Did the St. Petersburg Times cover up for Mark Foley?

[DoYouEverWonder]

September 29 2006

<snip>

In other e-mails, Foley wrote, ``I am back in Florida now...its nice here...been raining today...it sounds like you will have some fun over the next few weeks...how old are you now?'' and ``how are you weathering the hurricane...are you safe...send me an email pic of you as well.''

What the boy wrote to Foley, who is single, wasn't available. The e-mails were sent from Foley's personal account, which Foley spokesman Jason Kello says he uses to communicate with many people, including Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Efforts to reach the boy were unsuccessful, but he told the St. Petersburg Times last November, "I thought it was very inappropriate. After the one about the picture, I decided to stop e-mailing him back." The Times didn't publish the comments until Friday.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-929foley,0,5232912.story


Excuse me? The St. Pete Times knew about this story LAST NOVEMBER! But decided not to publish the comments until this past Friday? Isn't this aiding and abetting a felon? I suppose it will make it a little harder for Foley's friends to claim no one knew about this until last week.

[sweetheart]

1. Jeb Bush is part of the coverup

That explains why the bush people are concerned. Florida is being used by the pervert-wing of the
republican party to groom children for predators. Jeb Bush's covering up for child molesters,
and this would implicate bush as well, AND catherine harris, who has been covering up investigations
like that from way back... its the bush republican family, elect us (or don't) and we'll screw yer kids.

[malaise]

10. But, but, but

Jeb says he didn't know.

[soup]

15. and if he did, he would have recused himself.

Do we all feel so much better knowing the FDLE is on this?

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. Jeb sure sent out FDLE fast

when he though the black folks down in Orlando were guilty of election fraud.


July 17, 2004

ORLANDO -- A voter rights group is accusing state investigators of intimidating elderly black voters while looking into possible ballot fraud in the disputed Orlando mayor's race.

Buddy Dyer's re-election on March 9 has been dogged by accusations of fraud.

The Voter Protection Coalition said Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents, while contacting people whose absentee ballots are under question, revealed their sidearms, spokeswoman Alma Gonzalez said Friday.

"You can't do that to old black people who fought hard for the right to vote and, in fact, have seen law enforcement utilized in this kind of intimidating and harassing way through the Civil Rights movement," Gonzalez said.

Also, the coalition believes the investigation of Dyer campaign workers for their get-out-the-vote efforts via absentee ballots disenfranchises minorities.

http://www.globalaging.org/elderrights/us/2004/intimidateeth.htm

[soup]

18. Martin Lee Anderson

News Release
FDLE Investigates Death of Martin Lee Anderson

January 10, 2006

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is conducting an inquiry into the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson at the request of the Bay County Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Juvenile Justice. FDLE is responsible for determining the facts and circumstances surrounding the death. The Bay County Sheriff’s Department and the Department of Juvenile Justice are cooperating fully. The autopsy conducted by the Bay County Medical Examiner has ruled out trauma or injury as the cause of death. The Medical Examiner’s Office is awaiting toxicology results. The Honorable Steve Meadows, Office of the State Attorney, will review the facts and circumstances surrounding Anderson’s death once the FDLE inquiry is complete.

Anderson was committed to a Department of Juvenile Justice facility on Jan. 4 by court order. The Department of Juvenile Justice facility remanded Anderson to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office Boot Camp facility early Thursday morning. He was at the facility for approximately two hours before being transported by emergency medical services. He was taken from the Bay County Sheriff’s Office Boot Camp facility on Thursday, Jan. 5, to Bay County Medical Center. Anderson was later transported by air ambulance to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. On Jan. 6, Anderson passed away.

