North Carolina Press Won't Pass on Edwards Story

How often do you see the media getting kicked around for being too respectful of personal privacy? That's what's happening at the moment, as various commentators wonder aloud why more outlets aren't following up on the National Enquirer's report that John Edwards met up with his alleged mistress and baby mama at a Beverly Hills hotel.

Jack Shafer thinks it's because Edwards, unlike Larry Craig or Mark Foley, was accused of heterosexual hijinks. Jon Fine guesses it's because Edwards isn't much of a public figure since he dropped out of the presidential race. Roxanne Roberts says the Enquirer isn't "credible" enough to justify a follow-up, at least not without photos.

But while the national media may be tied up in earnest deliberations, the local press in Edwards' home state of North Carolina is less conflicted. "I can tell you that we're looking into it," says Dan Barkin, senior editor at the Raleigh News & Observer. (Barkin's running the newsroom this week while executive editor John Drescher is on vacation. "I don't know how much I can say beyond that. It's something we're looking at and trying to determine what's there."

So it's fair to say the News & Observer doesn't feel Edwards, as a non-candidate and non-officeholder, should be allowed to conduct his personal life away from the view of reporters? "I think obviously that might be a decision that an editor in Des Moines might make, but not here," he says. "[Edwards] remains a very newsworthy guy because of who he's been in this state and where we are. That's not rocket science to figure that out."

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