One small detail in an AP/Washington Post article of Feb. 10 has outed ABC News: the news network withheld a crucial detail in its reporting of the Andrew Young/John Edwards sex tape story.
The crucial detail? ABC News had already seen the now-infamous Edwards-Hunter sex tape before the interview — and then acted on-camera as if it hadn’t.
That crucial detail raises questions as to why ABC News purposely mislead both its viewers and readers of its website–essentially covering up its own coverage of a cover-up. This action was repeated in recent ABC interview of Young and corresponding news reports on Rielle Hunter’s restraining order regarding the sex tape.
On February 10th the Washington Post published an AP report on the Andrew Young contempt of court hearing in North Carolina. Titled “Ex-Edwards aide faces pressure after tell-all book,” the report focused on Rielle Hunter’s attorney’s “frustration” over Young changing his story on where the tapes were located.
The report also included one small, yet important detail in Young’s testimony. A detail, which so far, hasn’t been reported by ABC News: Young testified he’d shown the sex tape to ABC News “prior to an interview.”
The former Edwards confidant struggled to answer why he said last week that the only copies of the sex tape he had access to were in an Atlanta lockbox. He testified Wednesday that he also had a copy of the tape elsewhere and that he recently showed the video to ABC News in preparation for an interview.
On December 16, ABC News announced Andrew Young would give an exclusive interview to ABC News on the “Scandal that Brought Down a Presidential Candidate:”
Senator John Edwards’ former longtime aide and one of his most trusted friends Andrew Young will speak exclusively to ABC News Correspondent Bob Woodruff regarding his upcoming memoir, “The Politician,” an insider account of Edwards’ pursuit of the presidency and the scandal that brought him down. Young gained notoriety when he claimed to be the father of Rielle Hunter’s baby and then welcomed Hunter into the home he shared with his own wife and three children. Hunter turned out to be Edward’s mistress. Woodruff’s interview will air on “20/20” on Friday, January 29. George Stephanopoulos will interview Young in his first live appearance airing on “Good Morning America” on Tuesday, February 2.
On January 21, ABC released an excerpt of the interview which meant ABC News had, by now, seen the sex tape, courtesy of Young.
One day prior to the airing of the Woodruff interview on ABC’s 20/20, ABC News filed two reports, John Edwards Made Sex Tape, Abortion Plea, Aide Says, and, Ex-Edwards Mistress Tries to Block ‘Private and Personal’ Video.
In the first story, ABC News reported Hunter filed for a restraining order and included Young’s “guarantee” to ABC News the tape was Edwards and Hunter:
ABC News has learned that Hunter filed for a temporary restraining order that seeks to prohibit Andrew and Cheri Young from possessing and distributing photos or video that she contends are her property.
Young, who had worked for Edwards since his 1998 Senate win, said he was absolutely sure it was his boss in the tape.
In the later story, ABC News included both Andrew and Cheri Young’s “guarantee” that the tape was Hunter and Edwards. “There was one tape that was marked ‘special,'” Andrew Young told ABC News’ Bob Woodruff in an exclusive interview, describing his discovery of a tape in Hunter’s trash. “It’s a sex tape of Rielle and John Edwards made just a couple of months before the Iowa caucuses.”
Though Young never saw the woman’s face in the tape, he said she was “visibly pregnant” and was “wearing a bracelet” and a “thumb ring” typically worn by Rielle Hunter.
“It’s her jewelry,” Andrew Young’s wife, Cheri, told ABC News. “It could be on another woman with the same jewelry.”
The next day, the ABC “prove to us the tape is Hunter and Edwards” meme continued in the Bob Woodruff interview of Andrew and Cheri Young:
Woodruff: Are you absolutely sure this is John Edwards and Rielle Hunter?
Young: It’s definitely him. You never see her face. It’s a visibly pregnant woman. But you clearly see his face for a long time. And I can’t speak for the other body parts. But it’s definitely his face.
During the interview, the topic of ABC News’ already having seen the tape was never broached by either Woodruff or Young. Woodruff’s questioning of Young on whether the participants in the tape were Edwards and Hunter implied neither Woodruff or ABC News had seen the tape.
ABC continued using its “prove it to us” tactics in its later reports and interviews with Young.
On February 1, Young appeared live on ABC’s Good Morning with George Stephanopoulos. Stephanopolous started the interview with a report on Hunter’s restraining order and quickly asked Young “how he could be so sure the tape was of Edwards and Hunter.”
The same day the AP reported Young had testified ABC News had seen the tape, ABC News filed Elizabeth Edwards Threatens Husband’s Ex-Aide With Lawsuit. The report included the “bombshell” that Elizabeth Edwards had threatened to file an alienation of affection suit against Young.
ABC News omitted from the report Young’s testimony he’d shown the tape to ABC. Which leads back to: why did ABC cover up the fact they’d seen the tape?
Why engage in a cover-up when interviewing one of the principal players in a presidential election cover-up? Were the Young interviews contingent on verifying that the tape was legit?
Who in ABC News saw the tape? Were any of the reporters who repeatedly questioned Young about the details of the sex tape aware that the network had seen already seen it? If so, why didn’t they make that known to their viewers?
According to Young, he was fully aware ABC News had seen the tape. Did ABC News instruct Young to keep Woodruff and Stephanopolous, as well as their viewers, in the dark?
It’s seems farfetched that Woodruff would been kept out of the sex tape screening loop or that Stephanopoulos would have been kept in the dark if Woodruff knew. What is certain, viewers were mislead by ABC News. From the moment ABC News saw the tape they could, in each story on the sex tape, and in the interviews, cut out the middle man, Young, and informed their viewers: we’ve seen the tape, it exists, it’s real and yes, it’s Hunter and Young.
ABC heavily promoted its interviews with Young and his wife using sex tape blurbs. One understands that Andrew Young had a book to promote and was anxious for national publicity via ABC News. One also understands that ABC was anxious to promote its interviews with Young and it use of the sex tape to further that end.
But what was ABC’s motivation for keeping its viewers in the dark about having seen the sex tape? Was it a habit learned during the long months the network refused to cover the John Edwards Scandal during the 2008 campaign?
If not for Young’s testimony, we still wouldn’t know the truth–because ABC still hasn’t reported on it.
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