In a previous post I questioned how the Foley sex allegations could have been out and about in political circles for a year before the media picked up on it. Well, it turns out the media did know about it and held off on printing the allegations.

There’s arguably an element of media bias here (the story broke suspiciously close to the elections, with the help of Foley’s opponent), but at the same time I have to credit the St. Petersburg Times for holding off on the story when reporters tried and failed to confirm it. The e-mails the paper received contained nothing overtly sexual, and the source who came forward did not want the Times to identify him in a story.

If only the Associated Press had the same sense of restraint when it came to juicy allegations against prominent Republicans.

Also on the Foley issue, Kerry Howley of Reason has a piece up taking a more moderate tone with the accusations. She points out that the exchanges included no physical contact, and that the age of consent in DC is 16. She also mentions the power disparity between members of Congress and pages, and that to me is where one of the main wrongs is. What Howley downplays, in my opinion wrongly, is the age disparity — most would agree an 18-year-old shouldn’t be criminally prosecuted for sex with a 16-year-old, but most would also say that anyone older than 20 or so should be.

Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com.

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