported at DBKP and DougRoss@Journal.

The Raleigh Telegram--which didn't let readers in on the scandal until days ago, and which ran an editorial citing Edwards' "continuous denials" as a reason for its non-coverage--confirmed, in a pair of stories yesterday, that ex-NBA star, Eric Montross was indeed involved in the scandal--most likely, unknowingly.

Rielle Hunter Stayed In Chapel Hill Last Year and UNC's Montross Rented House To Edwards Worker both confirm that Andrew Young was staying in Montross' house--in the same Governor's Club gated community that the Enquirer reported that Rielle Hunter was staying.

Although it is not known by this newspaper who owned the house that Rielle was living in, it has been confirmed that Young was renting his house from former UNC basketball star Eric Montross.

Montross is well-known to Tarheel fans for being the star center of the UNC NCAA Championship team in 1993, before going on to a ten year professional career in the NBA.

[The Telegram's earlier "continuous denial" quote was one, among others, that prompted DBKP to write John Edwards Scandal: The Myth of the Edwards’ Denials on August 7--one day before John Edwards quit denying the affair. It seems that the Telegram was stung by taking Edwards' October denial of the affair--when it was deniable, since the Enquirer had published, at that point, only some unnamed sources about an unnamed "other woman"--at face value and has been busy making up for lost time.]

On December 27, DBKP published "John Edwards Scandal: Rielle Hunter Housed by Former NBA Player". It left details of a tip we'd received from someone describing themselves as, "someone who partied with Rielle in LA".

We'd hoped that by publishing the info, that it would excite the curiosity of just one reporter in the MSM--maybe who was also a sports fan.

But, it was a blogger, Doug Ross, who responded to our article within minutes [John Edwards Love Child Saga, the NBA and the MSM] with the name of Eric Montross.

Doug did some detective work--work that any MSM reporter could have done in December, as The Telegram proved just yesterday--and ran down Montross. As Ross related:

"Okay, so I was curious. Went to OpenSecrets and did a donor lookup."

The only ex-NBA player and heavy Edwards donor I found is Eric Montross, who is listed in Chapel Hill. That's not to say Montross is hosting Rielle, but if the DBKP story is accurate, he's someone for the MSM to check into.

As Doug Ross, DBKP and the rest of the world was to discover: no one in the MSM did check it--until The Telegram did.

Now, for the first time, we can tell a bit of the story behind our December 27 story.

We received a credible tip about Rielle Hunter living in Eric Montross' house at the Governor's Club. LBG, after about 10 hours digging, discovered in December much of what The Telegram published yesterday, and from many of the same sources. From yesterday's Telegram:

Young and his family rented the substantially large house at 32340 Archdale Drive owned by Montross and his wife in the Governor's Club subdivision. Montross actually lives in another house over the county line in Orange County, according to tax records.

An online newsletter for the Governor's Club community called "Ginny's Community" welcomed the Young family to the neighborhood and mentioned them by name along with their new address.

According to a real estate listing on the Chapel Hill Realty Group's website, Montross' house at 32340 Archdale Drive that Young rented was formerly up for sale at an asking price of $1,425,000, although according to Chatham County, the assessed tax value is $1,658,822. Although the property is listed as "sold" on the real estate website, the Chatham County records do not indicate that a sale took place and Montross has owned the house since 1993.

DBKP's efforts were redoubled on December 26-27 in an effort to locate exactly which house Rielle Hunter was living in. It wasn't known if the Youngs had relocated to another nearby house when Hunter appeared in the Governor's Club, or if, more likely, our tipster had some of the info right.

We just could not tell.

So, we left messages in the comments sections of several NC blogs--including one in the Chapel Hill, NC area--appealing for someone nearby to do some legwork. The comments and emails went largely unanswered.

The decision was made to publish our story the way we did. We knew from the Enquirer's December reports and LBG's digging that Hunter had been in the house at 32340 Archdale, but we couldn't say for sure she was living there. It was hoped that by posting something, it might excite a reporter in the Raleigh area to check the information out.

