The National Enquirer is planning to enter its coverage of John Edwards' paternity cover-up for a Pulitzer Prize. Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post reports:
"It's clear we should be a contender for this," Barry Levine said by phone Thursday, hours after the former presidential candidate admitted what the paper had been reporting all along: that he is the father of Rielle Hunter's baby. "The National Enquirer, a supermarket tabloid, was able to publish this reporting."
While the staff never doubted its reports that Edwards had fathered a daughter with his former campaign videographer, Levine said, "there is vindication, finally. Mr. Edwards kept the story alive much longer than it needed to be kept alive with his denials. He has only himself to blame."
The Enquirer has out-reported the mainstream media on many stories, including Jesse Jackson's love child. They are willing to spend money -- the paper will pay sources, and sends reporters on time-consuming stake-outs. I believe at Columbia J-school they call that "enterprise journalism."
But I expect the Pulitzer committee to snub the application. It would be too embarrassing to the establishment leftist media to admit that a supermarket tabloid was the only media outlet to crack the façade of utterly phony family life, peddled by the man who might have been the Democrats' presidential or vice-presidential nominee. The major media are far too concerned with bnoth their own dignity, and with maintaining smooth relations with sources who might also be sleazebags, or allies of sleazebags.
I read the Enquirer; I am not ahsamed. I don't recognize the names of at least half the celebrities they cover. But when it comes to coverage of the Oprah-Michelle Obama feud and all the other Chicago social baggage in the White House, no other publication can hold a candle to the Enquirer. It is a spunky publication more in touch with its readership than the normal Pulitzer laureates, and it doersn't mind digging beneath the surface and finding out the real story, no matter who is inconvenienced.
Hat tip: Susan L.
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