Which Presidential Candidate May Be Involved In A Potential Sex Scandal?

[Me.]

Shocking Inside DC Scandal Rumor: A Media Ethics Dilemma

“So I was down in DC this past weekend and happened to run into a well-connected media person, who told me flatly, unequivocally that “everyone knows” The LA Times was sitting on a story, all wrapped up and ready to go about what is a potentially devastating sexual scandal involving a leading Presidential candidate. “Everyone knows” meaning everyone in the DC mainstream media political reporting world. “Sitting on it” because the paper couldn’t decide the complex ethics of whether and when to run it. The way I heard it they’d had it for a while but don’t know what to do. The person who told me )not an LAT person) knows I write and didn’t say “don’t write about this”.

If it’s true, I don’t envy the LAT. I respect their hesitation, their dilemma, deciding to run or not to run it raises a lot of difficult journalism ethics questions and they’re likely to be attacked, when it comes out—the story or their suppression of the story—whatever they do.


I’ve been sensing hints that something’s going on, something’s going unspoken in certain insider coverage of the campaign (and by the way this rumor the LA Times is supposedly sitting on is one I never heard in this specific form before. By the way, t’s not the Edwards rumor, it’s something else.

And when my source said “everyone in Washington”, knows about it he means everyone in the elite Mainstream media, not just the LA Times, but everyone regularly writing about the Presdidential campaign knows about it and doesn’t know what to do with it. And I must admit it really is juicy if true. But I don’t know if it’s true and I can’t decide if I think it’s relevant. But the fact that “everyone” in the elite media knew about it and was keeping silent about it, is, itself, news. But you can’t report the “news” without reporting the thing itself. Troubling!” cont…

http://pajamasmedia.com/xpress/ronrosenbaum/2007/10/29/shocking_inside_dc_scandal_rum.php

[NewJeffCT]

1. It must be a Republican if they're worried about "complex ethics"

If it was a Democrat, they'd run with the story and publicize it from here to eternity - ethics be damned.

[annabanana]

3. really. . My guess would be

Rudy.. Him and his mob crowd are pretty kinky. (And didn't he bunk in with a couple of gay friends when he was destroying his 2nd wife?)

[NewJeffCT]

5. I would guess Rudy, too

as that would finish him with the fundies for sure.

[Richard Steele]

22. Given Rudy's history, I'd be surprised if he DOESN'T have a "relationship" outside his marriage.

And he probably doesn't do much more to keep it a secret
than telling everyone he meets, "don't tell anyone".
That seems to be his lifelong pattern.

He's the kind of guy who wouldn't even GET married until
he's got his next mistress picked out.


But I doubt that he's the one under discussion here, since
none of his past behavior seems to strike the media as
particularly "scandalous" these days. It's certainly not
keeping any of them awake nights.

I'm guessing Romney- now THAT would give some reporters
a real ethical headache!

[Skidmore]

31. And the complexity of ethics may have more to do with he's

the media's RW choice.

[bullimiami]

4. good point. if everyone knows about it why are the rumors of it not widely known?

the complex ethics are a creation of past pitiful behavior by the media.
it is their job to report and they have continually not done it but swept stories under the rug until after elections or other events they dont want to 'effect'. yet they are by witholding the truth.
it is a lie of omission.
shame on the sad state of our media.

[annabanana]

2. "everyone knew" about Plame too. .

BIG grain of salt here...

[madinmaryland]

6. "If everyone knows", then why hasn't someone leaked it?

[KoKo]

36. I think his point was...."Only the BELTWAY INCROWD know...!

That's the problem... If only THEY KNOW...then why don't the rest of us know. Who vets it...and where are the MEDIA on this...if THEY KNOW...and the PUBLIC doesn't...yet the coverage is going to REFLECT what THEY KNOW!

So...the rest of us out here are left parsing and monitoring "which candidate" Tweety and the RW Blogs and the M$M start to DISS! Because when we see a "change in "Leading Candidate Coverage" we will know which one it is.

It's like an "Insider Guessing Game" put out there by RW "Pajama's Media" for us to decide which ONE the LAT's has the GOODS ON.

:shrug:

[JMDEM]

7. Maybe it's Hillary

And the scandal is she hasn't had sex in years...

[maine_raptor]

8. So many questions here.

Does it involve same-sex, different sex, different species, or space aliens? (was that why Timmy asked Dennis...)?

And was it consensual?

Who is this "Everybody"? Is that the same group as "They"? When is their weekly meeting? Who pays for the drinks?

Yea, I'd be a might skeptical here on this one.

