A Note From the Editors

There still seems to be some confusion about the order of events related to our coverage of Rep. Mark Foley and his email exchanges with teenagers he met through the congressional page program. Let me try to clear this up.

In November of last year, we were given copies of an email exchange Foley had with a former page from Louisiana. Other news organizations later got them,too. The conversation in those emails was friendly chit-chat. Foley asked the boy about how he had come through Hurricane Katrina and about the boy's upcoming birthday. In one of those emails, Foley casually asked the teen to send him a "pic" of himself. Also among those emails was the page's exchange with a congressional staffer in the office of Rep. Alexander, who had been the teen's sponsor in the page program. The teen shared his exchange he'd had with Foley and asked the staffer if she thought Foley was out of bounds.

There was nothing overtly sexual in the emails, but we assigned two reporters to find out more. We found the Louisiana page and talked with him. He told us Foley's request for a photo made him uncomfortable so he never responded, but both he and his parents made clear we could not use his name if we wrote a story. We also found another page who was willing to go on the record, but his experience with Foley was different. He said Foley did send a few emails but never said anything in them that he found inappropriate. We tried to find other pages but had no luck. We spoke with Rep. Alexander, who said the boy's family didn't want it pursued, and Foley, who insisted he was merely trying to be friendly and never wanted to make the page uncomfortable.

So, what we had was a set of emails between Foley and a teenager, who wouldn't go on the record about how those emails made him feel. As we said in today's paper, our policy is that we don't make accusations against people using unnamed sources. And given the seriousness of what would be implied in a story, it was critical that we have complete confidence in our sourcing. After much discussion among top editors at the paper, we concluded that the information we had on Foley last November didn't meet our standard for publication. Evidently, other news organizations felt the same way.

Since that time, we revisited the question more than once, but never learned anything that changed our position. The Louisiana boy's emails broke into the open last weekend, when a blogger got copies and posted them online. Later that week, on Thursday, a news blog at the website of ABC News followed suit, with the addition of one new fact: Foley's Democratic opponent, Tim Mahoney, was on the record about the Louisiana boy's emails and was calling for an investigation. That's when we wrote our first story, for Friday's papers.

After ABC News broke the story on its website, someone contacted ABC and provided a detailed email exchange between Foley and at least one other page that was far different from what we had seen before. This was overtly sexual, not something Foley could dismiss as misinterpreted friendliness. That's what drove Foley to resign on Friday.

I hope this helps clarify a bit about what we knew and when we knew it.

Scott Montgomery

Government & Politics Editor

Comments

Thanks for the new information but don't you now have an obligation to print similar stories about Democrats and or their staff who (there is no doubt) solicited sex from underage students?

Grow up.

It's a shame Foley didn't run for Senate.

[September 30, 2006]

Re Scott Montgomery's editor's note: The Times never names minors victimized in possible sex crimes. Therefore, Mr. Montgomery's excuse for not publishing this story last year is false. As your government and politics editor admits, the parents didn't say the story wasn't true or ask that you not publish it - they merely asked you not to specifically identify their son if you did. The "Times" - by its inaction and lack of journalistic skill, follow through and courage - is as guilty, or inept, as House leadership in the institutional and possibly criminal coverup of Mr. Foley's commonly known-on-the-Hill behavior.

[Josh]

The sad fact is you knew about this a while ago and didn't report it.... even if just an accusation, you have a duty to report these types of things.

Moreover, the Congressional GOP, inlcuding the Speaker of the House, have A LOT of explaining to do. It has come out that the GOP knew of Foley's behavior "months" ago and that they did NOTHING about it. A GOP Congressman has gone on record stating he told the leadership about it. Why in the hell were they covering this up???????

Quite sad and I hope the Republicans get what's coming to them this November.

So in other words, the only reason this story really hit the paper in because MAHONEY who couldn't get himself arrested with regards to his Congresional aspirations, took the time and trouble to seek out the page with the innocent exchange and that shook the tree and out fell the very incriminating IM exchange.

Well, I wonder if this will actually earn Mahoney a seat in Congrtess. I hope not. Foley acted reprehensibly towards the page. Mahoney, also an adult who should know better actedjust as badly.