As it happens, that occurred--over eight months after our story and Doug Ross'--was published; after John Edwards' Nightline appearance green-lighted the Edwards scandal for the major press organizations. to cover.

ENTER RADAR



Several weeks ago, in the wake of the Enquirer's reporters' confrontation with Edwards at the Beverly Hilton, interest in the Montross angle was renewed. On July 31, Radar published John Edwards’ Money Man: Fellow Tar Heel Eric Montross?. In the story, Radar took a look back at Ross' and DBKP's stories seven months earlier:

In a follow-up story published on December 19, the Enquirer reported that after word of the affair got out, Hunter moved into a home owned by an Edwards supporter in the exclusive Governors Club, a gated community less than five miles away from the Edwards HQ in Chapel Hill and only a few blocks away from the Young residence.

Here's where things get weird: five days later, a right-wing blog called Death By 100 Papercuts received a tip that the house Hunter had moved into was owned by a former NBA player who had contributed money to the Edwards campaign. Doing some digging, Doug Ross reported that the only former NBA player who had donated money to Edwards was Eric Montross, a UNC graduate who was drafted by the Boston Celtics back in 1994 and ended his NBA career in 2003. Montross gave $4,600 to Edwards during the 2008 election cycle; he was described as a "big backer of John Edwards' White House bid" by CNN. (Edwards went to UNC law school.)

We took note of the Radar reference in John Edwards Scandal: Birth Certificates, NBA Players and the Waking of the MSM the same day.

Less than a week later, Radar seemed to be backpedaling, however [Eric Montross Would Like You to Know He's Never Met Rielle Hunter, Thank You Very Much]. Radar then said:

Last week, we culled together some thinly sourced material from around the Internet and posted an (admittedly) wildly speculative theory about how Tar Heel and former professional basketball player Eric Montross was the guy paying off both John Edwards' alleged mistress Rielle Hunter as well as Andrew Young, the professed father of Hunter's (Edwards?) kid. Which would be news to Eric Montross! "I don't have anything to do with this," Montross told Radar by phone. "Whatever is going on with Edwards, I can tell you unequivocally that I am uninvolved."

Both Doug Ross and DBKP were relegated to the ranks of the "thinly-sourced". A letter was dispatched to Radar detailing how Montross' name had come to be connected with the scandal, along with the observation that DBKP "believed Montross didn't know Rielle Hunter".

Today, Radar commented on the Raleigh Telegram story with some interesting observations: [Eric Montross Back in the Picture!]

A little while ago, we floated an admittedly crazy theory that former NBA player, UNC alum, and John Edwards supporter Eric Montross not only owned the Chapel Hill house Rielle Hunter was reportedly staying in after Edwards knocked her up, but also that Montross might have been the mystery man paying off both Hunter and professed baby daddy Andrew Young. Montross vehemently denied having anything to do with anyone involved in the scandal ("I am 100 percent detached," he said), and soon after Texas lawyer Fred Baron was outed as the money man, and we assumed that was that. But it turns out Montross isn't totally insulated from the whole scandal: the Raleigh Telegram is now reporting that Montross rented a house he owned in the exclusive Governor's Club development to none other than Andrew Young—and that the house was just a few blocks away from a home Hunter herself was living in.

Granted, that doesn't mean Montross knew anything other than that his tenant had a crazy chick for a neighbor (it's still unclear who rented Hunter her home), but it's not like Young found him off of Craigslist. How much John Edwards actually told him is anyone's guess. The Telegram also corroborates an earlier story from the Enquirer in which it was reported that Hunter was an occasional dinner guest at her neighbor Young's house. (Young is married with kids.) Given that it's not exactly common practice to have the woman you've supposedly had an out-of-wedlock child with over for supper, the most logical conclusion to draw is that Young—surprise!—isn't the father of Hunter's kid.

We're just hoping all this gets us out of that "thinly-sourced" category.