As we do in all of our investigations, FDLE will conduct this investigation fairly and thoroughly. We offer our condolences to this young man’s family for their tragic loss.
http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/press_releases/20060110_Martin_Anderson.html


>>Tunnell, FDLE commissioner, resigned in late April. Tunnell allegedly sent an e-mail to Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen, his successor, stating FDLE's intention to withhold the video which showed Bay County sheriff's officers beating the defenseless teen. There is also reportedly an e-mail by Tunnell to the Bay County Sheriff stating that FDLE would oppose the release of the video to media organizations. When two state legislators asked to see the videotape of Anderson's beating, Tunnell retorted, "Ain't gonna happen".

The FDLE was removed from the investigation after Ober learned of the e-mails and after Tunnell had had a previous meeting with Bush.

Gov. Bush acknowledged that Tunnell resigned after making inappropriate remarks about civil rights leaders who were in protests concerning the Anderson case.

According to reports, Tunnell reportedly compared Jackson to infamous outlaw Jesse James and U.S. Sen Barack Obama, D-Ill., to terrorist Osama bin Laden.<<
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/050506Suffocation.html

---

We could probably go back and forth all day citing names and instances when the FDLE's actions have been, at the least, dubious.

They "revealed their firearms"?! Someone shows up at my door wearing a badge and carrying a gun, I'm immediately intimidated and on guard. Whatever follows cannot be good.

[LoKnLoD]

2. The

The St Pete Times usually leans a little to the left.

[wakeme2008]

3. No they did not

From the Editors http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/

September 30, 2006
A Note From the Editors

There still seems to be some confusion about the order of events related to our coverage of Rep. Mark Foley and his email exchanges with teenagers he met through the congressional page program. Let me try to clear this up.

In November of last year, we were given copies of an email exchange Foley had with a former page from Louisiana. Other news organizations later got them,too. The conversation in those emails was friendly chit-chat. Foley asked the boy about how he had come through Hurricane Katrina and about the boy's upcoming birthday. In one of those emails, Foley casually asked the teen to send him a "pic" of himself. Also among those emails was the page's exchange with a congressional staffer in the office of Rep. Alexander, who had been the teen's sponsor in the page program. The teen shared his exchange he'd had with Foley and asked the staffer if she thought Foley was out of bounds.

There was nothing overtly sexual in the emails, but we assigned two reporters to find out more. We found the Louisiana page and talked with him.

..cut..

After ABC News broke the story on its website, someone contacted ABC and provided a detailed email exchange between Foley and at least one other page that was far different from what we had seen before. This was overtly sexual, not something Foley could dismiss as misinterpreted friendliness. That's what drove Foley to resign on Friday.

I hope this helps clarify a bit about what we knew and when we knew it.

Scott Montgomery

Government & Politics Edit

...little more at link...

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. Interesting

Apparently, the St. Pete Times actually knows who some of these pages are?

Seems to be more to this story then meets the eye?

[wakeme2008]

7. St. Pete Times is a GREAT newspaper

They have real reporters. Like the said they talked to the La boy.

Some reports

http://www.stpetetimes.com/2005/05/15/Business/A_pipeline_to_promise.shtml

And Susan Taylor Martin who travels the World reporting for the St. Pete Times

http://www.stpetetimes.com/columns/stm.shtml

http://www.sptimesphotos.com/blogs/hotspots/ (her Blog)

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. SPT is one of the few remaining

independent newspapers in the country. That's why I read them online every day.

However, that doesn't mean that someone didn't make a mistake or get told to back off on a story.

Even if their reasons for holding back are legitimate, this story proves that Foley's questionable behavior has been under scrutiny for a least year if not longer. If the press knew something was up, it sure makes it harder for the leadership in Congress to claim they just found out last week.

[wakeme2008]

12. Plus Susan Taylor Martin look cute in a Burga

Click link to see picture..

http://www.sptimes.com/News/100901/Columns/Rescued_from_an_angry.shtml

And only 25 cents on weekdays, Tampa residents pay 50 cents on Sundays :)

[soup]

13. Something else I just noticed,

This morning's article is from Anita Kumar, a name I've come to recognize from her articles on Harris.

