I guess we shouldn’t be surprised to see that former News & Observer reporter and John Edwards rumpswab John Wagner has latched on as a reporter for The Washington Post, as seen today in yet another profile piece of the North Carolina senator.
Wagner, and The N&O in general, have been unfailing in their love for Edwards, a sentiment which reached its peak in July of last year in a Wagner attack on the reporting of Washington Times writer Charles Hurt, formerly of The Charlotte Observer. The hatchet job motivated Hurt to send this scathing letter to the editors of The N&O:
While we have grown accustomed to seeing the unfiltered spin from Sen. John Edwards’ press shop appear in The N&O, your reckless report about me in your July 4 editions struck a new low (Under the Dome/Washington item “Edwards in media tussle”).
You ignored the significant implications of stories I wrote and instead called up Edwards’ spokespeople (both of them for this major effort) and allowed them to use The N&O to attack me and my credibility for reporting that Edwards had blocked popular legislation in one of his committees.
The facts in those stories are accurate, relying on more than a dozen interviews with senators, congressmen and staffers involved in the blocked legislation. Late on the scene, you opted out of any such reporting and instead crafted a convenient attack on me. You actually wrote that I have had “several clashes with Edwards’ staff over the accuracy of” my stories, yet provided no evidence whatsoever for such an irresponsible claim.
What was most shocking to me was that you printed my name, a brief bio and the attacks on my integrity without one single phone call or e-mail to me, not even pretending to write a fair or balanced story.
The truth is, Edwards’ staff has complained about some of the stories I’ve written. But that just comes with the territory of writing illuminating stories that don’t originate as Edwards press releases.
