As Josh Marshall says, The State in Columbia, South Carolina drove the Sanford story with quality local reporting. Set aside why they sat on incriminating emails for going on seven months. John and I agree that infidelity itself doesn’t mean that much without a hook like Sanford potentially endangering his state by disappearing for nearly a week without word.
We do enough ragging on bad journalism on this blog, so it only seems fair to support the good kind as well. If you live in South Carolina, consider shelling out whatever it costs for a year’s subscription to The State.
***Update***
I should point out that The State almost certainly got the emails from an anonymous source that they couldn’t verify. Even if they could find a secondary source, which they probably couldn’t until his family fell apart, basic infidelity isn’t that potent a hook. If it was half the careers in DC would end overnight.
Nick
First they have to ask the governor:
“What part did gay marriage play in the destruction of your marriage and in your decision to spend father’s day with your mistress instead of your sons?”
If they can get him to answer that I’ll buy my whole family subscriptions–and we live in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Arizona.
mr. whipple
Horseshit. Multiple reporters knew about his affair, for what, 8 months, and did nothing.
This only came to light because he disappeared, and it didn’t take big time shoe leather to find that out.
Brachiator
Well said.
harlana pepper
–zipping lips–
DAMN, it’s hard!
(insert pun here:_______)
harlana pepper
@Nick: Yeah, don’t waste your money. Apparently, they held onto this stuff until it was no longer feasible to do so. The State sux.
DougJ
Those reporters are bad asses. I’m with you, Tim.
mr. whipple
“Those reporters are bad asses. I’m with you, Tim.”
one of ’em even drove to an airport, when it was obvious they couldn’t cover for him anymore. pulitzer material.
Aaron
/lol.
Sounds like we just missed a miss south carolina runner up emergency?
And what would have happened if they were invaded by the fearsome people of North Carolina???
Who would have starred down the Invaders from the Evil North with his finger the South Carolina nuclear button???????????
/puh-leaze
Seebach
It was my understanding that the State sat on the emails because they were submitted by an anonymous tipster, and they wanted to get confirmation of the story.
It’s either an excuse, or they were being responsible. Since I no longer trust anyone, I can’t decide.
Palooza
Huh? Burying evidence of an affair by the Governor is good journalism? A rightwing “culture warrior” against gay marriage? After Spitzer? Sorry, that simply does not compute.
Seebach
I thought we were in an existential crisis unprecedented in history with the whole Mohammedan menace, waiting to strike at any moment and Obama leaving us all defenseless. Which is it this week?
geg6
The woman who caught up to the gov at the airport acqitted herself quite well. I have some questions as to why they sat on the email evidence, but I don’t really have enough info to judge why they did that. But what they did once they got the tip that there might be a chance to catch him red handed, they went after it like a bulldog. And I kinda like that they didn’t really have to break the affair. They let it play out and found and reported the facts as the governor self-imploded. In a weird way, kinda elegant.
DougJ
You wait til you’ve got real evidence.
These reporters were sharp and hard-working. And I salute them.
harlana pepper
Oh, fuck, Sanford saying “I hurt you all” — y’know what, dickwad, I’ll tell you what hurt, the fact that you did not want me and people like me, who have worked all of our adult lives and cannot find gainful employment now, to have extended unemployment benefits. THAT’S what hurts. I really don’t give a fuck about your illicit affair, but since it’s out now, SUFFER, dickhead.
geg6
Aaron: Are you stupid or just an asshole? It is hurricane season, you idiot. I think we’ve all seen what happens when a place is leaderless in the aftermath of a hurricane. The stupid burns.
Seebach
The reported who met him at the airport was on Maddow. She said the emails were from an anonymous tipster. Could have been forgeries, theoretically. Maybe they could have traced the headers and servers and seen they were real. Hard to know.
What’s awesome is another 2012 contender just went down in flames. Obama may be mediocre thus far, but at least he doesn’t actively suck. Another four years would be nice.
Aaron
I think the ‘jump the shark’ moment in this little sideshow is when suddenly it’s about ‘endangering his state’.
Being irresponsible- sure. Security? I don’t think so.
Nellcote
I think Sanford was in stuck with a decision he could not make. Considering how bizarre the last few days have been I think he wanted to get caught.
harlana pepper
So you can try to fuck over your constituents and that’s okay. But fuck some chick from Argentina, cry about it, and you are absolved. Please don’t make me bash my head against this wall here.
OWWW! Too late.
Seebach
America has a serious cultural disease. I have no idea where to begin to address it. I will accept ideas.
Ash Can
OK, if Sanford’s unavailability meant nothing in the event of a disaster, then how would a disaster scenario have played out? Shit hits fan, state supreme court meets on the spur of the moment, designates LG as acting gov, everything that needs to get done gets done, state SC declares that everything reverts to as it was before?
