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Media Commentator Paul JanenschWere the mainstream news media wrong to shy away from assertions in the National Enquirer that John Edwards had carried on an extramarital affair while seeking the Democratic presidential nomination? Media commentator Paul Janensch says they were in a no-win situation.

For 10 months, the National Enquirer, a supermarket weekly that specializes in sensational coverage of celebrities, ran stories that said Edwards had been romantically involved with novice documentary maker Rielle Hunter, who was hired by his campaign in 2006 to shoot videos.

Edwards repeatedly denied to reporters what the Enquirer was publishing. Without substantiation, the mainstream media refused to pick up the Enquirer stories even though they were all over the Internet and talk radio. Then an Enquirer reporter confronted Edwards at a Beverly Hills hotel, where he had been visiting Hunter and her 5-month-old daughter, and the tabloid ran a fuzzy photo of a man who looks like Edwards holding a baby, which was labeled his love child.

Edwards decided to change his tune. He sat down for an interview with ABC’s Bob Woodruff shown last Friday on “Nightline.” Earlier that evening, Bob Schieffer told the CBS Evening News audience about his telephone conversations with Edwards and his wife Elizabeth, who has breast cancer. Both of them also issued statements.

Edwards admitted to the affair but denied the baby was his. He said he was “ashamed” of his conduct. The mainstream media gave the Edwards confession blockbuster treatment. The New York Times even put it on page one. What took so long? Internet blogs accused the traditional media of timidity and liberal bias. It’s not that simple.

Had major newspapers and network television and radio run what the Enquirer was reporting, they would have been accused of being irresponsible. Yes, the Enquirer has scored some major scoops in the past – such as reporting that Jesse Jackson had fathered a child out of wedlock and that Rush Limbaugh was addicted to pain killers.

But in the Edwards stories, the Enquirer never named its source and even acknowledged that the source had been paid. Should news organizations have tried harder to verify the Enquirer’s reporting? Well, maybe. At least the Charlotte Observer found the baby’s birth certificate and reported that no father was named. Otherwise, the respectable media needed something more. They finally got it when Edwards ‘fessed up. I think they were right to wait.

Media commentator Paul Janensch is a former newspaper editor who teaches journalism at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut.