Chinese Milk Scandal: Contamination for Fun and Profit

The Chinese Milk Scandal:
A Retrospective.



ABOVE: Chinese hospital disposing of contaminated milk.

---

While the investigations continue on an International level, a clear picture is emerging of the extent of this purposeful contamination of milk products/. And it is not flattering to the Chinese government and industry.

But first some background.

China is usually not associated with cows milk--and for good reason. While mares milk and the milk of sheep and goats was common in certain northern pastoral areas of China, milk was rarely drunk with the exception of fermented milk in Mongolia/Tibet.

Historical records reveal that milk and milk products, particularly cheese, were common in China until the introduction of Buddhism. The form of Buddhism adopted by China (and Japan) inexplicably proscribed milk and cheese products. Thus one of mankind's most important food products, cheese--easy to store, very high nutritional and calorie content--and butter, were dropped from the Chinese culinary repertoire. And while other strictures of Buddhism gradually disappeared, the taste for dairy products did not re-emerge.

Of course, milk was not commonly drunk in America or Europe in the 1800s either. It was the advent of the icebox that allowed milk to become associated with first, breakfast and as a cooking ingredient, and later as a drink for children.

But unlike China, the Americans were well aware of the health benefits and the need for mothers to supplement breast milk. Two vast fortunes in America were built on canned milk: Borden's and Carnation. And it was no accident.

As China's infrastructure developed, the Chinese government made a conscious decision to introduce dairy products into the Chinese diet. Farmers were encouraged to raise cows for extra income. Recipes using butter were encouraged. Cows and semen were imported from around the world. Dairies started up, as well as manufacturers of dairy equipment.

It was a huge success.

While the average Chinese will tell you they did not buy a single helping of cheese, government analysis shows Chinese now eat cheese three times a week, on average. Yogurt is extremely popular, particularly among the young, as is ice cream for all ages.

No middle class mother of a young child would think of being without milk in the fridge for her only child--and the health of the young clearly improved in the last 15 years. Milk production was doubling every 8 years or so.

Then it all went wrong.

Sanlu recalls 700 tons of melamine-tainted milk powder

Dateline:September 12, 2008.

The Shijiazhuang-based dairy producer Sanlu announced that the company will recall 700 tons of infant feeding formula ("baby milk powder" 婴幼儿奶粉) that was produced before August 6.

In the announcement Sanlu admitted that some of the products were contaminated by melamine. Previously the company had insisted that the milk products suspected of causing kidney stones in 59 babies were fake products using the Sanlu label.

Now, out of 175 baby formula processors, Sanlu is China's largest. It is 43% owned by Fronterra, a New Zealand Dairy co-op. Fronterra discovered the problem and asked Sanlu to immediately recall all products.

Sanlu refused.

Fronterra reported the problem to the New Zealand government which in turn reported it urgently to the Chinese government. After a week or so, the Chinese government ordered Sanlu to recall all affected milk products.

When did Fronterra notify Sanlu?

August 2, 2008 is the best estimate of a highly secretive communication--six days before the Olympics opened. So the implication is the Chinese government ignored, hid, and downplayed the contamination in order not to detract from the same and give thousands of reporters a story.

Did the Chinese government actually know of the contamination?

We here at DBKP think so.

From News.com. Australia:

A CHINESE company at the centre of the scare over tainted milk powder had asked for government help to cover up the extent of the problem, state media said in the newest development in the widening scandal.

In the Communist Party newspaper the People's Daily, Shijiazhuang city government spokesman Wang Jianguo said they had been asked by the Sanlu Group for help in "managing" the media response to the case when first told of the issue on August 2, six days before the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing.
...
"Please can the government increase control and coordination of the media, to create a good environment for the recall of the company's problem products," the People's Daily cited the letter from Sanlu as saying. "This is to avoid whipping up the issue and creating a negative influence in society," it added."

And The Asia Times:

Sanlu Dairy Co, the epicenter of the milk scandal, contributed 330 million yuan (US$48.5 million) of taxes to the municipal government of Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, last year. Many companies invite local officials to become "silent partners" in their corporations - in return for "protection" rendered by the powers-that-be. Former Sanlu chairman Tian Wenhua, for example, is said to be on "comradely terms" with Shijiazhuang officials. It is perhaps for this reason that Tian was given the honorary position of deputy to the provincial people's congress.

Now one wonders at the sheer gall of the perpetrators of this crime. Not a year before, Canada, America, and Mexico went nuts when Melamine was added to wheat germ and some 3,600 dogs and cats died.

And there was no idea if the wheat germ had made it's way into human products.

China then went into a defensive aggressive posture, claiming it was being picked on while reassuring the world that its food products were safe. Immediately followed by a ban on Chinese shrimp products, cosmetics, toothpaste, and dumplings for various contaminants. The entire Chinese food industry appeared to be dangerously filthy.

As it turn out, this is truth.

Inexplicably, the GAQSIQ has in the past couple of years awarded dairy giants Sanlu, Meng Niu, and Yili - whose products were found to be tainted with the chemical - the coveted "famous brand" designation. This status meant their products were exempted from routine inspection by quality-control watchdogs.

So a year after wheat was found to be contaminated with melamine--in order to boost it's apparent protein content--Sanlu employs a protein test method that cannot detect melamine? We here are highly skeptical.

There is no doubt that the purchasing records for this milk will never see the light of day. For they will likely reveal that Sanlu purchased watered down milk at a discount, thus making them complicit, likely at the expense of Fronterra.

The issue of fake or tainted milk powder is not new. In 2004, at least 12 infants died after taking in baby formula with no nutritional value. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ), which is responsible for checking milk and related merchandise, has been aware of the illegal use of melamine for a long time.

So where do we stand now?

Four infants, in a one-child nation are dead. 60,000 are ill, many with dangerous kidney stones. More than 20 large milk processors are implicated, giving credence to the theory that the companies intentionally engaged in contamination for profit.

Hundreds of Chinese contaminated products have been found throughout Asia, including Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines ,as well as Australia, Africa--and who knows where. One of the sources of contamination is milk chocolate, baby cereals, candy, snacks, ice cream, cookies, etc.




As learned in the pet food episode, it is simply dangerous to buy food stuffs from China. The government is not only corrupt, but much of Chinese industry as well.

Imagine the thought process behind intentionally poisoning food in order to earn another $10 for 100 pounds of milk?

When America informed Japan after WWII that many of it's food products were not up to our safety standards, Japan responded by asking who was the best to teach these techniques, then hired them.

When Thailand was told by it's American distributors that it's canned seafoods, particular tuna, were unappetizing, it responded by hiring American experts to create clean canning lines.

China has responded by trying to poison the world.

---

So, what is melamine and how does it spoof the protein levels in baby formula milk?

Melamine is an organic compounds, a base with chemical formula C₃H₆N₆.

Officially it is 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine in the IUPAC nomenclature system (CAS #108-78-1). It is has a molecular mass of just over 126, forms a white, crystalline powder, and is only slightly soluble in water. It is used in fire retardants in polymer resins because its high nitrogen content is released as flame-stifling nitrogen gas when the compound is burned or charred.