>>My name is Anita Kumar and I am a reporter in the Washington bureau of the St. Petersburg Times, Florida's largest newspaper. I cover U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris as a member of Congress and a candidate for U.S. Senate in November.

I am interested in talking to any former or current staffers in her congressional or campaign offices or others who may know Congresswoman Harris. Please contact me at [e-mail] or 202-463-0576.
<<
http://sptimes.com/2006/ad.shtml

[soup]

5. St. Pete Times article this morning

>>To bolster his argument, Hastert refers to an editor’s note published on the St. Petersburg Times Web site Saturday that explains that the newspaper received copies of some of the e-mails to the Louisiana page in November 2005, but characterized them as “friendly chit-chat” and chose not to print a story about them after speaking to Foley.

But on Sunday night, St. Peterburg Times editors rebutted his statements.

“The speaker is inaccurate. Our decision not to publish last fall was not based on an explanation from Rep. Foley,’’ managing editor Stephen Buckley said.

“We didn’t publish because the Louisiana teenager’s parents did not want to pursue the issue, and because, despite our best efforts, we weren’t able to track down any pages who had received inappropriate e-mails from the congressman. We didn’t know about any sexually explicit exchanges between Rep. Foley and any former pages until the instant messages became public on Friday.”
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/10/01/State/FBI_launches_Foley_in.shtml

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. Looks like the coverup just expanded

Makes it a little harder for good ol' Denny to claim that he just found out recently.

[soup]

9. Scramble, scramble, scramble... CYA alert.

What a mess.

Who knew what and when is going to become very important in this. My inclination is to think that the Times wouldn't go along with a cover up. (but what do I know?)

I'm just trying to come up to speed on this - I had Foley confused with Feeney (doh!) -

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. Here's an easy way to tell them apart

Foley likes young boys, Feeney likes big boobs.

[soup]

14. Darn it, now you've really confused me,

I always thought Feeney was a big boob.

:rofl:

[JoDog]

19. From my experience

Working in journalism and a newspaper, this explaination from the SPT makes sense. In November, they had a 1 source story, and that source was not being cooperative. They also had access to just one set of the e-mails in this case. It appears that Foley was a lot more careful about what he said in e-mails than he was in online chats and instant messaging. The e-mails I've read are creepy, but not overtly sexual. It's the IM's that are nasty. He probably thought that such messages couldn't be saved and tracked down as easily as e-mail.

Running a 1 source story on a public figure is considered to be a big ethics no-no among professional journalists. It's risky because the people involved may be trying to make the newspaper a part of a personal vendetta and could pass you bad info. I saw a couple of instances like this at my former employer...scandalous info on a local official gets passed to a reporter, but the people involved don't want to talk about it or won't go on the record. So the info goes into the reporter's file on the politician in case another source decides to come forward later.

I wish the SPT had been able to run with the story in November. But because they contacted Hastert about it back then, we have hard evidence that the House leadership knew about the situation and did nothing. I hope the guy who's running against Hastert is able to go on the attack with this.

[soup]

20. Hi JoDog,

Thanks for your post. Makes sense to me.

Tricky business - getting a 'scoop' and facing the possibility of it (and future credibility as a reporter) going south, or getting it right.

Thank heavens there's always the Weekly World News - daring to go where none have gone before:

File it under politics - http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/features/politics/

NEW SECRET WEAPON FOR OUR TROOPS! IT'S PIXIE DUST -- AND IT DEFIES GRAVITY!
For years, the United States military has been exploring various ways of improving its arsenal. Only recently, however, did Weekly World News learn exclusively of the existence of a top-secret branch called the Magic Militia.
http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/features/politics/61725

Oye :eyes:

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. St. Pete Times has a great reputation among Democrats.

It is very pro-active on stories that interest open-minded people. Their archives were open to the public (in the past), for anyone who has time for a looksee.

[Coexist]

21. The St. Pete Times is a great paper

Period.