Where is the story about Foley being prosecuted? Who should file charges? The Attorney General? The State Attorney in Pensacola? Is this whole thing going to be covered up with an internal investigation that goes nowhere? SPT--are you saying that he still never broke any state or federal laws??

12:50 once again Bloggers bring the news to light and the MSM follows along

[J]

The sad part about this story is that if Mr. Foley is indeed a homosexual man (which has been a rumor in Florida and DC for many years), he will likely never be able to come out of the closet in fear of being labeled a pedophile. While I've never been much of a fan of Foley, I would never wish this type of scrutiny upon anyone. As a resident of Tequesta, and one of his constituients for the past twelve years, I believe that while I would like to see a Democrat take this seat, and it appears that Mahoney is going to pull out the big guns in an attempt to achieve this, Foley's congressional district is so gerrymandered in favor of the Republican party that I think both sides should take a step back as the proper authorities review accusations against Foley.

"As we said in today's paper, our policy is that we don't make accusations against people using unnamed sources."

WHY DIDN'T THEY JUST ASK FOLEY'S OFFICE IF THE EMAILS WERE REAL, THEN?

If he confirmed they were real, then you would have a named source: Mark Foley. Two reporters weren't able to figure this out?

And if they DID figure this out and you left that out of your timeline, then it's a shame that you would try to cover that up.

What you should have said is that the Times wasn't able to have a ridiculous "he said/he said" article unless the boy went on the record. The Times would have simply had to report the facts of the email exchange.

But journalism today means facts are irrelevant and not newsworthy. Instead, we get accusations and rebuttals.

As we've seen in that case, that has serious real-world consequences. In this case, it involves the safety of children.

Well, at least he didn't kill anyone. I think the victims may recover in time.

Florida is a pretty strange place when the conservatives strike back in such an ugly manner - such as saying that there 'must be' democrats doing the same thing.

Oh yeah, and your reporters blew it and you guys know it.

[anonymous]

interesting point about msm vs. bloggers. note that abc never actually broadcast the story. web only

What's sad is that’s these boy were hit on by someone in power, someone who was as old as there father's. What sad is that people feel bad for Foley that nasty fuk.
What's sad is that Jeb Bush is not out making a statement. I just hope Jeb doesn’t handle this like the way he’s handled the case with that poor kid who was killed in that boot camp by those cops.
What's sad is that Charlie Crist hasn't said anything it in public yet. I ‘m a Crist supported
What's sad is nobody is defending these kids.
What's sad that people are saying he was great and will be greatly missed?
If worked next to this guy for 14 years and this came out, I wouldn't miss him at all.
It’s time to stop protecting these guys from the public but protect the public from these guys.
Charlie you better say something fast or your going to lose all credibility

that isn't true at all 1:33 - it was the opening story on the 6pm national broadcast.

[zenator]

Mahoney definitely released the e-mails as demonstrated by the immediate issuance of his press release, which was already written and ready to go the minute the story broke.

Mahoney got lucky when the story got circulation and a lot of other stuff started coming out.

As stated earlier, the SPT should be commended not criticized. It made the right call based upon what it knew at that time.

145,

Mark Foley was a sicko who deserves what he gets. Get over yourselves in tying this to republicans and Crist. ALl of the false allegations about reps knowing it a long time ago came from the far left smear sites. Pelosi gets her talking points from there, and thus wants an investigation. Nothing will happen from it.

Governor Crist will be great for our state. He is up 10 points avg, and the longer people gripe and moan about this sick disgusting freak Foley, the longer Crist holds his lead.

All the better for us GOP's, especially since the cabinet races have the GOP leading as well, but by less points.

I'm a moderate guy, but Hastert knew about the info that led the press to Foley's child predator status (within 24 hours) 11 months ago! The leadership knew enough about Foley to warn the pages about him. Why no investigation??
Maybe it's time to talk about Hastert and our Republican legislators CODDLING CHILD PREDATORS!

Foley is sick, sick, sick, sick. They need to lock this guy up and throw away the key. I dont think however this is a good thing for Mahoney, people are disgusted by this and any name in the mix to directly "benefit" will also turn people off. Negron will win the seat as his name recognition is even higher than Mahoney in this district.

