ABC News’ Brian Ross, who broke the Foley story, tells the Wall Street Journal that his tipster was a “Capitol Hill source.” I’m telling you, these e-mails were being passed around like cupcakes and bribes in D.C. It seems more and more apparent, however, that the source didn’t trust the…
Fox News apparently has repeatedly misidentified Mark Foley as a Democrat during the past couple of days. The news originated on the hilariously titled “Sweet Jesus, I Hate Bill O’Reilly, Int.” site. (SoTP’s take)…
This is something I would normally be on top of: The first op-ed column in the Sun-Sentinel from former editorial page editor Kingsley Guy. Oh boy. I think Guy’s column (for which I could not find an electronic link) is going to provide a lot of clues as to why…
The Victor South Florida is on fire right now. The Foley thing won’t stop burning and then there’s that revolution at the Miami Herald. I had to choose one — so I’m going with the Herald. Turns out that all the turmoil over the Marti payments at the Herald came…
You could see this coming from a mile away: The Irish Catholic Mark Foley was sexually abused by a priest when he was a teenager. What a no-brainer. Of course the Foley sex scandal was going to merge with the Catholic Church sex scandal. It’s a marriage made in hell…
Brian Ross at ABC News is having a field day with these Foley instant messages. They just keep surfacing. The man has hit a very rich vein in a gold mine. Now he and Maddy Sauer are reporting at The Blotter that Foley “interrupted a vote on the floor of…
George W. Bush just lent his support to House Speaker Denny Hastert, saying he’s a father and cares about children. Yeah, but too bad Hastert cared about the GOP power base a little more. This L.A. Times story was linked below by a commenter. It paints a picture of Foley…
The following is a shocking confession I just received via e-mail from a South Florida journalist. Not surprisingly, he asked that I withhold his name due to the sensitive nature of the correspondence: ——— Bob Norman, As a great admirer of your work, and in light of recent events, I…
State Rep. Joe Negron has been chosen — or condemned — to run for Congress in Foley’s place (with the disgraced rep’s name on the ballot). I think his photograph at left says it all. And there is this hilarious understatement from former state Republican Party chairman Tom Slade in…
So there were six more reporters at El Nuevo Herald who took money from Marti. Because a previous editor knew and approved of some of the payments and ethics policies “were ambiguously communicated, inconsistently applied and widely misunderstood over many years,” publisher Jesus Diaz decided they shouldn’t be fired. Then,…
I’m not going to talk about this one too much, since it was done by someone who lives in my house. I’m just gonna say it’s a wonderful piece of work and post it …
Okay, now I’m upset. Turns out the Miami Herald had those Mark Foley e-mails, too, and also showed great deference to the congressman by not bothering to do a story about it. But I’m not upset that the Herald didn’t run the story — I’m upset that we didn’t get…
The Mark Foley mess is an even bigger debacle for the St. Pete Times than I first imagined. Now House Speaker Dennis Hastert is essentially saying: “Look everybody, the Times had the e-mails and they didn’t do anything either!” And the sad thing is that Hastert is right. The Times…
Mark Foley has entered rehab with these words: “Painfully, the events that led to my resignation have crystallized recognition of my longstanding significant alcohol and emotional difficulties. I strongly believe that I am an alcoholic and have accepted the need for immediate treatment for alcoholism and related behavioral problems.” Brilliant…
Mahoney with Wes Clark Here’s what Mark Foley’s former opponent — and almost surely the next congressman from Foley’s district — said yesterday: “It’s clear from all of the reports coming in from across the country that the Republican leadership team has been well aware of this problem with the…
After reading the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, and Palm Beach Post bend over backward not to credit New Times for breaking the 2003 Mark Foley story that led to an infamous press conference and, shortly thereafter, the now-disgraced (and now-former) congressman’s dropping out of a U.S. Senate race. Sure, I was…
Corporate Headquarters The Sun-Sentinel, in its quest to become the cotton candy of journalism (sugary, fleetingly pleasing, and devoid of all substance), took a giant step in that direction this weekend: colors. Now the section fronts have color schemes, rather than the old black and white. For the local section,…
Watching the Palm Beach Post political editor Brian E. Crowley slowly evolve — and slowly begin to level with his readers about former Republican Congressman Mark Foley — has been fun to watch. Think of the shock of those poor readers who relied solely on Crowley and the Post for…
The St. Pete Times is one thing, but the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives is another. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert knew about some of Mark Foley’s shady e-mails months ago, Associated Press writer Devlin Barrett reports. Covering up for a sexual predator in their midst? That’s…
There’s a lot to say about the daily newspaper coverage of Mark Foley’s disgraceful exit from politics over his instant messages about giving instant massages to underage Congressional pages. Start with Anthony Man, the new political reporter in the downtown Fort Lauderdale office of the Sun-Sentinel. Man, who I like…
In the St. Petersburg Times’ article by Bill Adair on (former) Congressman Mark Foley’s e-mailings with underage Congressional pages, there’s a very curious passage: The boy, who is not being identified because of his age, told the St. Petersburg Times in an interview last November, when the Times first learned…
Turns out former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley was sitting around in his underwear sending e-mails to teen boys about masturbation, or “spanking it” as the Republican Congressman calls it. Brian Ross at ABC News got hold of the messages and when Foley found out, he quit almost on the spot…
