Reporter says magazine killed story in May,
2 newspapers had info from source 1 year ago
October 10, 2006
A Democratic operative shopped around the story of disgraced former congressman Mark Foley's inappropriate behavior with male pages more than one year ago, according to Harper's magazine.
In a story posted today on the weekly's website, reporter Ken Silverstein says that in May he received copies of the now-infamous e-mail exchanges between Foley and a 16-year-old page.
Silverstein said that one year ago his unnamed source provided the same material to the St. Petersburg Times and, he "presumes," the Miami Herald, which both decided against publishing the stories. The two papers already have acknowledged receiving copies of the e-mails ? the Times said it didn't run the story because the e-mails contained "nothing overtly sexual," and the boy and his family wouldn't speak on the record.
The Harper's reporter wrote a story after receiving the e-mails in May, but the magazine did not publish it, he said, "because we didn't have absolute proof that Foley was, as one editor put it, 'anything but creepy.'"
In the e-mails ? which were not sexually explicit but, nevertheless, troubled the teens' parents ? Foley requested a photograph and asked what the 16-year-old wanted for his birthday. Later, Foley's salacious instant-message exchanges with another teen prompted his resignation.
2006-10-10
11:29:02
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