[S.]

Reading the original post, I see that the reporters did contact Foley's office (as I had assumed, but missed when I originally read the post).

This opens up a large number of questions, which I hope will be addressed on the Buzz.

1. Why do you claim that the content of the emails were only "allegations?" It would be factual, not simply "allegations," that the emails took place and the content that was inside of them.

2. You stated, "And given the seriousness of what would be implied in a story, it was critical that we have complete confidence in our sourcing." Why couldn't you report on the facts of the email without "implying" anything. Why couldn't you report the facts of the email and let the people decide for themselves? If there was nothing overtly sexual in the original emails, as you claim, why would something sexual be implied in a story that stuck to the facts of the content of the email?

3. Why did you feel the need to have a "he said/he said" story, as opposed to a story that simply reported the facts of the email's contents that were not even disputed? If it was not disputed what was said, why not just report that? You would have an on-the-record source for those facts: Mark Foley, who didn't deny writing the emails. Since you would have that on-the-record source (Foley), why wouldn't you have confidence in your sourcing?

4. Did the reporters ask the body that investigates these things in the House if they were persuing the matter? If not, why? If so, what did they say?

Other questions:

1. Ginny Brown-Waite said, according to the Buzz, that Friday morning the FL GOP asked Foley to drop out. This was BEFORE revelations came out about the instant messages. It was simply based off of "news reports" about the emails, according to her claims to the Buzz. Did they think the emails alone were so serious that Foley should drop out? If so, then shouldn't they have told him to leave Congress when GOP House leaders first found out about this almost a year ago?

2. When did the Florida GOP House members first find out about any of these emails?

3. What action did they take when they found out?

4. Exactly when did they find out about the instant messages? Did they call for Foley to leave office before or only after they found out about the instant messages?

5. If they only asked him to leave afterwards, then that means either:

5a) Ginny Brown-Waite lied to reporters about telling him to leave Friday morning, or
5b) They had inside information, either about the instant messages or about other problems that he has had with pages that they knew would be coming forward, BEFORE the instant messages were reported to the press. If this is the case, why didn't they come forward with this information beforehand, given that it might have protected children? When did they first become aware?

6. Was anybody in the FL GOP, including Republican members of Congress, aware of anything surrounding this before Friday? This includes knowing about the old emails, but also knowing about complaints, knowing about rumors, knowing that the page board warned pages about Foley, or anything else.

What did they know and when did they know it? These are the questions that I hope are being asked high up at the Times.

So, does the Republican leadership stand with children or the pedophiles?

[Larry Lopez]

So, the reporters didn't confront Foley?

The reporters didn't ask other Congresspeople, including the chairman AND ranking minority member of the committee that oversees pages? (No one in Congres ever leaks anything, do they?)

The reporters couldn't find other pages? (How much you wanna bet every page's hometown paper had a blurb on their kid's appointment? - Ever hear of Lexis, Factiva or Dialog newspaper databases?)

Are your reporters really this incompetent? My high school paper was better than this.

I think the kids ned defending from all sorts of predators:

Predators who engage them in explicit sexual conversation on e-mail;

2) Predators who seek them out so they can get a news angle that will boost a failing Congressional bid...

Mahoney is too reprehensible to elect to Congress. Foley is out, replace him with
ANYONE BUT MAHONEY.

a question for the spt editors:

if my teenage duaghter was the victim of a sexual preditor are you telling me that you would not report the story if you couldnt use her name? correct me if i am wrong but you never use the victims name in cases such as these. ie. why didnt you print the name of the teenage boy that debra lafarve abused? you wrote plenty of stories about that case and never discolsed the tenns name.

you guys are worse at this spin game than any 2 bit politician i have ever met on any level! first you put out a 1 paragraph statement that was total bs and then once bloggers called you on it and pressured you as you pressure politicians when you feel you are being spun then, due to the pressue, you release a longer statement that is still a pitifull attempt at damage control.

