What's also interesting is that the only journalists to actually pursue the story were the people at The State newspaper in South Carolina. But the only reason they were skeptical is that they were sitting on emails between Sanford and his paramour, and had been...since December! Curious that nothing about Sanford and his relationship with his wife came out earlier as well, even though they've been "Separated" for over two weeks! Surely someone in the press would have noticed that the Governor and his wife were not living together? Great job, media.

Friends do not let friends read Politico

They let Zack Roth do it

Like Colbert said at the correspondents' Bush evisceration dinner lo those many eons ago, government officials say things and you (faux journalists) just write them down.

Frigging willing idiot stenographers in the place of journalists. Lousy biased preening overarching rationalizing sycophantic toadies who just want to be on either the side that they perceive as winning or the side they wish were winning.

Hacks and punks. Disloyal to even the idea of impartiality. Either so just plain stupid that they don't know they're jerks in a real profession or they know what they're doing and they're cynical cut-outs who betray themselves for 20 pieces of silver or worse, for an ideology that they don't understand nor know the destructive consequences thereof.

they are the majority of our press corps, "serious" people, cowardly and contemptible moral weaklings, who either don't know how to think, don't know how to think for themselves, or only think they know how to think.

other than that they're all right.

The point is valid: Too many reporters in the mainstream press serve only as stenographers and disseminators of the statements made by the people they are covering, making no effort to reconcile those statements with reality.

Even more shocking, some reporters evidently feel that, contrary to having an adversarial relationship with those they cover, their obligation is to provide insulation for their subject and mislead their readers.

The Post's story by Will Haygood is the most blatant of the above examples, reporting that "The governor...is quite happily married." In fact, the exact opposite was true---the governor's wife had thrown him out two weeks earlier.

MSNBC failed on this one, too. One of the roundtables on Chris Matthews' show earlier this week featured the Usual Suspect pundits, accepting without question the "Appalachian Trail" hiking malarkey and also the "fact" that Sanford had been "found" -- without noting that no one had actually put eyes him at that point. Journalistic malpractice is all too common these days.

Thanks for the excellent work on this, Zach.

I tend to suspect, however, that had the governor in question been a Democrat, the inside-the-beltway bloviators that are masquerading as journalists would have been much more skeptical.

In any event, this is not the media's finest moment. Surprise!

typical of the post's reporters and cilliza.
the first moment that my wife heard the story about Sanford's being away hiking she said'-- he's having an affair --just wait'
can't we have a little bit of skepticism from the big media?
probably not and that is why tpm exists. thanks to all you at tpm.

I feel a new "tree swing" coming.

What I want to know is...

Did reporters not doing their job cause the newspapers to go broke, or, did broke newspapers cause reporters to stop doing their jobs?

Friends do not let friends read Politico
They let Zack Roth do it

Politico is nothing but the Fixed News of the internet. Anyone with an IQ out of room temperature range needs to give Politico a wide berth.

"Part of this is structural. There's almost no acceptable way for a mainstream reporter to explicitly tell readers that the information being put out by a powerful office-holder may be false or misleading."

Really? What about: "The governor's spokesperson claims that . . . The information provided has not been independently verified."
Or, shorter "The governor's office alleges/claims that . . ."

MSM uses "alleged" all the time when someone is charged with a crime but not yet convicted, even when there isn't much left to figure out, such as, the "alleged" bank robber handed the clerk a note demanding money, before firing three shots at the security guard, who returned fire, killing the "alleged" thief.

Miami - 1962

Doffing his baggy boxer shorts of ostentatious Harvard crimson, he finally stood before her in his not-so-together altogether. Viki Delene blinked, trying to keep her mind on her assignment. She idly noted his swim trunks must be slightly larger than his underwear, since his tan lines left a third of his middle-body in almost blinding pallor.

“Mr. President,” she began haltingly. “Are you sure this is such a good idea?”

“Call me Jack,” he said, smiling at her discomfort. The hotel balcony outside the sliding glass door blazed softly in moonlight, and the lights of the city were a twinkling ocean, calm so far beneath them.