[flordehinojos]

9. just because everyone in washington KNOWS about this sex scandal story AND is SITTING ON IT ...

i have to believe it involves a REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE ... were it to be about a democrat running for the presidency THE MEDIA WOULD HAVE PLASTERED IT ALL OVER THE NEWS. Do you think that Candy Crowley, Wolf Blitzer, Chris Matthews, anyone of the FOX NEWS talking buffoons, JOE SCARBOROUGH, TUCKER CARLSON, ANDREA MITCHELL, LESLIE STAHL,or anyone else in the print or electronic media would have kept quiet about a sex scandal involving Dennis Kucinich, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, John Edwards, Gov. Richardson, Barack Obama, or any other democrat running for the presidency?

Why! it would insult their INTEGRITY to sit on something as juicy ... as a sex scandal when it comes to a democrat ... Now, when it comes to republicans, then they have to protect their greed and their jobs and so, they sit on it! End of Story.

[NewJeffCT]

11. If you read the comments at the link

everybody is saying exactly the opposite - it must be a Democrat because the media is sitting on it.

poor brainwashed kids.

I mean, every glance Bill Clinton made and every word he spoke was endlessly analyzed by a breathless media looking for hidden meanings and other hints into his supposed affairs. I think every woman in Arkasas over the age of 16 and under the age of 80 was frontpaged on Drudge as yet another adulterous affair of Slick Willie Clinton.

And, just look at the coverage in the two Congressional dead intern scandals that happened at about the same time:
Gary Condit (D) - 24/7 coverage for weeks
Joe Scarborough (R) - what dead intern scandal?

[flordehinojos]

16. there are ...

far too many seagulls but far too few Jonathan Livingston Seagulls ...

[crickets]

39. I noticed that too.

The backward logic was jarring. Sad.

[LanternWaste]

10. My gut tells me it's Romney.

My gut tells me it's Romney. No more than mere speculation on my part, mind you-- but if I were a betting man, I'd put five bucks on Romney.

[Me.]

12. Wouldn't That Be Delicious

But Rudy is a big contender too. But what if it's not the candidate themself but a spouse?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. I Doubt It's Rudi

Rudi's sex life is an open book from marrying his sister, errrr first cousin to cheating on his first and second wife, to his penchant for wearing women's clothes:


http://www.metacafe.com/watch/154212/rudy_giuliani_in_drag/

[Demeter]

14. Frankly, My Dear, I Don't Give a Damn

These people have way too much free time, if they can get involved in hanky-panky.

[Bitwit1234]

15. It HAS to very well be a republican

If it was a Democrat it would have been all over the news the minute it was found out. There is no way a newspaper would sit on a story about a Democrat. IF there is a story and not just another rumor, you'll never hear about it being a republican.

[CK_John]

17. IMO, it may be a candidate's wife. n/t

[Me.]

27. The Possibilities Are Endless

I've read hints that Rudy has a straying eye which is making Judi nervous and Dan Rather seemed to be hinting at something regarding BC on the Chris Matthews show:

Mr. RATHER: Well the hippopotamus in the room here, I think, is we're talking about Hillary has to make a big mistake in order for Obama to jump ahead. But there's Bill out there. And she's such a...

MATTHEWS: Ha!

Ms. PARKER: Look at...(unintelligible).

MATTHEWS: (Unintelligible)

Mr. RATHER: She's such a--she's such a conservative player. So in political terms, what she has to worry about is Bill Clinton making a big mistake or being perceived as making a big mistake.

MATTHEWS: A big distraction.

Mr. RATHER: A big distraction, some front page picture on the front page of The New York Post of Bill Clinton with somebody with whom he may or may not have had anything to do with.

MATTHEWS: Right. Well, I...

Mr. RATHER: But that sort of thing would be very hurtful to her. And so when we talk about the possibility of her making a mistake, we have to take into consideration there's Bill Clinton making a mistake.

http://www.thechrismatthewsshow.com/html/transcript/index.php?selected=1&id=73

[TwilightGardener]

18. Thompson. Gotta be. Sounds like he really got around, and wasn't particular about gender.

[UTUSN]

24. Ew!1 And gender wasn't particular about HIM?!1 n/t

[KoKo]

19. An interesting comment from the site......

homas :

Reading the tea leaves:

Ron refers to a "leading presidential candidate." So: HRC, Obama, Guiliani, and Romney are the most obvious choices, followed by Edwards and Thompson and, perhaps, Huckabee. No one else can be considered, and the first four are most likely to fit the description. We know it isn't Edwards. (Relax Mickey: it's not Richardson.)

Ron suggests the story is coloring recent coverage.

