Media Malpractice

I believe that is what Rush Limbaugh calls this.

I reported yesterday that local media were not reporting on the Edwards Madam/Prostitution ring story. The two outlets in question here are WRAL (NBC 17) and ABC11. As I wrote yesterday, WRAL was the only one of the two to reply.

I’ve checked their feeds and sites today — still nothing despite it being carried by ABC’s national parent site. Although, it’s worth noting the story was buried there.

ABC has it in their blog section, but no main story under politics:

John Edwards Denies ‘Millionaire Madam’ John Report

MSNBC had some story burying weirdness of its own. I did a search for “John Edwards Madam” since they were not running any headline of it on their front page as of 8:30 am this morning and came across two entries. One under “shipping” (wait, what?) which takes you to a page on a story about mussels. The other was under “featured”, although scrolling down the page did not yield said story until I clicked ‘older posts’ and found it mid-way down the page:

Edwards denies paying ‘Millionaire Madam’ for sex

3-25-12 Update: Day three of the John Edwards-Madam Story blackout continues in the Triangle. As of 11:30 am EST, neither WRAL nor ABC11 has carried the story. It’s worth noting that the local paper, the News and Observer, doesn’t seem to be running it either.

3-26-12: Day 4. Still not a peep locally. Over the weekend I made an effort to strike up conversations with folks while out and about. I asked them if they had heard of this story about Edwards and the Madam. Of the 5 I talked to, not a single one had, but after our conversation all of them stated they were hitting the internet when they got back. Good for them.