(11 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
Sometimes, even I am amazed at just how beholden the media has become to politics. But then, The State newspaper in South Carolina continues to remind me.
When South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford disappeared, the revelation that he went to see his mistress in Argentina was only a matter of time. His staff couldn’t come up with a coherent, believable story and his press spokesman was left scrambling to cover for his disappearance. Of course, anyone with any political savvy knew something was up when South Carolina United States Senator Jim DeMint tossed Governor Mark Sanford under the bus the day before the press published the story. What we see now, however, is The State newspaper trying to take credit for their own incompetence and revise the history of the whole sordid affair.
The State newspaper was able to grab an exclusive interview with the returning Governor at the Atlanta airport, but, the airport ambush of Governor Sanford wasn’t as much about investigative journalism as it was about saving journalistic face for The State newspaper. It was reported that The State newspaper had evidence of the affair for six months. The State newspaper got the story first because they did have the story first. They merely refused to investigate or report on it until they simply didn’t have a choice. When The State published the emails they had sat on for six months, Mark Lett, a VP at The State, had to defend not only the publication of the emails, but, explain why The State didn’t report on the affair sooner.
Mark Lett, a VP at The State newspaper wrote;
The Sanford e-mails arrived at The State Dec. 30 [2008] as an e-mail from an anonymous source. Efforts to reach that source and the woman in Argentina have been unsuccessful. To staffers covering the governor, allegations of infidelity with a woman in Argentina seemed intriguing, but unlikely. Sanford and his wife had been seen not only as happily married, but also as ideological and strategic partners in his political career.
We had no sources to confirm an affair and no context for making the e-mails public at that time. We chose not to confront the governor directly on the assumption that he could deny the relationship. In any story, confronting a source too soon can change the environment and make fact-finding more difficult. We also were concerned that word could leak that the e-mails existed, causing our competitors to roil the situation.
Moreover, this newspaper practices what is known as “journalism of verification.” It is our standard to publish what we believe can be supported by facts. That standard could not be met months ago to enable us to publish the e-mails.
Even if we give credence to the claim that the emails couldn’t be verified at the time, that The State felt it irresponsible to pursue such a spurious claim at the time, it still doesn’t absolve The State of the fact that it has now tried to rewrite the history of its own involvement in the Governor Sanford affair. Cindi Scoppe of The State writes:
First, at the risk of sounding defensive, I’d like to clear up a couple of misperceptions. Although we wouldn’t know about the affair if not for The State’s reporting, our coverage since the governor’s admission is not any more extensive or particularly different in tone or content than the coverage of Charleston’s Post and Courier, The Greenville News or The Associated Press – the other media that regularly cover state government. Our newspaper has reported some things first, but then the others have reported those same things; the reverse also has been true. And if you think the problem is the “mainstream media,” then you haven’t been out in the blogosphere: If every reporter in our news department did nothing but chase down the rumors and innuendo that are flying through cyberspace, they still couldn’t get to all of them.
Governor Sanford’s affair would not have remained a secret if not for The State as Ms. Scoppe claims. By the time The State jumped on the story which, by the way, was at the last possible minute, the whole debacle was already coming unglued in the press. Like Mark Lett, Ms. Scoppe tries to defend not investigating the situation earlier, trying to claim that the receiving of emails made between the Governor and his mistress, communications that detailed their relationship, is somehow akin to hearing a rumor online on a blog. But, to understand the media in South Carolina and the states politics, you need only read Ms. Scoppe’s words, to which I will highlight the important parts:
LIKE A LOT of people, I grew tired, many years ago, of all the smoking guns and smoldering pea-shooters about what President George W. Bush knew and when he knew it about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction and al Qaida. Yet that debate is still with us today, because there’s a concerted push by some to bring criminal charges against members of the Bush administration; that’s not something that can be ignored.
Yes, because “some” people just can’t let it go, with each continuing revelation, how a President of the United States and his Vice-President started a regime of torture, politicized every aspect of our government for political gain, ran an illegal domestic spying program, tried to outsource an assassination squad to a private mercenary group, destroying evidence of torture and illegal activities, you see, the media in South Carolina just doesn’t care. It was a Republican President, after all, just like its a Republican Governor.
I’m dreadfully tired of writing about the post-Argentina Mark Sanford. I’m tired of reading about Mark Sanford. The personal stuff is more than tedious. And every time I see another revelation about questionable ways the governor has conducted himself as governor, my stomach churns, because as much as I disagree with many of his policies and as much as I disapprove of the way he has behaved this summer, I still believe our state would be worse off in the long term if he left or was forced out of office early.