allow me to help you out. rule number 1 in damage control is to get EVERYTHING out and on the table as quickly as possible so that the life of the story is shortened. you guys still havent figured that out and it is obvious that you think your readers are idiots! well quess what, we are not idiots. we know when we are being spun, be it by a politician, used car salesman or newspaper reporter and you are trying to spin us now.

when i was coming up in business a very smart man told me that you can't fight the press because they buy ink by the ton and always get the last word. well, internet blogs have changed that equation now and you need to wake up and realize this fact. you might still buy ink by the ton, but you no longer get the last word!! now you get what you deserve! shame on you and the yellow journalism you practice!

your first two attempts at an explination were an amatuer attemp at spin. the third times the charm though so when you release your next statement please give us full disclosure and the full truth. and while you are at it, why dont you practice what you preach: full disclosure of the facts!!

one last free peicce of advice: why dont you open your internal email and hard copy files for public inspection so we can determine for ourselves if you are telling the truth. that is if your plummers havent already vacuumed the files.

spt editors:

how does it feel to be on the other side of a feeding freenzy? usually you are the sharks circling in the bloody water but now the tables are reversed and you have not handled the pressure well. you are stumbling through this feeding freenzy worse than any d rate politician.
its a shame. i have lost all respect for your paper.

Why on Earth are you beating up the SPT?

Your anger should be Directed at the GOP run Congress that KNEW about this 11 Months ago!!! I withheld the info! Protecting the Child predator & allowing him to continue to hold a position of POWER!!!

I for one am disgusted & appalled by the ENTIRE Republican Party!!!

Should have read AND withheld the info not "I".... Typo

perhaps if the Times would have went with the original story like ABC did, they would have gotten those e-mails a year ago. I certainly hope no other child was harmed in the last year.

the times protected foley, everyone knows it

why are we beating up the spt? are you serious? how can you ever read another article that the print and believe what they say? foley is a sick perv who should be proscecuted. any members of congress who knew and covered it up should be proscecuted.

your rant againt the entire gop is stupid and illogical. lets see, rep jefferson, a dem, got caught with $100,000 in cash in his freezer, does that mean all dem's are guilty of bridery and extorsion? or rep trauficant, a dem, who ran for re-election from his prison cell, does that mean all dem's are convicts? clinton cheated on his wife and had oral sex with a young intern half his age, does that mean all dem's are having oral sex with their young interns?

anyone from either party who has broken the law or aided after the fact should be prosceuted but you are either a whacko, stupid, or blind if you cant see that individuals in BOTH parties are corrupt peices of garbage. just because some from a party are scum doesnt mean that all in that party are scum.

no-nothing idiots!

Well, we know that a year ago the SPT had questionable e-mails to an underage page from the Chair of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus.

Did anyone ask the Congressman if he made a habit of exchanging e-mails, friendly or not, with underage pages of other Congressmen?

The Times sat on the story. By doing so and allowing the status quo to continue up till this point, there's a real possibility that the SPT has handed the Congress to the Democrats. Especially if the majority is one seat and the Congressman in it is Mahoney.

yeah, but most tough on crime republicans are hypocrits

4;13 - Heres a rant for you the GOP is corrupt!! Read on:

Corrupt Republicans in the House have assinged a child abuser (Foley) to be on a the Child Abuse Committee. isn't it only fitting that the GOP has assigned the Foley matter to the Ethics Committee, Chaired by none other than the ethically challenged Tom Davis.

The same Tom Davis who is a member of the Abramoff 65. The same Tom Davis who is investigating Abramoff. The same Tom Davis that has so far protected fellow Republicans from the full light of a real investigation. The same Tom Davis who works hand in hand with his "lobbyist" wife. The same Tom Davis we can count on to protect the GOP culture of corruption. The same Tom Davis has now been given the assignment to protect the GOP from child abuse charges.

GOP corruption.. protectiong our young....

Vote Democrat in November!

3:53

i take it you are a dem from your posting. and building on the posting of 4:13 i guess that means your have 100 grand in your freezer, are an ex con guilty of bribery and extorsion, you cheat on your spose, and have sexual relationships with people half your age right? you paint all the gop with the same brush as the scumbag foley so we can paint you with the same brush as the dems that 4:13 listed(and others not listed) right? i guess it all started going badly for you when you had your car accident years ago from driving drunk like both kennedys? 4:13 is right, you are an idiot!

you are the only idoit I see here 4:18

go educate yourself on your party will you!