Indeed, it is this high nitrogen level - 66% nitrogen by mass - in melamine that gives it the analytical characteristics of protein molecules. Melamine can also be described as a trimer of cyanamide, three cyanamide units joined in a ring. It is described as being harmful according to its MSDS sheet: “Harmful if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Chronic exposure may cause cancer or reproductive damage. Eye, skin and respiratory irritant.

Not something you would want in your infant’s milk.


by pat
images:
* boston.com
* mercopress
* ufwildlife
* chemspider.com
Sources:
http://www.card.iastate.edu/iowa_ag_review/summer_04/article5.aspx
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24434477-401,00.html
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/JJ10Ad02.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_pet_food_recalls
http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/melamine-in-milk.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26742456/
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tih/story/328472.html

Sarah Palin on Obama-Ayers: As Fast as Others Uncover, The MSM Covers Up

Barack Obama, Bill Ayers and the Mainstream Media
Lies, Damn Lies, AP "Analysis" and CNN "Fact Checks"




The AP, which has put in yeoman's work as a mouthpiece of the Obama campaign, will be billing the campaign time-and-half for DOUGLASS K. DANIEL's "Analysis: Palin's words carry racial tinge".

Daniel not only attacked Republican Vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, for bringing up the connection between Barack Obama and domestic terrorist, Bill Ayers--in effect, the AP hack calls Palin a liar.

Then he called, in effect, a racist.

Her reference to Obama's relationship with William Ayers, a member of the Vietnam-era Weather Underground, was exaggerated at best if not outright false. No evidence shows they were "pals" or even close when they worked on community boards years ago and Ayers hosted a political event for Obama early in his career.

"Douglass, I tawt I taw a racist!"


After the AP and CNN's (Non-Performance) on the John Edwards Scandal, why would they expect their readers/viewers to trust them?


Daniel might amended his sentence to "no evidence that the AP could uncover".

The AP, readers will remember, is that shining star of investigative journalism that imposed a blackout on John Edwards' scandal news for ten months--in the midst of Edwards running for president. After Edwards confessed, the AP scrambled--not to check out leads or follow the Edwards hush money trail--but to try and excuse its lack of investigation, reporting, ethics, standards and basic human curiosity.

Shorthand for the AP's performance in the John Edwards affair/scandal/cover-up:

CYA + BS = AP

Guess who the AP's chief apologist in explaining why the "news" organization didn't report any John Edwards' news--until he gave them his blessing and confessed?

Why, it was Douglass K. Daniel!

ALSO at DBKP: Click on banner to access 100 DBKP stories and videos on the John Edwards scandal.

First, Edwards confessed. Then Daniel confessed that "Reporters found Edwards' affair tough to prove.

Well, AP reporters found it tough to prove.

Just like Douglass K. Daniel finds that there is "no evidence" that Obama and Ayers were "palling around".

As in the John Edwards affair, it's too tough for the AP to assign a reporter to the Obama-Ayers story: that might result in an AP reporter giving his bosses some unpleasant news.

Better to let others do the heavy lifting, then send in Douglass K. Daniel to apologize later for the AP not doing its job.

"Douglass, come quick! There a racist over there!"

Patterico is sick of Any Argument Against Barack Obama Is By Definition Racist:

I’m sick of the race card being played whenever someone criticizes Barack Obama. Making the Ayers connection is hardly a racist ploy, but that’s what we’re being told by the AP today. There is literally no argument you can make against this man that will not be countered by cries of racism.

IF YOU CRITICIZE BARACK OBAMA OVER BILL AYERS, it's because you're a racist! sayeth Glenn Reynolds.

Well, of course. If you criticize Barack Obama over anything, it's because you're a racist. No doubt that'll hold true if he's elected President, too, which will call for strict anti-racism laws to keep such things under control . . . .

ALSO at DBKP: * Obama’s Ties to 1970’s Domestic Terrorist Bill Ayers: Disassociation and Little Condemnation * Bill Ayers, Obama: No Mainstream Media Interest in The Obama Bunch * Vice Presidential Debate: Sarah Palin, Bill Ayers and Burned ROTC Buildings * Obama, Bill Ayers: N. Vietnam Awarded Ayers Ring Made from Downed US Plane * Obama, Bill Ayers: Mainstream Media Explain Away Obama Ties to Terrorists

Hindrocket, Powerline wonders if the Douglass smear piece isn't "The Most Bizarre Journalistic Malpractice Yet?"

When the McCain campaign ran an ad that had a white woman in it, it was denounced as racist. When it ran an ad that had an African-American man (Franklin Raines) in it, it was denounced as racist. Now the McCain campaign links Obama to a white man, the former terrorist, and still anti-American, Bill Ayers. That's racist too. I think we've exhausted just about all the possibilities. The only non-racist thing McCain can do, apparently, is concede the election.

Sarah Palin herself says, "“The Associated Press is wrong. The comments are about an association that has been known but hasn’t been talked about, and I think it’s fair to talk about where Barack Obama kicked off his political career, in the guy’s living room.”

Squelching news disadvantageous to Barack Obama, a headlong rush to Sarah Palin, rigged polls, exit polls, declaring Biden and Obama the "winners" of debates, incestuous interviews of other MSM Obama shills: is not all of this not more proof that the MSM is Actively Engaged in Voter Suppression?

Truthteller at NoQuarter slices and dices Daniel, line-by-byline: [Douglass K. Daniel of the AP is NOT a Journalist]

WASHINGTON (AP) - By claiming that Democrat Barack Obama is “palling around with terrorists” and doesn’t see the U.S. like other Americans, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin targeted key goals for a faltering campaign.
And though she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret.

[Sarah Palin’s discussion of Obama’s deep and controversial ties to Bill Ayers is not “unsubstantiated,” and it is certainly not an “attack.” Indeed, she offers a factual analysis of the available data, data Steve Diamond and others have made available to readers of No Quarter. And nothing about Sarah Palin’s words contain a “racially tinged subtext,” unless, of course, you are a compromised journalist who must project racism on everything you encounter in order to repress the racist impulses you compulsively disavow in your vain attempt to conceal your racism. I challenge Douglass K. Daniel to cite one sentence Sarah Palin utters that mentions or even alludes to race. Too bad he will fail, as she does not mention Obama’s race at all.]

John McCain, Sarah Palin and thousands
of their racist friends at a recent rally

CNN jumps in and tries to "fact check" Palin's remarks.

Verdict: False. There is no indication that Ayers and Obama are now "palling around," or that they have had an ongoing relationship in the past three years. Also, there is nothing to suggest that Ayers is now involved in terrorist activity or that other Obama associates are.

"I wish someone would ask [Obama] just once: "Then tell me, would it be ok for a child who was eight years old on 9/11--to then have a friendship with Osama bin Laden later in life as an adult"?
--comment at Free Republic on Obama's friendship with Bill Ayers
[From DBKP's Obama, Domestic Terrorist Bill Ayers: The 'Tangential' Bill Ayers]

Readers will also remember how CNN leaped to "fact check" John Edwards: CNN didn't report a word until Edwards gave them permission by confessing.

