How Did News Outlets Miss Senator's Arrest for Nearly Three Months?

[DeepModem Mom]

Editor&Publisher: How Did News Outlets Miss Senator's Arrest for Nearly Three Months?
By Joe Strupp
Published: August 28, 2007

NEW YORK The revelation late Monday that Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested nearly three months ago for allegedly making sexual advances in a men's room raises the issue of how such an action could occur without the press reporting it.

Even Roll Call reporter John McArdle, who broke the story late Monday, admits he only received word of the arrest and subsequent guilty plea via a tip last week. "You would think in the 24-hour news cycle, something like this would slip through," said McArdle, a four-year veteran of the Capitol Hill daily. "He wanted to keep it quiet, and he almost got away with it."...

***

Editors from The Idaho Statesman of Boise did not return calls seeking comment. But Editor Dean Miller of the Post Register in Idaho Falls defended the lack of reporting on the arrest by his paper and others, saying a misdemeanor arrest in another state does not always get easily discovered....

Some Washington, D.C.-based editors, such as Dean Baquet, who heads The New York Times' D.C. bureau, agreed. "I am not so shocked that it would not get out," said Baquet, who is also a former editor at the Los Angeles Times. "The way things work, sometimes if you have a misdemeanor arrest, they don't make their way out here. It was not in his state. My guess is if it had happened at La Guardia Airport or at an airport in Washington it might be different."

Leonard Downie Jr., executive editor of The Washington Post, also found it unsurprising. "We don't have a Minneapolis correspondent," he said. "He is not a local congressman -- it happened in Minnesota and Idaho."...

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003632075

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. News, you call THAT news?

As far as the corpos are concerned, it would have been preferable that this never broke

[orleans]

2. wasn't he busted in a CITY? don't they have a newspaper that goes

through a police blotter??

in my town if your car gets keyed or egged it's in the fucking newspaper, if you're busted for ANYTHING it's in the paper.

i'd like to know why it wasn't reported also.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. You are NOT a Republican US Senator

Now if you were a Dem, trust me, it would have led the NATIONAL news

[orleans]

8. exactly. that's what i think too. all these excuses for this story not

coming out sooner. we don't have correspondents in Minneapolis, we didn't feel good, we forgot how to read a newspaper even though we print one ourselves, what's a police blotter?

what shit.

if it was a dem it WOULD have been national news. probably within the same hour.

once again: liberal media? MY ASS!

[formercia]

19. It's all part of the culture of corruption.

It has been this way forever. Those in power do as they please. Laws are for the serfs.


People didn't make a fuss because it wasn't worth the trouble. You would be amazed at the power that some of these people have.

I've been at the receiving end and it's not pleasant.

[Clark2008]

25. That really doesn't matter to local news reporters who are

trying to do their jobs.

Trust me. I was a local reporter covering police for years. I always checked the cop shop.

Thing is - this guy isn't all that well-known. I bet money that the reporter saw that Larry Craig was arrested for whatever misdemeanor blah-blah and didn't think it worthy of further consideration. I didn't know who Larry Craig was until this week - and I keep up with politics.

[wellst0nev0ter]

42. No, Larry Craig Was Part Of A Larger Sting Of 40 Other Offenders

It should have been major news just on the "OOOH! AHHH! SEX! PERVERTS! AT OUR AIRPORT OF ALL PLACES!!" factor alone. But the Star Trib has recently been bought out by a venture capital corporation that immediately proceeded to downsize and degrade the paper into a little more than a tabloid. The St. Paul Pioneer Press has fell to the same fate years before, so we are left with this hopelessly untimely reporting of the news.

[Oeditpus Rex]

11. What's the population of your town?

Police blotters in most metro papers have gone the way of hot type.

[orleans]

35. what is "hot type"? (and the answer is around 50,000)

[Oeditpus Rex]

38. Linotype slugs = 'hot type'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linotype_machine

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

15. Because big city newspapers don't report every car keying.

It's easy to see how it slipped through. Unless anybody there in the courtroom or reading the police records happened to be able to identify him as a Senator, who would be the wiser? It's not as if he went around wearing a big "SENATOR" badge on his lapel.

[CGowen]

22. It's in the police report

"Craig would look down at his hands, 'fidget' with his fingers, and then look through the crack into my stall again," Karsnia wrote in documents accompanying the arrest report.

Craig said the officer misinterpreted his actions.

After he was taken for questioning, the police report says, Craig pulled out of a Senate business card and asked the officer: "What do you think of that?"

