AP PHOTO/J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE
BEYOND HOOKERS,
HAMAS AND HAGEL
reported on March 4 that a female
escort in the Dominican Republic
admitted to lying when she claimed
to The Daily Caller that she had
had sex with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.). ABC News joined
the chorus the following morning,
revealing that Republican operatives had pushed them to cover the
Menendez story as well, including
helping to “arrange the woman’s
appearance, along with two additional women, in back-to-back, online interviews.” ABC News did not
publish, the network said, because
the three women couldn’t produce
HUFFINGTON
03.24.13
identity cards and appeared to
have been coached. The Huffington
Post later reported that three more
news organizations — the New York
Post, Star-Ledger (N.J.), and Politico — had been approached with
the Menedez claims by political
operatives and investigated them,
but did not find credible evidence
to merit a story.
The Caller, nevertheless, stood by
its story, saying that the prostitute
identified by the Post was not one
of the two it had previously tied to
Menendez and has since questioned
aspects of ABC’s reports. Matthew
Boyle, who reported the story for
the Caller, also pushed back early
Tuesday morning against the Post
Conservative
media
implicated
Sen. Robert
Menendez
(D-N.J.) in a
prostitution
scandal.