“Crazed Sex Poodle”?

This is a clear case of too much information. Is it true? Who knows; but if detail lends credibility, it certainly qualifies as credible. What is most interesting to me about the story, however, is that a Portland newspaper had the story in 2007 or 2008, but chose not to publish it:

In 2007 or 2008, then-Portland Tribune reporter Nick Budnick made a public records request and obtained the Portland police report, but the newspaper did not run a story.
Mark Garber, the Tribune’s editor-in-chief, said the woman was not willing to talk on the record or press charges and the paper considered the time lapse between the incident and when the paper received the police report. “In the end, we decided not to proceed with a story that we could not document,” Garber said.

In general, I’d be OK with a newspaper policy of skepticism with regard to such stories if it were applied consistently. But of course it isn’t. There seems to be a pattern here: Newsweek wouldn’t publish the Monica Lewinski story; no mainstream outlet was willing to blow the whistle on John Edwards; now this Portland paper sits on the Al Gore story even though it has a police report–a public record–in its possession. It’s notable, I think, that not only did the Portland newspaper not publish a story based on the police report alone, it also doesn’t appear to have investigated the story beyond perhaps asking the masseuse to “talk on the record.” Did it even go so far as to try to verify whether Gore was at the hotel identified by the complainant on the evening in question? One wonders what other stories about prominent Democrats the liberal media are sitting on.
I know the “imagine if it were a Republican” theme gets tedious, but still: is it conceivable that if there were a police report accusing Dick Cheney of a sexual assault, it would not be the occasion for the biggest media frenzy of recent years? No, it isn’t. It is hard to resist the speculation that Al Gore has been protected not only because he is a Democrat, but because he is the leading symbol of the global warming movement, which our journalist class enthusiastically supports.

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