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Paper Lacked 'Smoking Gun'

Past allegations were only printed after Minnesota bathroom incident came out

By Sam Gale Rosen,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 30, 2007 10:00 AM CDT

(Newser) – Howard Kurtz does a post-mortem of the Idaho Statesman's decision not to print the results of a major investigation into Larry Craig's past sexual misconduct until after the sentator's arrest for soliciting was made public this week. While the writer, Dan Popkey, admits to feeling Craig's pain, says he says the decision not to publish was a moral and journalistic one.  

The paper couldn't get corroboration on what the editor called a "he said/he said situation" in which the charges made by an individual against Craig were denied by Craig. "We were not going to line up the anonymous sources and put them against the senior senator," says Popkey. "They didn't find the smoking gun," an Idaho media professor tells Kurtz. Popkey, he adds, is  "probably the most courageous reporter in Idaho."

Senator Larry Craig, R-Idaho, right, accompanied by his wife Suzanne, left, approaches a podium, Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 28, 2007, in Boise, Idaho, where he spoke to reporters. Under fire from leaders of his own party, Larry Craig, accused of lewd conduct in a men's room, declared Tuesday, I am not...
Senator Larry Craig, R-Idaho, right, accompanied by his wife Suzanne, left, approaches a podium, Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 28, 2007, in Boise, Idaho, where he spoke to reporters. Under fire from leaders...   (Associated Press)
Idaho's Republican Senator Larry Craig speaks to the media Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007, in Boise, Idaho. Although Craig has accused local paper the Idaho Statesman of mounting a witch hunt against him, the decision to publish stories of the senator's indiscretion hinged on his own guilty plea, their only corroboration....
Idaho's Republican Senator Larry Craig speaks to the media Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007, in Boise, Idaho. Although Craig has accused local paper the Idaho Statesman of mounting a witch hunt against him, the...   (Associated Press)
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Craig responds to the Idaho Statesman's "witch hunt", as provoked by his own guilty plea.   (KXLY (YouTube))

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