Eichenwald Blames Bad Memory on Disease

Kurt Eichenwald, the former New York Times (and Conde Nast Portfolio) reporter who gave thousands of dollars to a child pornographer and didn't tell his editors, can explain everything.

Epilepsy.

Eichenwald will be a guest on NPR's All Things Considered tonight at 7 p.m. ET, where you can hear him tell interviewer David Folkenflik that severe seizures and headaches brought on by the disorder caused him to forget making payments of at least $3,100 to Justin Berry, a minor who had both appeared on and operated illegal kiddie-porn websites and served as a source for an Eichenwald-penned Times expose.

"There are reporters who are stupid. There are reporters who are lazy. There are reporters who are drunk," Eichenwald is quoted as saying. "I'm none of those things. And I didn't want to be judged on my challenges. I wanted to be judged on my work."

In fact, he's positively shocked that his peers didn't accept his "I have no recollection of that" defense at face value.

"I believed that I had enough of a reputation and enough of a track record that, when I say to other journalists, I don't remember, that they could simply accept that -- or prove me wrong. But instead, it just became fodder for more attacks -- and for people saying, suggesting, that I was obviously hiding something, because I was saying I forgot."

To which one might respond that in fact he was hiding something, even if that something was only a brain disorder rather than an icky relationship with an exploited youth. But never mind.