[This past Thursday, DBKP and Doug Ross again collaborated to beat the MSM to the punch on the Fred Baron story: John Edwards Scandal: Is Fred Baron the Enquirer ‘Hush Money Man’? and [Rumors Run Wild: Is Fred Baron the Wallet for John Edwards Scandal. The next day, Fred Baron began releasing his statements that he was involved in moving Rielle Hunter around the country.

Doug Ross was emailed in the early afternoon with our info; but was away at the time. In the meantime, a Radar commenter had posited the names of both Baron and ex-Dallas Mavericks coach, Don Nelson.]


DBKP knew Rielle Hunter had been in Eric Montross' house back in December: either as a guest or a lodger. Then, there was no way of knowing the particulars. Today, it's still not known if Eric Montross knew about it; in all probability, he didn't.

We're only happy that aspects of our stories were finally confirmed.

We just wonder what took so long for someone else to "get some feet on the ground" to check them out.


by Mondoreb
images: dbkp file; Radar

John Edwards Scandal: Press Coverage on Hold For Enqurer

August 4, 2008
John Edwards Scandal Media Coverage

* Using the John Edwards Scandal Microscope to Examine Mainstream Media Fossils
* NewBusters Edwards Scandal Two-fer
* Conspiracies and Caffeine
* Montross: "Not Involved"



BRITISH MEDIA WRITER EXAMINES AMERICAN DINOSAUR


Mainstream Media Fossil Collection


Guy Adams, of the Independent, paints a picture of the American Mainstream Media. [Guy Adams' US Media Diary: The 'scoop' the US papers ignored]

Hint: Adams doesn't use many bright colors.

That old cliché about everything being bigger in America seems especially pertinent when attempting to describe the sheer scale of the crisis currently afflicting the US newspaper industry, which makes all Fleet Street's woes look like a summer picnic.

Last week, The Los Angeles Times decided to flog its historic downtown offices, on top of sacking 150 of its 870 journalists. So did The Chicago Tribune. Almost every title in the land is now shedding staff; a hundred New York Times hacks have been offered voluntary redundancy; Newsweek recently announced cuts. It's a bloodbath out there, as US media companies attempt to claw a pound of flesh from haemorrhaging readerships.

Adams then offers a bit of advice to his American Cousins.

The Edwards story could be selling truckloads of newsprint. It is attracting enormous traffic online, and has been devoured by viewers of Fox, the only TV network to report it. In ignoring the affair, newspapers are sacrificing potential readers and repeating the mistakes of the 1990s, where they loftily decided against reporting Bill Clinton's many bedroom misdeeds, allowing internet sites to claim the Monica Lewinsky "scoop."

One of the top LA Times execs, Tony Pierce, has higher concerns, though. He recently sent staff an edict. "There has been a little buzz surrounding John Edwards and his alleged affair," it read. "Because the only source has been the National Enquirer we have decided not to cover the rumours or salacious speculations."

I can't pretend to know what Mr Pierce does with his 870 journalists. But if he'd asked just one of them to check out these "salacious rumours" regarding John Edwards the LA Times might have a few more readers, and fewer of the 870 staffers might have to be cut from its bloated payroll.

Adams is spot-on in his advice. One guess: the MSM has heard, and ignored it all before. The dreary picture he painted at the beginning will only get darker, fueled by the hubris that infects the dinosaur that is the traditional liberal-left mainstream American press.

NEWSBUSTERS JOHN EDWARDS SCANDAL TWO-FER



It was a two-for-one John Edwards Scandal coverage at NewsBusters on Monday.

First, PJ Gladnick examines Guy Adams' examination [British Writer Claims MSM Silence on Edwards Scandal Reflects Newspaper Decline] at NewsBusters:

Perhaps it takes a foreigner looking from the outside in to give us a clear look at the overall meaning of the mainstream media silence on the alleged John Edwards scandal. In this case it is Guy Adams writing in his US Media Diary in the UK Independent about "The 'scoop' the US papers ignored."