CNN told viewers/readers what the "news" network thought of them when it was silent on John Edwards' scandal.

NewsBusters unloaded a double-barrel fact-check on CNN's "fact check" [McCain Camp Finally Expose Obama Ayers Connection, Media Quick to the Rescue and CNN Ignores Bernardine Dohrn's Terrorist Past While Defending Obama ].

For good measure, NewsBusters' Todd Warner Huston thinks Douglass K. Daniel's view of Sarah Palin is "idiotic".

Talk about an idiotic assertion, but the Associated Press just claimed that Governor Sarah Palin is a racist for saying that Obama used to "pal around with terrorists." According to the AP's Douglass K. Daniel, Palin is a racist because the word "terrorist" is construed now-a-days to mean a "dark-skinned radical Muslim" so that makes her a "racist" in his blinkered view.

No Links between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers? What are connections between Obama and Ayers? Let us count the ways: * Obama and Ayers worked closely on the Chicago Anneberg Challenge When Obama made his first run for political office, articles in both the Chicago Defender and the Hyde Park Herald featured among his qualifications his position as chairman of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a foundation where Ayers was a founder and guiding force. Obama assumed the Annenberg board chairmanship only months before his first run for office, and almost certainly received the job at the behest of Bill Ayers. During Obama’s time as Annenberg board chairman, Ayers’s own education projects received substantial funding. Indeed, during its first year, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge struggled with significant concerns about possible conflicts of interest. * In November of 1997, William Ayres and Barack Obama participated in a Community Service Center’s monthly discussion series on issues affecting the city of Chicago. The University of Chicago News said, "Ayers will be joined by Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama, Senior Lecturer in the University of Chicago Law School, who is working to block proposed legislation that would throw more juvenile offenders into the adult system . ." * Obama kicked off his political career by announcing at Ayers home. Stanley Kurtz again: "when Ayers and Dorhn hosted that kickoff for the first Obama campaign, it was not a random happenstance, but merely further evidence of a close and ongoing political partnership." * Hillary Clinton brought up that the Obama-Ayers relationship on the Woods Fund. Clinton is correct that both men served together on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based charity that develops community groups to help the poor. Ayers joined the board in 1999 and is still on it. Obama left it in December 2002 after nine years. * Obama and Dohrn worked for elite law firm Sidley and Austin and The Obama-Ayers Top Ten: Highlights of the 20 year Obama-Ayers Connection * Obama publicly endorsed Ayers book Obama was perfectly aware of Ayers’ radical views, since he read and publically endorsed, without qualification, Ayers’ book on juvenile crime. That book is quite radical, expressing doubts about whether we ought to have a prison system at all, comparing America to South Africa’s apartheid system, and contemptuously dismissing the idea of the United States as a kind or just country. This is not all: this is only what has been uncovered, despite the best efforts of the Obama campaign and the Mainstream Media to keep the whole issue under control. Fact check this--DBKP has.

The best of the rest responses:
* Little Green Footballs: Associated Press Hits Bottom, Digs
* SARAH PALIN RACIST!... AP Says VP Candidate's Attacks on Obama Were Mean & Racist
* Palin-bashing Associated Press cries “RAAAACISM!”.

Malkin notes that DKD was "Putting the "ass" in 'Associated Press"".

Finally, Jonah Goldberg at NRO, calls the AP "Outrageously Asinine":
"The whole argument ultimately depends on the assumption that Americans are too stupid and racist to make any meaningful distinctions about anything." (See "We the Sheeple" image above.)

Contrast and compare the AP and CNN's responses to Sarah Palin calling out Barack Obama on his unpleasant connections to Bill Ayers with their ten-month hiatus on calling out John Edwards.

CNN, AP, Time, Newsweek, the New York Times and the rest of the MSM were guilty of Missing in Action on the John Edwards story.

On the Barack Obama-Bill Ayers story, they're guilty of something that goes beyond the MSM's normal bias.


The McCain campaign's Tucker Bounds hits the bulls-eye:

"The last four weeks of this election will be about whether the American people are willing to turn our economy and national security over to Barack Obama, a man with little record, questionable judgment, and ties to radical figures like unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayers. Americans need to ask themselves if they've ever befriended an unrepentant terrorist, or had a convicted felon help them buy their house -- because those aren't smears, those are true facts about Barack Obama." ---Tucker Bounds, spokesman McCain-Palin 2008

As quickly as those interested in the curious connections between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers--led by Stanley Kurtz and Steve Diamond--uncover information, the Mainstream Media just as quickly covers it up.

Douglas K. Daniel's attack, the New York Times' whitewash and CNN's "Fact Check" of Sarah Palin are only the first of many in this war of Big Media disinformation.



by Mondo Frazier
images:
* law.du
* onion
* aol
* lh5
* dbkp file

John Edwards Affair: Light, Action, Swingers, Camera, Movies!

John Edwards Affair
Love Child Scandal and/or Cover-up News:
* Swingers in the Edwards' Cover-up?
* That Might Explain Rielle Hunter, Andrew and Cheri Young Living Arrangements
* John Edwards as Rock Star
* Rielle Hunter to Produce Hollywood Movie?
* Movie Used as Money Conduit or Gag?
* John Edwards Has the Best of Both Worlds




We're on the road checking out rumors of a different nature for a story Sunday, so we've gathered bits and pieces from the John Edwards Affair/Scandal/Cover-up and mixed them all together in no particular order.

What's rumor and what's the cold-hard truth?

As always, what is known is presented, as is what is being guessed or whispered about.

The readers, as always, can then make up their own minds.


* SWINGERS CLUB Close to Edwards' Campaign HQ?


According to Mo, at Morons in Chapel Hill, "Is There A Swinger's Club Based At Southern Village?

Fresh from the rumor mill: A swingers group or club in or around Southern Village is having trouble with a member or couple who have decided to expose the groups activities. This group (if it exists at all) has flown under the radar for several years and has had participants travel from as far away as California to join in "events" sponsored by this group. Even more interesting is that there is a possibility that someone with genuine political connections is involved with the group.

The story adds that there's no confirmation, but that, "There is or was a polyamory group in Durham that often advertised in the Independent. There are separate bondage groups based in Raleigh and Winston Salem, so a swingers group in Chapel Hill would not be a big surprise."

Of course, this may or may not have anything to do with the John Edwards scandal.


* SWINGING EXPLAINS YOUNG-HUNTER-YOUNG LIVING ARRANGEMENTS

It might explain--if true--why the unusual living arrangements of Rielle Hunter and Andrew Young and his wife, Cheri, didn't seem so unusual to those involved in the madcap coverup.

As LBG noted back in December--when Rielle Hunter, Edwards' mistress and supposedly pregnant with Andrew Young's baby, moved right down the street from Andrew and Cheri Young--in "Rielle Hunter: Kept Woman":

Former Edwards campaign Director of Operations, Andrew Young, gives Open Marriage advocates something to cheer about.