Which one of the big 4 has had odd coverage lately. Two, in my view: Thompson and Obama. Thompson's coverage might not be as odd as his campaign is, what with the refusal to do what's expected. Obama, on the other hand, has had lots of "what's wrong with Obama" stories lately. And, interestingly, the big leftwing bloggers, all of whom prefer Obama to Clinton, are all moving to Clinton. What are they discussing with mainstream reporters in their nonpublic email chats? I'm guessing they're discussing this story.

[LibertyLover]

20. Hmm, not everybody in Washington "knows"

:evilgrin: I work in DC and I haven't heard anything about this. Of course I work at The World Bank Group, which may be the reason why. But I do tend to think it's a Republican if the discussion about whether to publish or not involves journalism ethics questions. MSM journalists don't seem to worry about that sort of thing if the person is a Democrat.

[NewJeffCT]

23. World Bank

was it well known about Bolton's mistress getting the job because of her connection?

[LibertyLover]

30. Bolton or Wolfie?

It may have been over at IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the real name for what everyone refers to as The World Bank) but at IFC (International Finance Corporation - part of The World Bank Group along with IBRD and MIGA (Multilateral Insurance Guarantee Agency), IDA (International Development Association) and ICSID (International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes)) where I work it was not.

[NewJeffCT]

34. woops, meant Wolfie

Not Bolton.

[LibertyLover]

35. I thought that's who you meant

Truthfully, IFC is in a seperate building from IBRD, located several blocks away from IBRD's main building on H Street, and, while the president of IBRD is the president of IFC, we rank and file peons don't hear much gossip from there. Staff over at the Bank (or Main Complex as we call it) may hear more. Still, it's a great place to work - virtually everyone in my department here at IFC dislikes *, the current administration and their policies. A pity most of them are foreign nationals and can't vote.

[KoKo]

21. Which "Leading Presidential Candidate" has had their coverage change

in the past few weeks? If the Beltway crowd knows then I expect the pundits like Fineman and others to be coloring their coverage and making sly remarks. Also, Tweety loves gossip, so would imagine that there's a candidate he might have hyped in the past that he has turned on in the last few weeks.

Since the blogger works for "Pajama's Media" I would think it's a story about a Democrat. Don't know enough about the blogger to know if he's a rumor mongering conservative or not. He seems to feel there's an ethics problem in the media coloring their coverage about this candidate while not being honest with readers or viewers as to why. But, when has that ever bothered folks that would write for Pajamas Media site? :shrug:

[Dawgs]

25. Boy, you sure are desperate to make this an Obama thing.

I've seen just as many negative stories about Edwards(fading) and Hillary(Iran problem).

Nice try though.

[Stephanie]

28. He's a rumor-mongering conservative for sure.

No question.

[KoKo]

37. That's my worry with HIM and the RW site he's posting this on...

and his replies to posters were interesting....in whom he replied to..

He seemed "very gossipy" like he was looking to get a "hit" to his blog. BUT...maybe there really is some truth to this also. I never trusted the "Blue Dress Thingy" thinking it was RW CRAP...and I fought it and dissed it ...but in the end...there REALLY WAS...a BLUE DRESS... Much to our Dem sorrow. :cry:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

26. Unless they led very dull lives - all of them.

[Stephanie]

29. Here's alicublog on it >>>

Roy Edroso, bravely, monitors the RW blogs so we don't have to:

http://alicublog.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

ANNALS OF CITIZEN JOURNALISM. Another funny Republican same-sex scandal. Good thing for the Republicans that they have... a blind item, and retards who are easily obsessed. (Mr. Spades refers to Rosenbaum's mad-libs scandal as "juicy." Are we sure he isn't gay?)

Ron Rosenbaum mulls, "I'm beginning to feel uneaasy about posting one repetetive rumor after another," before remembering who, what, and where he is:

It's a blog, which can be many things but in my case is a kind of public record of personal experiences, often first impressions, thinking out loud etc. Starting a conversation...

To paraphrase an old joke: you know it's bullshit, I know it's bullshit, but blogging is blogging.

11:08 PM by roy

[DFW]

32. If Matt Drudge hasn't run it yet, then it's probably a Democrat

One way or the other, it's none of my business.

The Republicans will agree with me if it's one of their
own, and they'll scream "family values" and wave a Bible
if it's one of us.


If foreign policy will be brought back to sanity, the budget
brought back into balance, and Supreme Court Justices more
interested in the Bill of Rights than Mein Kampf will get appointed,
then the libido of the President doing good for the country is
no business of mine. Sarkozy showed the American press how such
idiocy should be dealt with. I hope that ALL Democratic candidates
take a hint and follow his example.

[Johonny]

33. Dennis Kuicnich

I heard he was beamed aboard an alien spacecraft and forced to help repopulate the planet Amazon.

[NashVegas]

38. If Everyone Knows, Why Is LA Times the Only Rag With a Story?

Hmm?