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Report: Fox Got Ensign Letter Three Days Earlier Than It Admitted
Just as we were all getting sidetracked by one GOP sex scandal, there was an interesting development in another.
The Las Vegas Sun reports that Fox News received Doug Hampton's bizarre letter -- about the affair between Hampton's wife Cindy and Sen. John Ensign -- three days earlier than the right-wing news channel had previously acknowledged.
The paper reports:
Fox said it didn't receive the letter until June 15, when it arrived as an attachment to an e-mail. But FedEx tracking of a "priority envelope," which a reliable source said contained the hard copy, shows it was delivered on the morning of June 12.That would mean the national news organization had additional time to investigate and report Ensign's affair before the senator's own admission of the relationship with Hampton's wife, who worked for the senator's leadership political action committees.
Of course, the main significance of the news, as the paper notes, is that it raises the likelihood that someone at Fox, or in touch with them, tipped Ensign to the news, prompting the Nevada senator to come clean. Fox senior producer Tom Lowell has previously denied telling Ensign about the letter, but Lowell declined to comment for this story.
This could get even more interesting...
Josh
Zachary
You really need to check out your link to the C-Street group. According to your article, the house that Ensign, Sanford and several other congressmen were hanging out at was affiliated with a religious group called "The Family". That group used to go by the name of "The Children of God". Well, I am not in favor of pejorative attacks, but the scuttlebutt on that group was that they engaged in group sex and a practice known as "flirty fishing" which involved female members witnessing their faith via sexual contact, etc. Is that the group that these congressmen were hanging out at. One sidenote: the group is big in S. America and Argentina.
June 24, 2009 7:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not surprising. The caretakers of the Republican Fantasy World would have sat on that bit of information forever if they could. And I'm sure Fox has ran the least numbers of stories on Ensign as possible.
June 24, 2009 11:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Coming soon, a slight revision of the FockSnooze slogan: "We report – if and when we decide."
June 25, 2009 8:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Funny how right-wing media consistently sits on bad stories about Republicans and also consistently lables them as Democrats (FOX) when they do report the story. Fox has now done this 6 times!
June 25, 2009 9:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Since the November election, Fox no longer even pretends to be fair and balanced, which is why their ratings are up with right wing, fact-averse viewers.
June 25, 2009 9:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone had it with sanctimonious Promise-Keeping Republican hypocrites yet?
June 25, 2009 9:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
It is FOX the people who went to court in Florida to defend their right to lie in their broadcasts.
June 25, 2009 9:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
No, the interesting thing is... would they ever have reported it.
Probably not till they had made the slide showing he is a Democrat, as they did with Sanford yesterday.
June 25, 2009 10:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Responding to Will Fox.
Will, in the interest of accuracy, I believe you are conflating "The Family" which was founded in 1938: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_(Christian_political_organization)
with "The Children of God", also known at times as "The Family" which was formed in the late 60's: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_God_(cult).
Two different entities AFAICT.
June 25, 2009 11:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
^ I meant responding to will jones of course.
June 25, 2009 11:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe FOX waited three days to give Ensign time to change his party affiliation. Then they could correctly label him as a Democrat.
Ensign must have misundertood the signal and decided he had to confess to his sins and repent.
June 25, 2009 12:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ensign must be thanking his lucky stars that Sanford had his meltdown. It's the best thing that could have happened because it knocked Ensign off the front page.
June 25, 2009 1:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fox says it is "fair and balanced" - yet to be defined...but it has never said that is was factual or accurate.
For entertainment, just go to any of their websites and read the comments...they stay on topic for about 5 entries and then veer off on to some totally insignificant and mundane topic for the remaining comments. Now if I were a conspiracy theorist (which I am not), maybe they have someone reading the entries and after a few supportive comments the "someone" redirects the conversation and then lets the comment number climb....just plain weird!
June 25, 2009 4:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
With Sanford's resignation as chair of the RGA, we are about to enter an even more sinister influence by Fox in our everyday lives. Haley Barbour becoming chair and being a long-time friend of Fox CEO, Roger Ailes spells the Republican party's further alignment with Fox and its considerable media resources.
Their denial in reporting the frailties of one of the own, Ensign, is small chicken feed when compared with what we will see Fox/Barbour in the future.
June 25, 2009 4:35 PM | Reply | Permalink