The 41-year-old former “North Carolina Finance Director” of the Edwards campaign has stepped forward and not only claimed the “alleged” love child of John Edwards as his but has also moved his six months pregnant mistress, Reille Hunter, into the same multi-million dollar gated community as his own wife and children.

No word from Young’s wife on how well she’s adjusted to the new neighbor, the ‘other’ woman and the impending “bundle of joy.”

According to the National Enquirer, the bald headed stepchild of the MSM, an unnamed source claims Young, and his ‘first’ family, his legally married wife and legitimate children, had dinner with his pregnant paramour in her newly acquired abode.

This was all before surrogate sugar daddy, Fred Baron, standing in for John Edwards, moved Rielle Hunter, sugar baby Frances Quinn Hunter, and Andrew Young, wife Cheri, and family to Santa Barbara--all into the same house as one big family family.

Who wrote the script for Edwards' and Baron's cover-up material: the Marx Brothers?

The only two groups of people in America that have believed the screwball cover-up antics of the Edwards' gang have been 1-foaming-at-the-mouth Edwards' supporters; and, 2-the Mainstream Media.


* JOHN EDWARDS, ROCK STAR
RIELLE HUNTER, MOVIE STAR




[ABOVE: Barack Obama isn't the only Democrat who rode the "rock star" meme during the 2008 campaign. John Edwards, from the photo above, also seemed to know his way around a mosh pit.]


Hunter in Malibu, says one gossip site:

...insist my beachy real estate moles who swear on their leased Mercedes guzzlers that Reille has landed in simply the most perf place for persecuted, peroxided types: Malibu.

A DBKP's comment by Love Lips on "John Edwards Affair: Rielle Hunter, the Bird in A Gilded Cage" remarked:

There are rumors in Hollywood that Rielle Hunter has told friends that she is writing for and will be a silent partner on a movie production done by the team that did FIghting Words to be financed solely by asbestos lawyers including Fred Baron.

"Fighting Words" was produced by another trial attorney, Robert Zaytoun of NC. Fortunate Son, at Deceiver, on the same story, "Elizabeth Edwards Feeds the Monster Whether She Likes It or Not" notes that, "Wake County lawyer Robert E. Zaytoun was John Edwards’ co-counsel in malpractice case(s)".

When Raleigh lawyer Robert Zaytoun was approached by one of his best friends to produce a movie, his first thought was, "That's a good way to lose money."

Might Hunter's film also be a good way to channel (lose) money?

We recall a conversation with Drew Carey in the 1990s when Carey related that "if you want to make a lot of money, shoot a movie pilot". Carey created, wrote, was executive producer for a time and directed, as well as starred in "The Drew Carey Show".

Might Hunter be involved in ways that could channel money for her performing, writing, producing and/or directing in a film project--regardless of whether the movie ever sees the light of day?

Might this also be a way of keeping Hunter--the one person who could surely blow the lid off of the Edwards' story--happy and quiet? Snoop-diggety-dang-dog thinks so.

"Perhaps that’s what Fred Baron’s ’slow-pitch’ movie deal for Rielle is all about? Keep her yap shut for 46 more days so this doesn’t become ‘an October surprise’."

Rielle Hunter will keep her yap shut until she realizes that she's been had by John Edwards and Fred Baron.

LBG nailed it: for now, she's a bird in a gilded cage.

Hunter doesn’t seem to realize that for Edwards to ever have a relationship with her he would have to admit he lied during his “confession” on ABC’s Nightline when he was supposed to be telling the country the truth.

Hunter doesn’t realize that Edwards will never forgive her for being the cause of his fall from public grace, no matter the degree of his own cupability.

Hunter doesn’t realize that having a baby with John Edwards doesn’t count, as he had four babies with his wife Elizabeth and he still cheated on her in the end.

Hunter doesn’t realize that, to the country, she will always be seen as a wanton woman, in it for the money, power, or fame, take your pick, courtesy of John Edwards and Fred Baron’s scheme to hide the relationship. In an attempt to salvage his own reputation, Edwards had Hunter’s viciously savaged as an opportunist willing to sleep with married men, an “extortionist” willing to use her baby for her own “ends”.

* JOHN EDWARDS: BEST of BOTH WORLDS

It's been reported that John Edwards has been kicked out of his palatial digs and lives apart from wife, Elizabeth at Figure Eight Island, NC.

If that is the case, then John Edwards has the best of all cover-up worlds. When on the phone to wife, Elizabeth, he could paint the best of times about their marriage. When on the phone to mistress, Rielle Hunter, he could paint the worst of times about his marriage.

It would be the supreme way to keep Rielle Hunter "on the hook" and quiet.

One source told us that Rielle doesn't think people "understand" the situation he and Edwards are in. At some point, Hunter will understand the situation--not she and John Edwards are in, but the situation that she's put Fred Baron in--and his trial lawyers investors and their millions upon millions of dollars investment in Edwards White House chances.

Meanwhile, the Edwards's strategy seems to be: evade the media--who was never inquisitive at all prior to August-- and let the public's short memory fade and he'll resurrect his political career.

* ODDS & ENDS

* Among the phone conversations, emails, stories and comments we received this past week concerning John Edwards and Rielle Hunter:

--Hunter thought that Edwards had a big Schwanzstucker, according to one conversation.
--In another conversation, it was related that "she [Rielle Hunter] thought that he [John Edwards] was a great lover". Which prompted the question, "Why did she think that?" Which prompted the another reference to the Schwanzstucker.
--Elizabeth Edwards Feeds the Monster Whether She Likes It or Not
--Hunter was living off the kindness of friends and strangers until she struck trial lawyer paydirt in John Edwards. Before she was moved to the Governor's Club in Chapel Hill, Mimi Hockman was Hunter's source of lodging.

Quite a long step up from Mimi Hockman's NJ pad and Fred Baron's Malibu beachside accomodations, huh?


by Mondo

John Edwards Affair: Andrew Young, Deadbeat Dad

John Edwards' News:
John Edwards - Rielle Hunter
Fred Baron - Andrew Young - Frances Quinn Hunter





Andrew Young, Deadbeat Dad?


Where is Gloria Allred?

Where are all the child advocates?

Who speaks for 26-week-old Frances Quinn Hunter?

The National Enquirer has reported that Andrew Young--the loyal campaign foot soldier who took a bullet for the team and claimed he was the father of Rielle Hunter's daughter, Frances--"has never given her [Hunter and daughter] a dime.

"Andrew Young hasn't paid a red cent to Rielle or her baby Frances because he's never had a relationship with Rielle and he's not the father," revealed a close source.

"He hasn't even spoken to Rielle in almost two months since she lived with him and his wife Cheri and their three kids in Santa Barbara, Calif., as part of the cover-up.

If that is all true--and the Enquirer has batted 1.000 in the story thus far--that would make Andrew Young a deadbeat dad.




[Background information: access over 100 DBKP stories on the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter affair, scandal and cover-up: John Edwards Love Child Scandal Library.]


It's been reported that Andrew Young, Cheri Young and their children have tired of Southern California and made their way back to North Carolina. For a time, reports were that they moved back into the Governor's Club house of ex-NBA player, Eric Montross.