Yes, because a Governor who lied to the people of the state, that abandoned his duties to go see his mistress, who used the state airplane to get a haircut, who, by The State’s own editorial board has been ineffective, combative, and unable to get legislation passed, is still better than relying on the mechanism of government constitutionally mandated by the state of South Carolina. And, truly, it is so tedious as each new revelation is exposed, each new abuse of power, every new embarassment, because, if you believe The State, it forces them to do their job. How droll is that? Being forced to do your job!
I can’t speak for our news department, because the editorial department is completely separate. But as a former reporter, I can tell you without a doubt that reporters aren’t poring over Mr. Sanford’s calendar and expenses and state flight logs and whatever other official documents I’m sure they’re poring over because they don’t have anything else to do. They’re doing it because they have an obligation to do so.
Except, The State had the obligation to do this investigation as journalists in December 2008 when they first got the emails detailing the affair. In August 2009, after each new revelation of abuse, they are simply now being forced to do their job. You see, the Associated Press already scooped The State reporters by investigating, and exposing, Governor Sanford’s abuses of use of the state airplane. If The State newspapers reporters were pouring over documents before the AP, they wouldn’t have been scooped on that story, now would they?
Once a governor goes missing, puts his staff in the position of unknowingly lying to the public, turns out to be a very different person than the person everyone thought he was, acknowledges that he’s mixed business with pleasure on at least one taxpayer-funded trip … you start questioning everything else he’s done. Recall the cliche about smoke and fire.
(His actions weren’t scrutinized so closely before because of the inverse of the cliche: We had no reason to believe that Mr. Sanford was the type of person who might use state resources inappropriately, so poring over all those records was one labor-intensive task that could be put aside in order to get to other labor-intensive reporting tasks.)
You see, The State simply gave the Governor the benefit of the doubt. Despite being given the emails, he just didn’t seem to be the type of person who would cheat on his wife. But, to claim “where there is smoke there is fire” now is ludicrous. The massive fire that is Governor Sanford is already out and real investigators are now pouring through the ashes, yet, The State is trying to claim that now they see some smoke? That when they first saw the “smoke”, back in December 2008, they simply could not be bothered to investigate because it was a “labor-intensive task”.
When that scrutiny reveals that the governor has been using state aircraft for what are at least politically questionable and likely illegal purposes, that’s not something that can be ignored. When you find insufficiently explained “expense reimbursements” the governor has taken from his campaign around the times that he says he met with his mistress, that’s not something that can be ignored.
Except, it was the AP that scrutinized the Governor’s use of the state airplane, not The State. The State ignored that aspect of Governor Mark Sanford, just like they ignored the fact of his affair.
When the attorney general asks the State Ethics Commission to look into whether the governor broke the law, that’s not something that can be ignored. When the heretofore cautious leaders of the House and Senate start using the word “impeachment” in very serious ways, that’s not something that can be ignored.
No matter how sick we are of the whole sorry mess.
At every step, Ms. Scoppe makes the point that The State simply can’t ignore the situation anymore — not and retain any journalistic credibility. But, what Mark Lett knew long ago, and what The State is dealing with now, is they have already lost credibility. It was The State that had the emails and did nothing. It was the AP that uncovered the illegal use of the state airplane, not The State. It is, and has been, everyone else’s reporting that has forced The State to take action every step of the way through this whole sordid affair. The State newspaper got exposed when it had to admit that it had the emails in December 2008 and sat on them. It got punked when the Associated Press did its job for them in exposing the Governor’s use of the state aircraft.
I’d be defensive, too, if I were The State newspaper and Ms. Scoppe. Instead of apologizing to the Republican “base” in South Carolina for being forced to do their job, The State newspaper should be apologizing for not doing its job to the citizens of South Carolina. And, to correct Ms. Scoppe, it isn’t that we wouldn’t know about the affair if it wasn’t for The State, but, that if Mark Sanford hadn’t of been so stupid, we wouldn’t have ever known because of The State.
This is why the “blogs” that Ms. Scoppe denegrates are taking over as the premiere news sources to the public. This is why the establishment press our going bankrupt across the country. The establishment corporate press is too beholden to the politicians, too afraid to investigate, too sorry when they are forced to do their jobs. Can you imagine if Edward Murrow had been too scared to speak out against Sen. McCarthy? Or if Woodward and Bernstein had been too scared to investigate Watergate? Or worse, their superiors had told them not to do their jobs?
Ms. Scoppe and The State newspaper may be tired of being forced to do their jobs, are probably tired of being shown to be, at best, incompetent, and at worst, a GOP shill rag, but, the people are tired of lying politicians and the media that continues to protect them. That Ms. Scoppe feels she must apologize to the GOP “base” in South Carolina for doing her job should say it all.
Michael Gass
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