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/28/craig.arrest/?iref=mpstoryview

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

29. Sure it is.

But again, it is, I think, unlikely that a newspaper would take the time to review the full accounting of every misdemeanor in an area as big as the Twin Cities - especially in a case where a guilty plea was entered.

[orleans]

37. then craig probably asked: "who do i have to pay off to keep this

out of the papers?"

[Clark2008]

26. Exactly.

Larry Craig is NOT that uncommon of a name, for Pete's sake.

It's not like it was Hillary Clinton or Barak Obama. It was Larry Craig. That's just two steps up from John Smith.

[orleans]

34. no, he only flashed his "LOOK AT ME I'M A SENATOR CARD" when

he wanted to try to get out of jail free.

[MADem]

4. A BUNCHA reasons, I think

He told NO ONE--not friends, not staff/leakers, not family. Not even a lawyer. No one.

The offense took place in a state OTHER THAN his home state, and not the District, either, where he works.

He barely missed a beat in his work schedule while this was going on.

He has a fairly common and inocuous name. His face matches it, too.

About the only one who initially knew he was a senator was the arresting officer.

A lot of stuff flies under the radar, even in DC. For example, Gary Condit was fooling around with Chandra Levy IN TOWN and got away with it until she went running in the park and got killed--and some of his staff had to know about that affair, too. Newt was screwing Calista and would have gotten away with that had not his STAFF ratted him out to his second wife. I know of an affair between a retired Senator and a staffer that never was made public--and I won't tell, either, unless or until the wife dies or dumps the guy. Hey, these things DO go on.

[Hamlette]

7. bingo MADem

unless he was arrested in Idaho, arrested under the name "U.S. Senator Larry Craig" or had an odd name like Orrin Hatch (I wish it had been that pious prick) or Ted Kennedy, a local beat reporter wouldn't pick it up. I only know Craig's name because of Maher's show last year when he was outed and I live in Utah. I can't name the other Idaho Senator. I could probably name half the senators but not any more.

There would have been a reporter reading the arrest records and court records but both counts didn't sound so awful, the one he was arrested for and the one he pled to. Disorderly conduct (or like that) is what they charge drunks with and there are oodles of them every day. Also, the reporter would have been new or at least low man on the totem pole. Crack reporters don't go to court to read the court records everyday. What does a Minneapolis reporter know of a Idaho Senator?

[MADem]

16. Heh,heh....Orrin Hatch....

There's 'rumors' about that boy....! Seriously!

[coco77]

17. Oh he is one I would love to see...

admit whatever he is or get caught.. I would just enjoy watching him before the cameras especially if it occurred in the same way as Craig...

[MADem]

18. Here's an amusing byproduct of that rumor--his CD review on AMAZON

Here's that prizewinner: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/B0006ICFPY#customerReviews



16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
Fabulously gay!, January 6, 2005
By Adam Anteater "Adam" - See all my reviews

The breathless energy of Barbara Streisand, combined with the smoky come-hither crooning of Michael Stipe and the glitz of Liberace, only begin to described the fabulously gay nature of this album!

You'll squeal like a little girl when you hear "Morning Breaks on Arlington" and you won't be able to stop tapping your heals when the familiar notes of "I Love Old Glory" come on. Put on your glitter and heels, boys, Orrin Hatch is coming to town!



Funny, Orrin was rumored there, back when Alberto Gonzales's troubles first started, to be a front runner to replace him--the reason being that the Senate tends to put up less resistance when it's one of their OWN (see Ashcroft, John) who's being considered for an appointment. It could still happen, ya never know....

[orleans]

36. ewwwww. n/t

[yardwork]

21. His arrest warrant DOES say United States Senator.

I read the police report. It says that his employee is the United States of America and his position is Senator of Idaho.

[Hamlette]

23. reporters read the blotter, not the full police report for every arrest.

The cops didn't leak because they are honest. Or republican. I suppose.

[Clark2008]

30. Correct.

We only ask for the warrant if there is something intriguing about the charge or the name. The warrant is stored at the courthouse in most cities, not at the police department. It takes extra effort - not that that's an excuse - it's just how it works. If you didn't know the name "Larry Craig" off the top your head, you wouldn't know to ask for the warrant for more details.

[yardwork]

31. Oh, I see. Well, it's not the police department's job to tip off the news media.

I'm beginning to see how this could have slipped through the cracks.

[NashVegas]

28. Nah, It Was a Chit

The police knew he was a US senator. The police have contacts with press, up the ying yang.

