Blogger who broke the news of Anthony Weiner's latest indiscretions talks to AP
Blogger who posted Weiner texts: He should quit
NEW YORK (AP) — The blogger who broke the news of Anthony Weiner's latest round of marital indiscretions said he didn't go looking for gossip about the former congressman and initially didn't believe a woman who contacted his site in April claiming to have exchanged sexual texts and photographs with the ex-lawmaker following his 2011 resignation.
"This girl actually reached out multiple times, and I didn't believe her. I didn't have confidence in the evidence of the facts. And I kept telling her, 'I need more. I need more,'" blogger Nik Richie told The Associated Press in a phone interview Wednesday.
The Dirty, a site mainly focused on ridiculing the nightlife scene, isn't an "investigative newsroom" Richie said, and has sometimes run into legal trouble for posting snarky anonymous comments that turned out to be false. Just this month it was ordered to pay $338,000 in a defamation case brought by a former Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader.
But Richie said he withheld the woman's material for months while he tried to verify her story. Those efforts didn't include contacting Weiner's mayoral campaign, but Richie said after additional review he eventually felt sure the texts and images were legitimate.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/blogger-who-posted-weiner-texts-he-should-quit