Editor and Publisher asks the question of the day: how on Earth did yesterday’s revelation about Idaho Sen. Larry Craig go undetected for so long? The Craig story is one that has been very much on the radar of every newsroom in the state of Idaho for years – and that focus got even more intense late last year. Today Craig lashed out at the Idaho Statesman newspaper, and put the blame for his actions in the wake of his arrest on pressure stemming from the paper’s eight month investigation. Even the reporter who broke the story was surprised “It is amazing to me that it was able to sit on the shelf so long,” he told Editor & Publisher. “Through the arrest and the guilty plea, and even a couple of weeks after.”
The list of organizations that “missed” the story is long: NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN, rash of politics-only newspapers (Politico, National Review, etc.), the Washington Post, NY Times, hungry news organizations in Idaho (including the one that employs me, KTVB) and even Minnesota news outlets. Roll Call finally broke the story – but only after a tip last week – months after the incident, and weeks after the plea was signed.