Also, in the same piece, Gladnick gives readers their money's worth by revisiting the KC Star's Aaron Barnhart's latest. Gladnick notices that Barnhart had "backtracked" from an earlier statement(more below).

And lastly, Mr. Gladnick comes to our defense(!!!), positing the possibility that Barnhart had, perhaps, mis-categorized DBKP, after our critique [John Edwards Scandal: KC Writer Cites “Veiled Threats”, Denials as Likely] of an earlier piece by Barnhart.

Gladnick finishes with a flourish. We won't provide any quotes on this particular; however, the curious reader may, with a simple click of the wrist, find out for himself what Gladnick said about the brave toilers for truth and profit here at the Worldwide Leader in Weird. Hint: it involves a color.

Got all that?

One wonders that there was anything left for NBs to write about, but Noel Sheppard completed the NB media tag-team by reporting on Lee Stranahan's ban at DailyKos [Daily Kos Bans Blogger For Writing About Edwards Scandal]. Sheppard concluded is article with:

As there are always two sides to these kinds of stories, I look forward to receiving some nasty e-mail messages from Markos Moulitsas telling me how I've completely misinterpreted Stranahan's excommunication. Stay tuned.

DBKP also examined Stranahan's KOS banishment [John Edwards Scandal: DailyKOS Bans Stranahan for Writing About Edwards].

Ryan Tate shined the Gawker spotlight on the Stranahan KOS ban[Blogger Banned Over Edwards Scandal Posts]:

Lee Stranahan's post about lefty blogs ignoring the John Edwards affair was apparently the most highly trafficked story on the Huffington Post for at least two days. But when he crossposted the item to his "diary" on Daily Kos, it was suddenly not so popular! Go figure. The "liberal" militants there excoriated Stanahan in the comments, with one well-rated response declaring, "you are violating site standards referencing the Enquirer [and its Edwards coverage], a bannable offense." That's funny, because just a few years ago multiple Kos diarists trumpeted an unflattering Enquirer story about Bush, including one who said, "Sometimes the National Enquirer reports things better than the Washington Post." That person is still active on the site, but Stranahan is not so lucky!

Is Tate implying that DailyKOS may have flexible standards?


KC WRITER RESPONDS TO DBKP

Aaron Barnhart ["John Edwards and Buck O'Neil: Two stories, some sound, much fury, no action] admits, "Perhaps I spoke too soon about the whole "John Edwards story going mainstream" business."

DBKP reported last week [John Edwards Scandal: KC Writer Cites “Veiled Threats”, Denials as Likely] on Aaron's views on the MSM's John Edwards Scandal coverage [The John Edwards love-baby story: What took so long?]. Aaron good-naturedly concluded:

Reaction to my piece has ranged from the adversarial to the hotly adversarial to off-the-charts, like this blogger whose line-by-line analysis of my story would make any JFK/9-11/TWA 800 conspiracy theorist proud.

But hey, if that's the price I must pay for this kind of traffic ... where do I sign up for auto-debit?

We'll plead the fifth--as in espresso--defense. Writing for the last seven months about the MSM's Edwards non-coverage also tends to have that effect on us after awhile.

True Confession Time: Okay, so our favorite movie is pictured below. What of it?



MONTROSS AT A LOSS

Radar [Eric Montross Would Like You to Know He's Never Met Rielle Hunter, Thank You Very Much] backtracked on their earlier sspeculation about ex-NBA player and Edwards' backer, Eric Montross [John Edwards' Money Man: Fellow Tar Heel Eric Montross?]. Radar reports Montross' reaction to his name coming up in the John Edwards Scandal.

"I don't have anything to do with this," Montross told Radar by phone. "Whatever is going on with Edwards, I can tell you unequivocally that I am uninvolved."

Both are fine reads--not the least because they both mentioned our "John Edwards Scandal: Rielle Hunter Housed by Ex-NBA Player" of December 17, 2008.

We'll just say:
1-We believe Montross;
2-We'll address the subject later today--after some shut-eye;
3=After our fifth espresso.


by Mondoreb
image: horror-wood