NC Paper: We Tried to Confirm Edwards Affair

There has been much hand-wringing over the mainstream media’s coverage—or lack thereof—of the John Edwards sex scandal, but the News & Observer of Raleigh thinks it got it right. In a blog post today, the executive editor explains that the paper took the Enquirer’s allegations seriously, sending reporters to try to confirm each report. What they couldn’t report, they didn’t run.

The N&O did post a piece online when Edwards first denied the story in October, but didn’t print it because the report apparently came from a single, anonymous source. “The Enquirer cannot be ignored. But neither can it be trusted,” the editor writes. Whenever the paper had evidence, it ran stories. “Questions remain about…Hunter’s baby,” he notes. “We’ll continue reporting.” (More Raleigh stories.)