What if Sanford had shown up again before the acting gov had finished acting? What does he do, sit on the veranda and work sudoku puzzles until the SC tells him it’s OK to come back in? Just whyTF is his abandonment of his post not a big deal?
Comrade Stuck
@harlana pepper:
LoL
kommrade reproductive vigor
Plenty of the smaller papers do well because they haven’t forgotten their job is to report the news. If memory serves at least one paper in Alaska showed Palin was full of shit in a very professional manner.
[Ahem]
geg6
Ash Can, as far as I can tell, some people think disasters are some sort of joke and should not be something anyone should worry about. Because everything goes just hunky dory when bad things happen and no one is in charge because the state constitution doesn’t take into account the governor running off to another hemisphere, telling no one where to find him, and turning off his cell phone. It’s stupid and jumping the shark to even discuss such a possibility.
harlana pepper
@geg6: Agreed, Sanford should be ousted asap. His behavior was outrageously reckless. He deserves to be sued by the state, at the very least.
Elie
I think that there are a couple of interlocking responsibility issues that will move to the front burner over the next few days:
1. Leaving his post without letting anyone know where to reach him. He is paid to be a full time CEO — not just when he wants to. Doesnt matter if nothing could happen (which I do not agree with) — he cannot just abandon his post at his own whin whenever AND GET COMPENSATED by taxpayers. I can’t not show up for work and expect to get paid. He is paid I am sure a healthy amount to sit his butt in that chair and do his job — even if his view of what he does is limited
2. Lieing or causing others to lie about his whereabouts and intentions
3. Missuse of state resources (vehicles, etc) to use for his own personal business
4. Who paid?
I also bet there has been a pattern of all of these little abuses over time…At the end of the day, his departure will be related to these and not the affair…
someguy
Can’t we all just celebrate another conservative Republican’s odious professional career and bizzare personal life coming to an extremely painful, public and bitter end? Come on, I got a good schadenfreude buzz going here. Don’t wreck it.
Don’t bite the hand, either. If you have to vent about the villagers, couldn’t you aim it at the silent journalists who are likely sitting on enough information to permanently take down what little remains of the Rump Republican Party? Verified sources or rumors, it doesn’t really matter; politics isn’t beanbag. They claim to be the family values party – let them live and die by that. Yep, families, mistresses, boy toys and the space aliens who control the speech centers of Bachmann’s brain may suffer a little as a result of such stories, but the Permanent Republican Majority would be the first to point out that there is collateral damage in any conflict, so we shouldn’t trouble our pretty little minds over a few incidental casualties. Heck, maybe we could even get John Yoo to write us a legal memo explaining why it’s our public duty to seek out and disclose such knowledge…
Elie
I also think that the reporters did ok — not great but just ok — for once they did their jobs which one cannot count on when they report on the Republicans.
I am more interested to see their follow up on this and how well they get the skinny about all this guy’s problems — which I expect he will have more than a few. In fact, given that he was ratted out by his own party members, I bet there is a whole dam of shit waiting to float out about him..
harlana pepper
oh fuck it, never mind, i just need to go to bed
ethan salto
There’s all sorts of pearl-clutching at the mean, intrusive press elsewhere in comments.
It’s weird.
eyeball
These reporters are probably better than their worst critics say, but to lionize them for doing such basic stuff as tracking the guv’s movements is pathetic. Our 11-person tabloid staff at an (anonymous) city paper would have gotten the answer a lot sooner than 8 months, especially if the pol was a) a gov, and b) a culture warrior. 8 days, at the outside. possibly 8 hours. If it takes them 8 months to uncover something this major hiding in plain sight, what does it take them … 8 years? … to get to the bottom of your basic political procurement or favor-trading scam? That stuff comes in anonymously most of the time too. This effort is nothing to brag about.
Calouste
Btw, more proof that Sanford is certifiably insane:
in his emails to his mistress he refers to “going back home to South Carolina” as “returning to civilization”.
IndieTarheel
@Seebach: I suggest this, applied nationally.
IndieTarheel
@someguy:
Not that I’m surprised or anything, but I wanted to state for the record that it is good to see my theory confirmed in print.
Michael
Eliminate the tax deductibility of contributions to religious organizations. The pretense of charitability has been allowed to go on far too long – in most cases, a church contribution is simply one’s membership fee to a social/country club.
The place is a basket case economically, educationally and socially, and yet he’s proud of it.
There’s your rock-ribbed conservatism for you….
bob h
I have this feeling that this affair began with sex tourism. The steamy quality of the e-mails suggest she may have been a sex worker. And I remember a big campaign by Bush to make such things illegal. I’d bet there is some sort of human trafficking law on the books. There may be a matter of law involved.
JackieBinAZ
The part I like best is knowing Republicans themselves deliberately created the environment for this kind of feeding frenzy with their 30-plus years of culture war as political strategy. They must be very proud at how effective their campaign was.
jrg
Very, very good point. But this will never get asked, because it would be viewed as an unserious, vindictive question.
Of course, the next time a culture warrior claims that “gay marriage is a threat to straight marriage”, it will be repeated by the press and treated as a serious concern, rather than the unserious, bigoted statement it is. Our national discourse is a joke.
passerby
@ethan salto:
and you also said:
ethan salto, in using the phrases “pearl-clutching” and “it’s weird” I agree and you are essentially correct. But, we have different views, in fact polar opposite views, about releasing the emails.
I think it’s a sign of the times that publishing someone’s intimate correspondences would appall some while others don’t give it a second thought. It brings to mind the days when a glimpse of a woman’s ankle was shockingly indecent–nowadays women can wear dresses cut all the way to here and we don’t give it a second thought.
So cultural change comes with each passing decade. The mini skirts that I wore in my youth must have been horrifying to those of the previous generations, for me they were the fashion of the day, what’s the big deal, right?
Like LauraW, I’m not trying to debate the issue, nor am I preaching. I’m not defending my reaction nor condemning other’s for not sharing my sensibilities.
On the issue of why publish these emails, setting emotional response aside, I have reasonable questions and observations–these may be rhetorical:
What purpose is served by releasing these emails?
Sanford had already made a public confession before they were published. The threat to release them may have been the force behind his decision to fess up, and so they had already served their purpose, so why do it anyway?
What justice is served by releasing the emails?
It wasn’t a matter of a court order, or anything to do with legalities. Maddow (who could not bring herself to read them aloud on her show but put one up on her screen) claims that it explains why all this is happening. The emails don’t explain anything. Interesting that Geena, the reporter, said they checked with their atty prior to publishing. Well, if a lawyer said it was okay to do then, it’s okay, right? This falls into the “I’ve done nothing illegal” column of defenses which, though not illegal, are arguably ethical.
Who was vindicated by releasing the emails?
Mrs. Sanford and their sons are the ones to bear the brunt of humiliation. She had already be told about the affair.
As a public watchdog, how does The State serve their community and public at large by printing the emails?
Since Sanford had already confessed, printing the contents of the email for public consumption essentially boils down to dishing dirt. The only service they provide is to themselves. No doubt the contents of the emails are sensational and the media loves them some sensationalism. After all, inquiring minds want to know. In the twisted logic of their justification there is no heart and no soul, only imagined glory for the reporter who broke the story, and a temporary increase in circulation which an editor’s primary goal.
So, in my view, the release of the emails was unnecessary and therefore done for its sensational value, appealing to our voyeuristic nature, which we unconsciously feed without regard for something that used to be known as decency.
No doubt, Sanford is an asshat politician and, schadenfreude and scorn aside, how to we benefit as a society and as individuals by riding him down with humiliation when he’s already done an excellent job of fucking up his life all by himself.
What good?
Ben
Extra-marital affairs are a big deal for politicians… they have security clearances and blackmail in a case like this is a real possibility.
Besides the fact that the JF’s, who apparently don’t love the baby jeebus as much as they say, also become significant security risks when they can’t keep their johnson in their pants. From the hypocrisy standpoint, these guys are a major risk… families, wives, kids and livelihood are all at stake if they are “outed”. Big security risk.
passerby
@passerby:
I meant “arguably UNethical”.
tim
As a right winger, Sanford is a complete dick and a hypocrite.
BUT I think we should all be horrified that publishing private emails is now considered acceptable, responsible journalistic practice. I mean, especially after the guy has confessed to all, what purpose does this publication of emails serve other than to humiliate and provide laughs for the slobbering masses and self righteous media types.
It is telling that even though the State has had evidence of hypocritical infidelity by this right wing bible beater for many months, they sat on it til now. Why? My guess is they’ve been trying to force him to resign by holding the emails over his head, and they have punished him for not doing so by publishing them.
Really sickens me how media outlets do shit like that; actually seeking to determine the outcome of events with blackmail of this sort. Nothing else makes their dicks hard, I guess.
Lord, this is a sexually sick country.
Don
Do you even bother to read other people’s comments before you post your own? Their restraint has been explained half a dozen times here, though why they didn’t dig further hasn’t been.
Until I see some examination of the SC constitution that clearly indicates the Lt. Gov couldn’t have stepped in as needed I am not taking seriously any of this “oh boo hoo he endangered people.” Not letting people know he’d be incommunicado was clearly doing a shit job and poor judgment, but elevating it to ‘endangerment’ seems like hogwash.
IndieTarheel
@Michael:
Fixed!