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March 22, 2007Edwards Out--NotBlogging and right-now-for-the-web journalism have their perils. While the political world was waiting to see what John and Elizabeth Edwards would say at their noon press conference on Thursday, The Politico, an hour before the event, went live with a scoop: Edwards to Suspend Campaign John Edwards is suspending his campaign for President, and may drop out completely, because his wife has suffered a recurrence of the cancer that sickened her in 2004, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, an Edwards friend told The Politico. "At a minimum he's going to suspend" the campaign, the source said. "Nobody knows precisely how serious her recurrence is. It'll be another couple of days before there's complete clarity." "For him right now he has one priority which is her health and the security of the two young children," said the friend. As for the campaign, "You don't shut this machine off completely, but everything will go on hold." UPDATE: Edwards staffers are pushing back very hard. "Anything you are getting from someone claiming to know right now is not true - anyone claiming to know something right now is making it up. There is no information from this campaign until John and Elizabeth speak at noon," says spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield. At the press conference, Edwards did not announce the suspension of his campaign. He and his wife, after providing details about the new outbreak of cancer within her rib, insisted that the campaign would go on. The Politico mis-scoop is no big deal. But it's a reminder of the truism that since most journalists are now able to post what they know (or think they know) immediately, there are more opportunities to get things wrong. Posted by David Corn at March 22, 2007 12:53 PM |
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"HUBRIS is a bold and provocative book that will quickly become an explosive part of the national debate on how we got involved in Iraq." --Tom Brokaw |
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