His eyes patrolled the former Miss America in close reconnaissance. “Are you intimidated by a missile crisis?”

“Only if rockets are ready for lift-off,” Viki answered blankly. “Like your’s.”

With a snorting, mirthless laugh, he turned to the dresser and poured a stiff scotch. Far away, the dim vestige of a siren eased through the night and then faded. In half-light of a solitary table lamp, tinged green as it radiated through the nearby liquor bottles, Viki watched him pad around in hairy comfort; she was annoyed at his confidence, that so-precious accent. The early progenitor of a spare tire ran around his middle, and Viki suspected, with satisfaction, that he would last about 15 seconds against her in a Tai Kwon Do ring before she turned him into a puddle of whimpering lanolin.

A banging noise from the hallway outside and rasping voice momentarily convinced Viki some loud broad was drunkenly impersonating Judy Holliday – badly – when the door swung open and a substantial blond in startling white silk whirled in unsteadily. The buck-naked President waved off his security detail, poking heads through the doorway. Don’t bother to knock, Viki thought.

“Whoa, baby,” whispered the President, in obvious unease.

Across the room, the blond – so familiar from Technicolor and Sensurround – looked daggers at Viki. At first, her hostile eyes blazed with haughty spite, but then the expression slowly melded to something else. Unnerved, Viki saw in her gaze obvious, growing hunger, and realized everyone in the room knew exactly where all this would end. All the roles were filled – which fellow Americans were the bread, which was the bologna. Viki picked up the President’s smoldering cigar from the coffee table ashtray. She inhaled deeply and blew a solid column of smoke into the middle of the room.

“Buckle your truss-belt, Jack” Viki said in resignation, “it’s going to be a bumpy night.”

politicians and their staffers frequently have reason to dissemble, about issues far more important than an extra-marital affair.

Geezer alert!

Back in my day, children, woe betide the reporter who forgot the admonition: if your mother says she loves you, check it out.

As late as the 1980s, any reporter who sent to an editor credulous bilge like Cilizza and Smith wrote would have been fired on the spot, thrown out the nearest window and blackballed from journalism nationwide and for life.

Also back in my day, tough budget times for newspapers meant getting rid of the bad reporters and getting your pick of the best ones in the country.

Now that the White House and Congress are no longer living in Smirky/Darth's Backwards World, the fantasy seems to have taken up residence in the media.

And let's not forget the other reason the media should have been reluctant to accept that Sanford was off on the Appalachian Trial? Sunday was Naked Hiking Day on the Appalachian trail, I kid you not. If anyone had done the slightest bit of investigation, they might of at least wondered if the Governor was running around in the altogether, a story in itself.

But, come on, you didn't need to know about the emails that The State was sitting on to suspect that the Governor was off getting his candle waxed. My wife and I heard that the Governor had been unreachable for four days and we wondered, not knowing a damn thing about it, who he was off screwing. Common sense.

And do we really think the Governor went off to Argentina for four days to break off his relationship? I think he decided to "break it off" when a reporter met him at the airport.

You guys made a blatant copy edit error which I show how to fix:
Too often, though, the press treats public statements from REPUBLICANelected officials' offices -- especially those purporting simply to provide information, like the Appalachian Trail line -- as self-evidently accurate. It's as if, despite everything, some in the press can't quite bring themselves to believe that politicians might try to mislead people.

Because we don't even have to go back to Clinton to see that Democratic politicians are never afforded the same coverage.

Much to my disappointment, even NPR bought the hiking story. I don't even bother trying to get news from 'traditional' sources anymore - it's lame at best.

Before Sanford quit lying about his whereabouts, I was thinking that if he was hiking a public trail he would've had to get a permit & sign in at the trailhead & checkpoints & a few other prerequisites, I believe. How was he going to pull that off?
Yes, it was always BS, but these lies were almost childish.
He didn't mistakenly take the Viagra instead of the Advil, did he? The horndog defense sounds so much cooler than the twinkie defense.

Awesome. Thanks. And incidentally, I'm surprised it took this long for me to read criticism of Politico on this blog. Interesting times.