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Enquirer Editor Denies ‘Retracting’ Story That Nobody Cared About Anyway

The National Enquirer may have nailed the John Edwards story, but it’s still not getting any respect from the mainstream media for its SHOCKING NEW REPORT about a supposed affair between Barack Obama and a campaign fund-raiser six years ago. The reason? There are no new revelations in the SHOCKING NEW REPORT that make the story any more credible than when the media looked into it and dismissed it during the presidential campaign. And then the story was deemed all the more dismissible because the Enquirer removed a claim that there is video evidence of the affair, which some outlets have labeled a “retraction.”

Sites who reported we ‘retracted’ our story over the weekend are incorrect,” said Enquirer Executive Editor Barry Levine in an email this morning. “How can you ‘retract’ a story we’ve never published in print in the first place?” Levine explains that “on Friday, our web editor picked up a great story from our sister publication Globe Magazine … On Saturday, we simply edited down his original posting. The video line [about investigators looking for security footage of the liaison] was cut out — but it had nothing to do with the info being wrong.” Later the video line was re-inserted, but with the caveat that no such tape may actually exist. Now it appears that all they have is a limo driver who says he drove the woman, Vera Baker, to a hotel where Barack Obama was present.

For the record though, if the allegations ever prove to be true, and the Obama marriage isn’t as perfect as it seems, we won’t believe in anything ever again.

Mainstream Journalist Mentions Vera Baker! [Marc Ambinder/Atlantic]

Enquirer Editor Denies ‘Retracting’ Story That Nobody Cared About Anyway