Bayh may be the guy

By Jennifer J. Foster

Politico quotes the Nashville (Tenn.) Post in reporting that senior officials of Barack Obama’s campaign “are being dispatched from various locations around the country and are converging in Indianapolis for a ‘major event’ to take place on Sunday.”

Indianapolis, as in Indiana, as in home to Evan Bayh.

Obama’s overnighting with Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine in Richmond tonight, leading to more speculation about what that may mean for the completion of the ticket. But it may be time to set the egg timer on this subject: Politico says Newsweek’s Howard Fineman is reporting that the VP prospects have been asked where they can be reached tomorrow afternoon.

Check out the Politico article, with a link to the Post article, here.

Out of curiosity, how many of you out there have signed up to receive Obama’s text message about the VP?

Thursday?

By Jennifer J. Foster

Well, we’re standing on Thursday’s front step ... do you think Barack Obama’s running mate will be announced tomorrow?

He needs some sort of pick-me-up; his poll numbers aren’t trending in the directions his supporters would like to see them go.

What VP prospect did you take in your office pool or among your friends? Who’ve you got your money on?

For what it’s worth, RealClearPolitics reports that Air America listeners (yes, plural) are evenly split in their predictions that Obama will pick either Joe Biden or Evan Bayh.

See also:

Poll shows McCain in 5-point lead over Obama

Who needs a name when you can just be ‘Anonymous?‘

By Jennifer J. Foster

If you’re a regular reader of this space, chances are you know that I’m no fan of anonymous sources in traditional media.

(Tabloids, as we—and John Edwards—have learned over the past few months, are a different animal entirely. Paying sources for information opens an entirely new can of worms; money can be an incentive and a disincentive when it comes to getting the truth.)

But I digress.

Today’s example of anonymous-sourcing-leads-to-sloppy-reporting is the traditional media’s handling of the news of the untimely death of U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio.

Jones suffered an aneurysm on Tuesday. She was hospitalized. Many traditional media outlets—including the Associated Press, CNN, Fox, the web site for the Washington Post and even Tubbs Jones’ hometown paper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer —reported early Wednesday afternoon that she had died, based on information from “various Democratic officials who spoke on condition of anonymity,“ according to the AP.

Only one problem with that: She hadn’t. She was in critical condition, but she was still alive.

So the news orgs published a corrected article based on information provided by medical officials at the hospital where Tubbs Jones was being treated.

And by the time people were starting to come around to the realization that Tubbs Jones had, in fact, not died, she had.

So the press had to run with the original versions of their stories. And people were left to wonder whether it was just the latest example of sloppy journalism run amok, or if Tubbs Jones really was alive.

This AP article details how the story became a murky, muddled mess: It’s an anonymous source finger-pointing fest.

But no one in the mainstream media seems willing to point the finger at the man (or woman) in the mirror, even though they could have avoided all this confusion (and those annoying and ego-busting corrections) had they simply insisted on getting the report of Tubbs Jones’ death on the record before they reported it as fact.

(The old timers used to call that cumbersome, outdated and redundant process “reporting.“)

And that’s how the story about the Tubbs Jones story came to be its own AP story.

One more note: Those “various Democratic officials who spoke on condition of anonymity” were never identified—even in the story about the story that ended up not being true.

Ah, irony: You wield a bitter sword.

See also:

McCain-Huckabee?

Jessica Yellin’s record

More on Edwards

By Jennifer J. Foster

John Edwards may have publicly admitted to his extramarital affair with Rielle Hunter. But after chasing the story for nearly a year and being repeatedly referred to as “tabloid trash” by the man who ended up admitting his denials were all lies, the National Enquirer isn’t anywhere close to being finished with the story.

The Enquirer offers new details about Edwards’ relationship with Rielle Hunter and the concerted effort his supporters made to keep her out of the public eye as he prepared to appear on national TV recently to address the Enquirer’s reports. To read the story, which leads the Sept. 1 issue, click here.

It is a no-brainer what’s going on here: The Enquirer is trying to goad and bait Edwards into filing a libel lawsuit against the tabloid. As any good journalist knows, the best defense against libel is the truth; to disprove the Enquirer’s claims, Edwards would have to demonstrate that what the Enquirer said about him—that he is the father of Hunter’s baby—is false.

And that’s how the Enquirer would get the DNA test it’s been trying to arrange for months.

So, for all his huffing and puffing and self-righteous indignation about the “tabloid trash,“ don’t expect Edwards to be filing any libel lawsuits against the National Enquirer.

Discovery is a two-way street.

Stupidity can be dangerous

By Jennifer J. Foster

We’ve been having fun with the gene pool monitor stories lately, but two stories in the news today illustrate that stupidity is not always a laughing matter. Being stupid can get you seriously hurt—or worse.

You’ve probably heard about the fellow in Florida who decided to turn Tropical Storm Fay into a kitesurfing opportunity. Unfortunately, Kevin Kearney realized too late that he was making a mistake. He couldn’t get his harness unhooked before the winds slammed him on to the beach and then jerked him back up into the air—and into the side of a nearby building.

If you haven’t seen the video, you can check it out here. It is difficult to watch.

Kevin Kearney is in critical condition. But he fared better than Tyree Monique Tate.

Tate, 26, of Delta Township, Mich., was with her sister at a TJ Maxx Monday when they were confronted by a store security agent who accused the pair of shoplifting. One or both of the women sprayed pepper spray in his face, and the two ran from the store. Tate’s sister was found hiding near a trash compactor at a nearby Goodwill store, but she told authorities she “barely knew” the woman who had been with her, and she only knew her by her street name, “Diamond.“ She refused to tell authorities where Tate was hiding.

As it turned out, they found out without her help—when they got a call about a woman who was heard screaming from inside the trash compactor.

Authorities arrived and extricated Tate from the machine, which had been turned on after Tate jumped in. She was taken to the hospital, but it was too late: She died Tuesday of “multiple crush injuries.“

A law enforcement official said the two were suspected of trying to steal less than $500 worth of children’s clothing.

“It was a fairly minor crime with a fairly major consequence,“ the undersheriff said.

Certainly Tate and her sister believed Tate’s life was worth more than a couple of hundred dollars’ worth of clothes.

But that is what they traded it for.

And what of the children for whom Tate and her sister were allegedly trying to steal those clothes? If they were Tate’s sister’s, they will now grow up without an aunt; if they were Tate’s own, they face life without their mother.

Stupidity: It can be dangerous.

Don’t let it happen to you.