Media Distorting Bauer Outing Story

It's pretty bizarre, and I can only conclude that reporters don't want to give legitimacy to the story by actually crediting activist and blogger Mike Rogers (who has a 100% track record), but media reports on the discussions of South Carolina's Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer's sexual orientation keep attributing the rumors to a smear campaign by embattled Republican Governor Mark Sanford and his allies.

Politico claims this and so does CNN and McClatchy. It's true that Republican State Senator Jake Knotts,an ally of Bauer, is charging that it's a smear campaign by Sandford. But the reporters doing these stories know full well that that is simply not true: The claims are emanating not from political opponents in South Carolina but from gay activist Mike Rogers, pointing to the hypocrisy of yet another right-wing Christian conservative politician.

These media outlets are not only distorting the story and downplaying what might be the truth of the rumors (by not attributing Rogers, who has always been right) but they are really helping to smear Sanford, since they know it's not him putting the rumors out there and yet push this idea. Don't they have a responsibility to get all the facts? Or are they afraid that they're then confirming it because it's Mike Rogers -- who was right about Larry Craig and others -- and they don't want to actually say that someone might be gay, which to them and their editors appears to be the worst thing imaginable? Whatever the reasons, it's distorting the news, and that's not journalism.