"Hey Charlie, anything fun on the blotter tonight?"

Only Chuck wasn't talking. Something changed to make Chuck talk. Or someone who Chuck took orders from had a friend (who had a friend) who could use the info.

And that friend was hanging onto that chit until they needed to use it.

[Gabi Hayes]

39. exactly....and you can BET it was a republican, and you can BET

they waited til Gonzalez resigned.

what do you think?

Edit: didn't see the post downthread that mentioned this. surprised it didn't come up sooner....it's so obvious

[Clark2008]

41. Why wouldn't you tell the wife?

I would want to know - and did want to know when I finally was told so I could make an accurate decision about my future with that man.

So... why wouldn't you tell? Don't you think she deserves to know? I wish I had known a lot sooner about my ex. It would have made some decision-making easier.

[calimary]

5. Perhaps they've been too busy ignoring the bigger stories of importance

to notice (and then ignore) the smaller ones from out of town...

[DeSwiss]

6. Ahhh.... but Downie says it all...

"Leonard Downie Jr., executive editor of The Washington Post, also found it unsurprising. "We don't have a Minneapolis correspondent," he said. "He is not a local congressman -- it happened in Minnesota and Idaho."...

What was left off in that quote, I'm sure went something like this:

"we're also lazy as hell, don't give a damn, we're cheap and we do what we're told. We're just the press, what do you want???"

- K&R!!

[LibDemAlways]

9. He identified himself to the police as a US Senator, so

they knew. You can bet phone calls were made and someone very rapidly ordered the lid clamped down on it. Craig knew he was in deep shit, and he must have informed the Bush Crime Family and received assurances that it would be handled with a plea bargain and advice to stonewall and deny everything in case of a leak. Looks to me like, so far, he's sticking to the script.

[Ellipsis]

10. Smoking gun posts Arrest report

Posted by urbuddha

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=221x56562

He signed off on the guilty plea August 1.

[DeepModem Mom]

12. Thanks, btmlndfrmr! nt

[KittyWampus]

13. This belongs on front page K&R

[underpants]

14. ABC"No person of interest" in the DC Madam case

that was on the day that the phone records 19 pages of phone numbers was released. Of course we later found out that a US SENATOR's name was not only on the list but he was a regular customer.

What, did you expect someone to stay late or something?

[Triana]

20. Easy: He wasn't a Democrat (n/t)

[CabalPowered]

24. As I understand it

The local AP reporter started asking I.S. reporters questions about Craig and that's when the I.S. assigned a reporter to the story. I don't know if the AP reporter knew of the incident in MN but the timing is close.

[TalkingDog]

27. holding back until they needed a story to supplant Gonzo's departure

It's not so much that it went unreported, but that the story suddenly came to "light" in a week when damage control was needed.

*places tin foil hat firmly on head*

The Friday news dump of Gonzales' departure didn't quite work. Having it in a week long news cycle would be....not so good. So the story is revealed to a couple of folks, perhaps via email or a link to the police report....

The question is who? ....who could possibly benefit from having this story out there? Gosh, I just can't think of anybody who needed a nice juicy sex scandal right at this very moment that would most definitely divert National Attention...can you?


My Favorite Master Artist: Karen Parker GhostWoman Studios

[TalkingDog]

33. VINDICATED!!!

Craig outed by "anonymous" tip to reporter:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2970897

A tip of the tin foil hat to the space aliens that gave me the inside scoop.



My Favorite Master Artist: Karen Parker GhostWoman Studios

[GliderGuider]

32. Shhhh... be vewy, vewy quiet...

You're invading Iran any minute now.

[EVDebs]

40. How do you explain the year long silence on this CIA / Congress story ?

"It's all part of a growing ongoing investigation into corruption in defense and intelligence contracts, which already has sent former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham to prison and, legal sources say, may threaten others in Congress and the CIA. "

FBI probes Watergate prostitution allegations
Infamous hotel used by defense contractor to entertain lawmakers?
May 4, 2006
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12634250/

Maybe that's why the DC Madame's info on Vitter was broken by Larry Flynt and Dan Moldea too. The M$M likes to keep things under wraps. For the benefit of those "others".

[krispos42]

43. He's not a well-known Senator

His name is nothing remarkable or rememberable.

The charges were reduced to something non-sexual and unremarkable.

The Cities are not a hotbed of national political or celeberty activity.

Probably some baliff or law student noticed it during his court appearance, then, after it didn't make the papers in a few days, dropped a dime on an anonymous phone call.