4:17

remember abscam and the house banking debacale? i guess that all dems cash checks that they know they dont have the money in the bank to cover right? how many dem congressman covered up corruption when they were in charge? ALOT! remember that it even brought down the dem speaker. my point is that if you think the dems are perfect little angles and the gop are all corrupt devils then you live in fantasy land. both parties are corrupt. both parties have proven it. the differance is that i am a life long goper that can admit that both my own gop AND the dems are corrupt and power hungry. can you admit the same to yourself or are you so gullible that you think the dems are all good and only gop politicians are bad?

4:18 brain washed?
Sean Hannitize you?

LOL!! GOP Party of Corruption!!!
Get a Clue!

4:19

educate yourself on your party first and then we can have an honest conversation. can you do that? probably not so i quess we will continue to put up with your hot air!

ever notice that whenever a republican is in trouble you hear about ted kennedy?

so sad.

ever notice that whenever a republican is in trouble you hear about ted kennedy?

so sad.

Every one knows that most reporters are simply put LAZY about researching facts. Here for exmaple is a rumor that a hard working reporter can verify, there is RUMOR that Pitts and Lee were PAID for their miraculous conversion, the rumor number is 10K each, now lets see if a hard working smart reporter will go get the facts.

4:19

educate yourself on your party first and then we can have an honest conversation. can you do that? probably not so i quess we will continue to put up with your hot air!

Every one knows that most reporters are simply put LAZY about researching facts. Here for exmaple is a rumor that a hard working reporter can verify, there is RUMOR that Pitts and Lee were PAID for their miraculous conversion, the rumor number is 10K each, now lets see if a hard working smart reporter will go get the facts.

429

wrong kennedy. not ted but REP Kennedy. you know the one that wrecked his car into the capitol last year while driving drunk? i guess that means all dems drive drunk right?

I never admitted to being a Dem... You on the other hand admitted to being a LONG time GOPer... Perv supporter...

I can promise you I know far more than you do about the criminal party you belong to.

I know GOPERS "Create thier own reality" This is a KKKarl Rove ideal...
Held dear to our current squater in the the WH, Heir Shrub...

Mission Accomplished!!!

Zig Heil GOPer's!!!

Everyone knows that most reporters are simply put LAZY about researching facts. Here for example is a rumor that a hard working reporter can verify, there is RUMOR that Pitts and Lee were PAID for their miraculous conversion, the rumor number is 10K each, now lets see if a hard working smart reporter will go get the facts.

4:25 so what your saying is its ok if we are corrupt because the Dems did it too?

You are one sick pup! Know wonder you support the current GOP corruption...

**Sigh**.. what a Loser...

4:34 since it was the Democrats that created the KKK in 1866 in Tennessee, you should ask your current sitting DEMOCRATIC Senator Robert Byrd of WV, a former VP of the KKK, how many crosses he burned in peoples yard and to name some of his former KKK friends and what he did, I'm sure Byrd didn't get to become a "grand kugle" in the KKK by sitting on his rear. That would be an interesting story that American should learn about, Maybe the SP Time can run a series on "Democrat Senator Byrd the KKK years".

437

that is not at all what i am saying. let me be clear and put it on first grade level for you dems:
1. floey is a sick perv. he should be prosecuted

2. anyone who knew about it and covered it up should be prosecuted for accesery after the fact

3. saying all who are registered in the gop are corrupt pervs is like saying all dems cheat on their spouse(clinton) and are guilty of bridery and extorsion (rep jefferson) and drive drunk(rep kennedy not sen kennedy).

4. i am not making an excuse for the actions of those within my party but dems seem to believe that dems are perfect angels.

5. i take plenty of shots at my own party because i can honestly say that many are corrupt pieces of garbage but the same hold true for many dems. the differance is that you dems cant(or wont) look critically and honestly about your own party too

6. for the record, i am a goldwater-regan republican who has never supported a bush and never will because they are destroying, or have already destroyed the party that goldwater-regan built.