Personal life again becomes political news

It should be understood at the outset that the John Edwards scandal is not something the Daily Herald would normally investigate, even if we were regular readers of the National Enquirer and privy to the rumors of the national campaign trail. We are a local suburban newspaper, and while we provide a thorough report on national and world events through our wire services, we devote our resources and our political reporting to issues with a direct local connection that those services do not provide.

So, the question of whether The New York Times or the Washington Times or the Associated Press or any other respectable element of the so-called Mainstream Media should have delved into the Enquirer report is somewhat academic for me. How we played the Edwards story once he admitted his affair, though, is not.

It was interesting to note when I walked into the afternoon news meeting last Friday that the chief topic of pre-meeting conversation was indeed Edwards' affair. This on a day when Russia and the Republic of Georgia appeared to be in the throes of an all-out war that could well, in Churchill's phrase, dishevel the world.

We do not take such idle conversations lightly. Often, we editors realize, the topics that stir our water-cooler talk are the same ones that will engage most readers. But as we began to assemble a front page that included stunning pictures from the Olympics opening ceremonies, a preview of one of the premier suburban events of the year in the Arlington Million and compelling local stories in each of our major local regions, it grew obvious that the competition for the front page would come down to Edwards vs. Georgia. That decision seemed pretty clear: war involving a U.S. ally and one of the great powers of the world or an illicit affair involving a long-shot vice presidential candidate. We went with war.

But that's not to say we would have if the Edwards news had come to light a couple of months earlier. As political editor David Beery stated in e-mail conversations among editors reflecting on the media's handling of the scandal, "The problem, this time, is that everyone knows ... that this story would have been huge if it had broken while Edwards was still in the race. Which means that any failure to pursue and report the story earlier, if information was available, may have altered the very arc of the whole Democratic nomination process."

Managing editor Madeleine Doubek also emphasized that the story was not simply fodder for prurient conversation, noting, "a lot of people ... do still care about (a politician's dalliances) and care because it tells them something about the politician's character."

The question of whether a serious political candidate's sleeping arrangements are grist for serious news reporting is a genie that has long since escaped the bottle. In the modern era, we need only mention the yacht Monkey Business to recall when disgraced Democrat Gary Hart pretty much established the standard for such coverage. But editor John Lampinen made an important point of context when he noted that by the time the latest rumors began surfacing, Edwards was little more than an "ex-senator from North Carolina who had no prayer of winning the Democratic nomination."

That the story, once confirmed, deserved reporting, none of us disputes. Of course, the deeper question still simmers of the extent to which legitimate media should probe into the personal lives of political candidates. For our part at the Daily Herald, the dilemma applies more to candidates with Illinois and suburban ties but surely will remain secondary to pursuing more substantial information about and analysis of political and policy issues.