NewsBusters has been all over John Edwards’ admission that he fathered a love child:
Erin Brown complained that it wasn’t front-page news at every newspaper in America, even though much of the story had already been reported and Edwards himself hasn’t held elective office in years. Brown nevertheless touted how “the National Enquirer busted Edwards in a Los Angeles hotel for cheating on his cancer-stricken wife.”
Tom Blumer similarly complained that the Washington Post gave the National Enquirer’s scoop on Edwards’ affair short shrift, insisting that it “was worthy of follow-up” and that “The establishment media’s failure to take the initial Enquirer story further was inexcusable.”
Of course, as we detailed, NewsBusters’ comrades at the Media Research Center had a much different reaction to reports that suggested John McCain may have had an affair with a lobbyist; Brent Bozell denounced such talk as “rumor and gossip, fit to print only for the likes of the National Enquirer.”
And we doubt anyone now affiliated with NewsBusters or the MRC was praising the Enquirer’s reporting abilities when it discovered that Rush Limbaugh was surreptitiously buying pain pills.
Mark our words: The folks at NewsBusters will not have nice things to say about the Enquirer if the next big political scandal it breaks involves a Republican.