Andrew Young is awaiting the finishing of construction on a new home--which will be valued at well over $1 million--which is said to be the payoff for his claiming paternity for Hunter's baby.




Actually, that is going too far: Young has never claimed to be the father of Frances Quinn Hunter. There was no name on the birth certificate. Young has never, according to the Enquirer, "paid a dime" in child support.

In fact, the only time that Andrew Young claimed to be the father was back in December.

Once.

Through a Fred Baron-arranged attorney.

In response to the National Enquirer's December edition of the scandal.

Young's attorney provided a statement at that time--no other statements have been provided--and no other announcements were forthcoming or needed. But the lone statement accomplished its intention: it quelled any curiosity in the MSM over the strange events of Edwards, Hunter, Young and the campaign's handling of the the escapade.

It allowed CBS News' Bob Shieffer to roll over and go back to sleep.

There's no report of Andrew Young ever being asked about his relationship with Hunter by any MSM reporter. The Enquirer reports that "now Andrew Young has simply clammed up".

Our observation: not much clamming up was needed.

The MSM? They're too busy looking into McCain VP pick, Sarah Palin, and the "bloody, dead caribou the mom just shot."

Which leads to this story of Andrew Young, the tight-lipped deadbeat dad--and the equally-tight-lipped child advocates of the left.

The Enquirer's source continued, "The Youngs no longer have contact with Rielle. Now if Andrew was indeed the father, don't you think Rielle would be asking for child support?

"But Andrew never has supported Rielle financially."

Who has been supporting Rielle Hunter and daughter, Frances Q.?

SHE AIN'T HEAVY, SHE'S EDWARDS' BABY




Fred Baron hasn't been making many statements, other than the occasional lawyerly deflection to the Dallas Morning News. Oh, and his dodging an ABC News team that was shadowing him at the Democrat National Convention.

For their investigative trouble, ABC producer, Asa Eslocker, got bum-rushed by the cops, pushed into traffic and choked, before being arrested.

However, that was only a blip to the brave members of the MSM Fourth Estate.

Former Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox seems to sum up the Fred Baron attitude toward any unwanted publicity over Baron's payments to Rielle Hunter.

"You know they indicted me, but we survived it," said Mr. Mattox, who was acquitted of a felony bribery charge in 1985."

Mr. Baron, who attended the brunch with his wife, Lisa Blue, didn't appear to see the connection. "Hey, I've done nothing wrong," he said.

Mr. Baron is absolutely confirmed in his above opinion by the intrepid reporters of the MSM--ABC excepted.

EDWARDS EXPANDS, THEN CONTRACTS, HIS SPEAKING SCHEDULE

John Edwards first sought last week to "fill out" his speaking schedule. He ran from that pronouncement almost as as quickly as he did when pursued by National Enquirer reporters in the Beverly Hilton.

Perhaps, with a little help from his friends at the DNC and the Obama-Biden campaign.

Only last week, a spokesman said that John Edwards was looking to fill out speaking schedule. So, he followed in the footsteps of his wife and canceled his speaking appearance at Hofstra University. Strange way to expand your appearances.

“Nothing is more important than electing Barack Obama and Joe Biden,” Edwards said in a statement released Thursday by the Harry Walker Agency in Manhattan. “I don’t want my appearance at these events to be a distraction from the important issues of the election, or from the important purpose of these meetings.”

Which prompted Simon at Deceiver to raise the question: Is Edwards admitting that he's a political liability?

Hey, wait a sec… I thought Edwards was a private citizen? I thought this scandal had absolutely nothing to do with Obama? But there it is in black and white gray and slightly lighter gray: Edwards just went out of his way to link himself to Obama. Otherwise, why would appearing in public be a distraction from Obama’s campaign?

All good questions.

All good questions that won't be appearing on CNN or in the New York Times.

If those two stellar members of Big Media had handled the Edwards and Palin stories in the same manner, Palin would have had to bought time and space to get her name mentioned.


CONVENTIONS A BLESSING FOR EDWARDS, MSM




The two-week convention season was heaven-sent for both John Edwards and the Mainstream Media: Edwards didn't see the odd newspaper story with his name in it; and, the Mainstream Media had a toy: John McCain VP pick, Gov. Sarah Palin, of Alaska.

Edwards and Rielle Hunter's personal lives were not news when he was running for president.

The elaborate and bizarre cover-up that Edwards undertook was not news, either.

First, loyal Edwards' operative, Andrew Young--who initially claimed he was the father Hunter's baby--moved a pregnant Hunter a few blocks away from his wife and their small children in Chapel Hill, NC. When the Enquirer tracked Hunter down to NC, Edwards' money-man, Fred Baron, got involved.

Baron flew Hunter, Young and Young's wife and children to Santa Barbara, where, in a sort of modern-day Beverly Hillbillies twist, they all lived in the same multi-million dollar house as one happy family.

That not news to the MSM.

July 21, John Edwards got caught by the National Enquirer's reporters leaving Rielle Hunter's hotel room in the Beverly Hilton at 2:40 in the morning. When confronted, Edwards ran into a men's room, barricaded the door and had to be rescued by hotel security guards.

Again, to the MSM, this was not news, even though Edwards had been identified as being on the Obama VP shortlist that same week by Time. The fact that the possible Dem VP was hiding in a hotel mens room didn't enter into the "vetting process" of Time's Joe Klein.

The teen-aged father of Bristol Palin's baby caught the keen journalistic eye of Klein and his comrades; the father of Rielle Hunter's baby, didn't.

Nothing interested Big Media: until ABC got involved and confronted Edwards on August 8. Edwards then gave his blessing to the MSM to inform their readers/viewers about the unpleasant situation.

Here's a tip for the Mainstream Media: tell your remaining news customers that you're trying to make up for your lack of investigation in the John Edwards' scandal by doubling your investigative efforts on Sarah Palin's 16-year-old pregnant daughter.

It's not believable.

But, it doesn't have to be believable to be a hit at the next cocktail party that Joe Klein attends.


by Mondoreb
images: National Enquirer; jack boulware
Source: JOHN EDWARDS SCANDAL NEWS: NO CHILD $UPPORT FROM 'DAD'

MSM vs. the Blogosphere: INFO WARS

INFO WAR Heats Up
Sarah Palin vs. John Edwards Coverage




MSM "News" Coverage a Scandalous Joke
MSM Stockholders Laugh While Selling


Did you hear the one about the Mainstream Media's biased news coverage?

You didn't? Then you must be one of the few remaining customers of the MSM.

Everyone else has heard the joke and taken action: either they've turned to other news sources; or, if holding stock in MSM companies, they've used a bullhorn to tell their brokers to "Sell!"

2008 will go down in journalistic history as a year in which the bias in Big Media's handling of "news" became a story in itself.

First, there was the nine-month "don't ask, don't tell" policy that the MSM pursued in the handling of the John Edwards' scandal/affair/cover-up. With the exception of ABC News, they're still resolutely non-covering the story and its cover-up aftermath.

The Mainstream Media did not cover the Edwards story--a presidential, vice-presidential and cabinet candidate--until John Edwards himself gave the MSM his blessing on August 8 by 'confessing' on ABC's Nightline.

Most of the subsequent Edwards 'coverage' fell into the following categories:
1- Articles about why the MSM didn't tell its customers about the story before Edwards' Nightline appearance.
2- Background pieces--many stolen from the part of the blogosphere that did cover the story--attempting to bring readers/viewers up to speed on the events since last October. Many of these pieces doubled as candidates for inclusion in categories #1, 3 and 4.
3- Pieces about why it's time to "move on". Bob Schieffer of CBS News said, after CBS was on the story for less than three weeks, "We don't have time to fool with this". CBS stockholders have spoken the past four years, and it doesn't look like The Schieffer Standard of Investigative Reporting is doing so hot on Wall Street.

CBS Stock Prices Sept 2004 - Sept 2008 How much confidence do stockholders have in CBS? From $67.28/share in 2004, down to $16.18/share in 2008. DATE OPEN CLOSE 03-Sep-04- - - -68.00 67.28 26-Aug-05- - - -69.62 67.54 01-Sep-06- - - -28.75 28.86 07-Sep-07- - - -31.72 30.95 29-Aug-08- - - -16.72 16.18

4- Articles about "we knew but didn't tell you because...". Readers can supply their own reasons, although the MSM pundits tried out various and sundry excuses, such as "ethics", "standards", "it was in the National Enquirer" and so on and on and on.

Three weeks after John Edwards green-lighted the MSM to now let their readers in on his story of an affair, fatherhood and cover-up involving--well, that's still being worked out, just not in the MSM--the "ethics" and "standards" of the Mainstream press were on display when John McCain named Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, as his vice-presidential pick.

The Washington Post's resident media apologist, Howard Kurtz, calls the reaction to the media's Palin feeding frezy, War Against the Press.

If Kurtz wants Washington Post stockholders to join him, good luck. They've also been AWOL since 2004.

Washington Post Stock Prices June 2008 - June 2008 How much confidence do stockholders have in the Washinton Post Company? From $965/share in 2004, down to $585/share in 2008. DATE OPEN CLOSE 11-Jun-04- - - -965.00 955.50 10-Jun-05- - - -828.00 829.60 07-Jul-06- - - -776.00 768.86 08-Jun-07- - - -767.00 765.00 13-Jun-08- - - -599.00 589.95

Sen. John McCain's top campaign strategist accused the news media Tuesday of being "on a mission to destroy" Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin by displaying "a level of viciousness and scurrilousness" in pursuing questions about her personal life.

In an extraordinary and emotional interview, Steve Schmidt said his campaign feels "under siege" by wave after wave of news inquiries that have questioned whether Palin is really the mother of a 4-month-old baby, whether her amniotic fluid had been tested and whether she would submit to a DNA test to establish the child's parentage.

Questions the same press--and Kurtz--refused to even talk about for months when they concerned John Edwards. Of course, if Palin had jetted her 4-months-old handicapped son, Trig, around on Fred Baron's jet, put him up in a $4 million mansion and paid him $15,000 a month, maybe Palin wouldn't have had to deal with those questions either.

The fact that unsubstantiated allegations appear on the Internet "is not a license for smearing" Palin, he said. "The campaign has been inundated by hundreds and hundreds of calls from some of the most respected reporters and news organizations. Many reporters have called the campaign and have apologized for asking the questions and said, 'Our editors are making us do this, and I am ashamed.' "

"The most respected reporters" is an unintended oxymoron.

Three times as many Americans believe in UFOs (56%) than trust the mainstream press (19%).

Nobody's accused The DailyKOS of being in the Mainstream--media or otherwise--but the "new center of the Democrat Party" started the ball rolling by doing what it does best: letting "anonymous" members of its "reality-based community" post pieces on the site and then running from them when the kitchen gets too hot.

The intensity of media inquiries hit a new level after an anonymous blogger on the liberal Web site Daily Kos last weekend charged that McCain's running mate is actually the grandmother of Trig Palin, the 4-month-old baby born with Down syndrome, and that the real mother is her daughter, 17-year-old Bristol Palin. That led to mainstream media inquiries, which prompted the McCain camp to disclose in a statement Monday that Bristol is five months pregnant and plans to have the baby and marry the teenage father.

Only this time, KOS isn't running from the deed.

"The site's founder, Markos Moulitsas, said he did not know the contributor's identity but thought that the admittedly "weird" pregnancy questions were a legitimate line of inquiry that he should not suppress."

What a difference a month makes for Comrade Markos. Last month, Lee Stranahan posted a series of DailyKOS pieces on Edwards and promptly got booted from the site for his "line of inquiry". [John Edwards Scandal: DailyKOS Bans Stranahan for Writing About Edwards].

How legitimate was Stranahan's "line of inquiry"? Edwards' August 8 admission of his "mistake"--he never mentioned the word "affair"--rendered the question rhetorical. Except to Stranahan, who remains banned from the KOS' Progressive Paradise.

Moulitsas, proud progressive that he is, denied knowing who Stranahan was when asked.

I e-mailed Moulitsas to ask about the ban. “I don’t know who Lee Streehan [sic] is," he replied, "but my community decided they didn’t like him, and they’re usually right about such things.” (On his blog, however, Stranahan points out that Moulitsas called one of his videos "the best parody video of 2007.")

Pencil in DailyKOS as one more place you don't get news--even if one of their "community" writes about it. Outside of right bloggers mining the rich vein of KOS Diaries for nutroots' quotes, who to the right of Raoul Castro reads DailyKOS anyway?

However, don't tell the New York Times that. The NY Times has a dream: to become the national, print version of the DailyKOS.

"All the News Fit for the Nutroots"

The plan is succeeding beyond the wildest dreams of whatever financial Einstein dreamed up that strategy. As we reported earlier, the "NY Times is now the fourth-largest newspaper in New York City". [NY Times Dishes Palin Dirt; Loses 30,000 More Subscribers]

The NY Times, however, is losing more readers than it can replace--and don't think stockholders have taken notice.





Kurtz lumps in members of the MSM with "bloggers" when convenient. As in, "Last year, the New Republic retracted a soldier's dispatch on petty wartime cruelty in Iraq, and National Review Online acknowledged that two blog postings by a former Marine about military movements in Lebanon were misleading."

The New Republic is part of the blogosphere? Better clue them in, Howie--they might quote you. Again, the New Republic didn't retract anything until called on its fictions by the blogosphere and The Weekly Standard.

Kurtz did get one thing right: the MSM are gatekeepers no longer.

Major newspapers, magazines and networks no longer play their traditional gatekeeper role in the digital age, as was evident during the eight-month period when the National Enquirer was charging former senator John Edwards with fathering an out-of-wedlock baby. Most [all] national news outlets did not report the allegations until last month, when Edwards acknowledged an affair with a former campaign aide but denied being her child's father.

Kurtz sees it all as just politics: "Denouncing the news media as biased also plays well with many Republican voters."

The LA Times concurs: ""Delegates to the Republican National Convention whirled in their seats en masse and called out from the floor: 'Tell the truth! Tell the truth!' The chants and finger-wagging were directed toward the sky boxes. Their target: the television networks and the rest of the 'liberal mainstream media.'"

Perhaps it's because Republicans have been the traditional whipping boy of Big Media? But Hillary Clinton became the MSM whipping girl during the Democrat primaries and her supporters still haven't forgotten their candidate's treatment from a "fair and balanced" press.

National Review notices.

"The New York Times's webpage on Tuesday led with no fewer than three stories about Bristol Palin's pregnancy. CNN has tried to exploit Miss Palin as a laboratory specimen for a high-profile examination of sex-education. MSNBC and the Huffington Post are titillating viewers with exposes on Miss Palin's boyfriend. Slate, owned by the Washington Post, is running a 'Name Bristol Palin's Baby' contest. US Weekly has 'Babies, Lies, and Scandal' on its cover.

Howard Kurtz calls it "The War Against the Press". We call it the "Info Wars" and they've been fought for the last ten years on the digital front of the Internet.

Big Media thinks the problem is the messenger, not their message. The MSM has its own Internet blogs, in a an attempt to fight back and stem declining circulation, viewership, ad revenues and stock prices.

But few are fooled by the MSM blogs. As Victor at GameSpot Forums says:

"You can dress a Turd in a Tuxedo, But at the end of the day, it's still a Turd."


by Mondoreb
images:
* gaming.hexus.net
* hyscience

John Edwards Affair: Edwards Persona Non Grata at DNC

TYPHOID JOHN, WHERE HAVE YOU GONE?




“Mary Mallon aka Typhoid Mary, was the first person in the United States to be identified as healthy carrier of typhoid fever. Over the course of her career as a cook, she infected 47 people, three of whom died from the disease. Her fame is in part due to her vehement denial of her own role in spreading the disease, together with her refusal to cease working as a cook. She was forcibly quarantined twice by public health authorities and died in quarantine.”
--From Wikipedia.

Poor Mary. Her sad, tragic life has been well documented. But typhoid fever isn’t a thing of the past. In some parts of the world, it’s still quite prevalent. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 22 million people come down with this dread disease each year, with more than 200,000 related deaths.

In today’s current political climate, for the MSM and the Democratic Party, John Edwards is the modern-day equivalent of Mary Mallon. No one wants to touch him with a ten-foot fireproof pole, if recent published reports are to be believed. Both Radar Online and the New York Daily News have reported that John Edwards has tried to reach out to former staffers, colleagues and supporters to express his regrets over his tawdry behavior and “beg” their forgiveness.

Unfortunately for Edwards, his “phone home” campaign has only incurred the wrath of his former aides. Some won’t even return his messages. The ones that do have apparently told him in no uncertain terms just how bitter and disillusioned they are over how they were deliberately deceived and manipulated.

From NYDN: “I let you down, and I'm sorry," is a common refrain of these messages, said another top ex-assistant on the receiving end of one of the calls.

"It was kind of pathetic, to tell you the truth," said the ex-aide, who said he didn't return the call and doesn't expect to speak to his former boss again.”

One source who compared notes with other former colleagues said Edwards makes no attempt to justify or rationalize his behavior in these desperate phone conversations. He simply expresses his regret for deceiving them and asks for their understanding and forgiveness.”

Not that its’ been any better for Elizabeth Edwards. Once a figure of sympathy and considered a victim, whatever goodwill she had in the face of her husband’s perfidy, dissipated like a will o’ wisp, when it was revealed that she was well aware of his infidelity and still, incredibly, encouraged his Presidential run. Her actions---or non-actions---has been the fodder of columnists and bloggers alike. It’s even gotten to the point where some leading Democrats strategists have labeled her “complicit” in this sordid saga.

At the just now concluded Democratic Convention, John Edwards name was never mentioned. He was the Invisible Man. His races, his delegates, were scrubbed from the official record. He was supposed to give a prime time speech; now persona non grata, a man without a party; he wasn’t allowed to deliver so much as a Dairy Queen menu. Think of the ignominy: Edwards was once on the short list to be Obama’s Vice President, and if not that, then a shoo-in for a Cabinet post. Now Democrats wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a police line-up if they had a gun to their heads. His political future in shreds, Edwards would be hard pressed to be elected dog-catcher in Mayberry.

From CQ Politics:

“Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said he thought it was appropriate that Edwards is staying away.
“What John Edwards did was inexcusable and wrong,” Salazar said. “From my point of view as one of the hosts of this convention, I’m glad he’s not here.”

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., one of the relative handful of congressional members who endorsed Edwards’ 2008 presidential candidacy, said he was “shocked, appalled, upset and disgraced” over Edwards’ conduct, then said he didn’t want to talk about the subject any further.

When a reporter asked House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., as he was racing to an event, why Edwards is never being mentioned at the convention, Hoyer stopped in his tracks, and said, “You know why.”





And now not only is Edwards without a party, it now seems he’s without a home. It’s been reported that Elizabeth Edwards has effectively banished Edwards from the family home. He’s allegedly cooling his heels on an “extended vacation” at their summer home on the Figure 8 Island on the Outer Banks (both literally and metaphysically).

Well, at least Edwards has a waterfront view in which to ponder his future, unlike the pitiable Typhoid Mary, who died alone and penniless.



by CB
images: Wikipedia; dpkp file

* CB writes for PJ McIlvaine at www.pjmcilvaine.blogspot.com

John Edwards Affair: MSM, Bob Schieffer and the Schieffer Standard

The "Schieffer Standard"
Lethargy over John Edwards Scandal Returns to MSM




In the John Edwards Scandal, CBS News' Bob Schieffer serves as the poster child for the ADHD Mainstream Media.

After a spike in coverage--largely composed of stories about why the MSM didn't allow their customers news of the John Edwards affair, scandal and cover-up before John Edwards gave the Dinosaur Press his okay--the MSM has 'moved on' to more pleasant topics, leaving the scandal's reporting and investigation to the National Enquirer and the blogosphere.

Bob Schieffer, of CBS, might well one day become a case study in Journalism 101's "Death of the Dinosaurs" chapter. From the beginning, Schieffer has racked his brain for excuses for not bothering his remaining viewers with news of a presidential and vice-presidential contender's affair and cover-up in an election year. The fact that Schieffer "knows" John and Elizabeth Edwards, or that Edwards has the protective "D" after his name probably never blurred Schieffer's news "judgment".

In December, when the National Enquirer published pictures of pregnant mistress, Rielle Hunter, and the news that she'd moved to within five miles of the Edwards 08 for President campaign HQ in Chapel Hill, NC, Bob Schieffer wasn't interested in the story.

[Background information: access over 100 DBKP stories on the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter affair, scandal and cover-up: John Edwards Love Child Scandal Library.]

The Enquirer also published details of the Edwards' cover-up and the fact that Hunter was driving around in a BMW owned by Edwards' operative, Andrew Young. But none of that interested hard-bitten newsman, Bob Schieffer.

