U.S. Senator Larry Craig, R-ID, proclaimed that he is not gay in a statement this afternoon from Idaho.

He’s up for reelection in November 2008. The sharks are circling Sen. Craig now as they smell blood. The democrats have some hope to win this seat now, but they still probably wish that Craig would not run because an open seat is easier to win then running against an incumbent.

Craig’s statement was less than 5 minutes. The pundits are talking and it will last for days. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and football player Michael Vick are taking a back seat today. For that, I believe they are thankful.

There was one part of Craig’s speech that stood out to me. He said, “For 8 months leading up to June, my family and I had been relentlessly and viciously harassed by the Idaho Statesman. If you’ve seen today’s paper, you know why. Still, without a shred of truth or evidence to the contrary, the Statesman has engaged in this witch hunt.”

So, being the inquisitive person I am, I read their story. You can read it HERE.

Journalism today is in the same toilet as politics.

As I have said before, in Washington it is all about winning the next election. By saying that I mean both political parties and those who hold office or want that office do not care who they destroy, what families they hurt, or who they take down as long as they win the election.

In journalism, it’s all about selling papers.

The Idaho Statesman wrote that they did an “investigation” into the rumors of Craig being gay. They contend they interviewed 300 people. For 300 people, the facts were slim and slim left town.

According to their story, they interviewed one man on tape, but would not disclose his name. He wished to remain anonymous, but they played the tape to Craig and his wife.
One blogger “cited anonymous sources” and the Idaho Statesman ran with his accusations.
One sentence was written like this, “Craig’s accuser spoke to the Statesman on the condition he not be named.”
One activist had information, but could not remember the two people’s last names that had information about Craig.
Of course at the end of the article former staff, his neighbors, and colleagues all said they have never seen any evidence that Craig was gay. Even one of his openly gay neighbors said he did not believe Craig was gay.

The Idaho Statesman might send Larry Craig a check for mentioning their newspaper on cable news. I’m sure their website is getting visited like never before.

So there we go (again) with unnamed sources and people wishing to remain anonymous. It is easier to throw stones from far away. It’s also just not poor journalism, it’s yellow journalism. This story reminds me of some I read during the 2006 elections from the major newspapers here in Montana. Nobody, whether it’s Bill Clinton, John Kerry, George Bush, or Larry Craig deserve to have stories written about them when their accusers won’t step forward and face the public and the questions we might have. If the source cannot be named, don’t write about it.

So is Larry Craig gay? I don’t know and I don’t really care. Is he a hypocrite? Maybe. Was he dumb to think the incident at the Minneapolis airport would never be uncovered? Yes. He will need to be held accountable for breaking the law by the ethics committee in the U.S. Senate and by the voters of Idaho.