Can One Reporter Take Down a Presidential Candidate? ... overblown "controversies" over haricuts and real estate dealings

Can One Reporter Take Down a Presidential Candidate? John Solomon Is Trying to Find Out | By Alexander Zaitchik, AlterNet. Posted August 4, 2007.

The overblown "controversies" over John Edwards' $400 haircut, hedge fund work and real estate dealings are largely the product of one reporter at the Washington Post who hides his grudges behind "fair and balanced" journalism.
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If Solomon expected placement of the Torrenueva article in the news section, it's understandable. After all, one of his very first stories for the Post set a precedent for landing his petty and misfiring Edwards hit-jobs on A1. Back in January, fresh to the job, Solomon penned an article with Lois Romano that announced the sale of Edwards' Georgetown home for $5.2 million -- or $1.4 million more than he paid for it in 2002. Although practically dripping with innuendo that Edwards had been involved in a sleazy land deal with known criminals and then lied about it, the article noticeably failed to contain any dirt. The article basically reported that Edwards had bought a house in D.C.'s booming real estate market, fixed it up and sold it three years later for a profit. The banality of these facts did not stop Post editors from placing the article above the fold, alongside the latest news from Iraq.

A couple of weeks after Solomon reported on the unremarkable sale of Edwards' Georgetown mansion, Post ombudswoman Deborah Howell conceded that the story was controversial in the paper's own newsroom for being "accurate [but] misleading ... 'gotcha' without the 'gotcha.'" ...