Here's what Schieffer had to say in December about why he wouldn't be reporting the John Edwards' affair:

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, you know I saw that this morning. I believe that — I believe that's a story that we will be avoiding, because it appears to me that there's absolutely nothing to it. I'm told that another — a man says that the child is his. I'm told that the woman who seems to be pregnant says it's not his. So I guess — I guess we're going to pass on that. Unless you come up with some new information on this, Don.
–When asked about the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter story On the Don Imus show

What sort of "new information" might have changed the news equation for Bob Schieffer?

How about John Edwards getting cornered by Enquirer reporters on July 21 in the Beverly Hilton after visiting Hunter?

Nope.

How about Edwards ducking reporters on July 30 who tried to question him about the Beverly Hilton events, after an Edwards' speech in Washington, DC?

No, again.

Apparently, it took John Edwards appearing on rival ABC's Nightline to confess to the affair--but not to the cover-up or the paternity of Hunter's daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter--to get the attention of Bob Schieffer.

Not sure if Bob Schieffer would have reported on it even then.

It took a personal phone call to Schieffer from John Edwards himself to convince steely-eyed journalist Bob Schieffer to comment on the matter at all. On August 8, Schieffer got the the go-ahead to talk about the Edwards-Hunter affair. Readers can decide for themselves if Schieffer sounds like a objective newsman or an Edwards' PR hack trying to soothe CBS' dwindling audience.

SCHIEFFER: Russ, just before we went on the air tonight, John Edwards called me and said he wanted to talk. He said that all this happened back in 2006 before he announced that he was running for president and that he told his wife Elizabeth about it then and that she forgave him. He said because of that he thought it was just between them. I've known John Edwards a long time and I asked him if I could talk to Elizabeth and she came to the phone. She was obviously in tears and didn't say much but she told me that he had told her about then and they had decided to move on.


MITCHELL: Why did he decide to tell it now?


SCHIEFFER: He said he said he just couldn't live with the constant pounding from the tabloids. It wasn't going to stop, I was being dogged and dogged, for the sake of my family I just had to end it, for the sake of my family. So he decided to confirm it and go on, he said, for the sake of his family. He said repeatedly that he took full responsibility for this. He told me he was certain the child was not his, that the affair was over long ago. When I asked him how Elizabeth was doing he said she is just amazing, like she always is.

Edwards' previous denials to the press in October 2007--which Schieffer now knew to be lies was barely remarked upon.

SCHIEFFER: When I asked him why he had denied the story over and over he said because so many of the stories had so much false information. He said what I should have done is confirm the part that was true and then live with it.

That explanation reveals why the story of the Edwards' coverup--in Bob Schiffer's mind--is a settle matter.

So, nineteen days after that phone call, how does Bob Schieffer feel about reporting on the man who lied to the press and the nation while running for president, vice-president and away from reporters?

Howard Kurtz reports Bob's current take, as told to those in Denver:

CBS's Bob Schieffer defended the media's reluctance to cover John Edwards's extramarital affair, saying Edwards's candidacy was over and "I don't see that we have time to be fooling with this."

Bob Schieffer kicks it into high gear

Bob Schieffer is leaving the investigative work to others, while he tackles weightier issues, like Paris Hilton.

Two days after Edwards called him on August 8, Schieffer was "standing up for old, white-haired dudes":

For example, if forced, we can drink coffee straight from a mug. We don't need to sip it through a little hole in a plastic top in a cardboard container to make it taste good.

Bob also allowed in that piece that "our memory sometimes fails us".

Apparently, one blogger thought Bob's memory failed him a couple days before the December 18 revelations in the Enquirer. "Face it! Bob Schieffer is an Idiot." critiques Schieffer's interview on December 16 with--surprise!--John Edwards.

Bob Schieffer blows my mind. He’s the CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent, yet he still doesn’t seem to have a clue about the basics of United States government. Bob… the U.S. has three branches of government, not four. Big corporations are not a branch of the U.S. government. I know it’s confusing, but no matter how many politicians they buy or lobbyists they have writing laws, they are not a branch of government. We don’t have to sit down to the table and negotiate with corporations. The actual government’s job is to make laws to protect citizens and regulate corporations.

On this December 16, 2007 broadcast, he asked John Edwards why he was taking such an aggressive stance against corporate interests instead of sitting down with them to negotiate.

Bob continues to leave the heavy lifting in the story to the Enquirer and the blogosphere. He seems to echo all of those ex-MSM guys who've had the sense to leave Big Media and seek employment in academia.

One such Nutty Journalism Prof is DAVID HAZINSKI, ex-NBC/MSM-turned-"Mad Professor of Media" at UGA who, in December coincidently, railed against the "dangers" of citizen journalists and offered remedies; one of which was:

"Major news organizations must create standards to substantiate citizen-contributed information and video, and ensure its accuracy and authenticity."
--From Citizen Journalism: "911, I'd Like to Report an Unregulated Blogger"


Here's Hazinski's chance: he could create the "Schieffer Standard" of news reporting to bring citizen journalists to the same standard employed by Bob Scheiffer at CBS News!

From December 23, "The Edwards Scandal, The Press, The Enquirer and the Blogosphere":

"I said I need back-up!! NOW!!
I got Bob Schieffer's sense of curiosity here!"

A presidential candidate and his campaign's mysterious video: one that was produced with the high hopes of making the candidate better-known, only to have that hope fulfilled when it disappeared from public view.

That doesn't excite Bob Schieffer.

A presidential candidate who isn't asked by the press if he denies being in phone contact with his alleged mistress since she discovered she's pregnant. Indeed, the Mainstream press didn't go postal: they went Emily Post-al, as in, "let's not make any waves, that's not polite; might get us thrown out of the candidate's press tent."

That doesn't excite Bob Schieffer.

A presidential candidate's alleged mistress moving close to campaign headquarters, driving around in a BMW owned by the campaign's former Director of Operations, living in a house owned by the campaign's backer, having her bills and living expenses paid for–well, who is paying them?

Doesn't matter.

That wouldn't likely excite Bob Schieffer, either.

What would excite cynical, seasoned, experienced CBS newsman, Bob Schieffer?

Bob Schieffer: Star Light, Star Bright…

The other question is if it all gets settled, and may well be by mid-February, what are we going to do after that? I would love it if the two parties have a special meeting (instead of conventions) and certify them as candidates. Wouldn't it be great to have them fly around the country on the same airplane and have debates?

Maybe Bob will get to fly on the plane!

Maybe Bob Schieffer will actually get to fly on the plane with John Edwards!

Goodie!

Wouldn't do to have that whole unpleasant business about mistresses and hiding campaign videos produced by her and her living arrangements come up, would it, Bob?

As we also stated in December: "But DBKP’s doesn’t mean to be picking on Bob Schieffer. We like Bob and always enjoyed watching “Face the Nation”.

Bob’s is shorthand for the attitude of the Mainstream Media."

He continues to play that role to this day.

One question, we suppose, Bob Schieffer will never get asked--and therefore, will never receive an answer--is "When would have been the best time to report on the John Edwards scandal?"

The answer might provide some insight for future journalism students into the "Schieffer Standard".


by Mondoreb
images:
* image of Schieffer on a segway: newsday
* dbkp file