Fox News Denies Report: We Didn't Force Ensign To Admit Affair

Fox New is denying claims that Doug Hampton — whose wife Cynthia is the other woman in Senator John Ensign's sex scandal — sent the network a letter pleading for help exposing the affair five days before the Senator announced it in a press conference and that Ensign came forward with the affair because he knew Fox was working on the story.

The Las Vegas Sun reported Friday that Hampton sent Fox News' Megyn Kelly a two-page, single-spaced letter dated June 11 detailing the affair and asking for help in exposing the Senator. The Senator came forward with the affair on June 16 — in part, a spokesman told the Sun, because his office had learned that Hampton approached "a major television news channel."

"We learned of this fact before the news conference," the spokesman told the Sun.

Tom Lowell, senior producer of "America's Newsroom," hosted by Kelly and Bill Hemmer, says no one at Fox News ever received a printed letter, but that a booker on the show received an email from Hampton with the letter attached on June 15 — the day before the Senator's press conference.

"We never received any letter from Mr. Hampton," Lowell told the Huffington Post. "He might have sent it, but we never received it. He did reach out to us about 24 hours before the news conference, and he sent an e-mail to a booker on my staff."

Lowell said that a member of his editorial staff followed up with Hampton that day.

"We followed up with him, but he seemed evasive and not credible, thus we didn't pursue it," he said. "We certainly weren't going to rush to air with accusations against a sitting Senator without doing due diligence on the reputability of the claims.

"We always evaluate people when they call into the newsroom in terms of: does this sound like its solid? Does it sound like its actionable?" Lowell said. "There were some questions here, so we decided that we would make some inquiries but that it wasn't something we needed to move on immediately. And before we could nail everything down and confirm this story the Senator had already announced his press conference.

"We get hundreds and hundreds of items a week," he added. "They could be requests for help, please look into this, I think someone did this...we have to filter all that. Clearly this guy had a story to tell and we just didn't get to it before the Senator got to it."

Lowell also stated emphatically that no one at Fox News reached out to the Senator to alert him about the story.

"I know there are people asking if we alerted the senator," Lowell said. "Definitely no one on our editorial team called anyone in Senator Ensign's office prior to the announcement. We just hadn't gotten to that point of confirming the story yet. Somehow, somebody told the Senator something and I don't know how that happened. But I categorically deny that we ever reached out to the senator in any way shape or form prior to him making his announcement."

Ensign spokesman Tory Mazzola could not be reached for comment Friday morning.

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Comments

[Lizard49]

Maybe he should have used double-spacing.

[dax49]

i said last week that the last thing fox would ever do was profile a republican's affair- they put him on speed dial when they got the letter. their denial ranks right up there with " the check is in the mail"

[onepotatotwopotato]

So the next time that you require surgery for a serious medical condition will you make sure that your surgeon has never cheated on his wife or with another's wife?

[Aimleft]

Meaning exactly what?

Look, no one denies that this kind of thing is normally not really anyone's business. The point here is the hypocracy of the hysterical "right." The party of "family values." The ones who wanted to impeach Clinton for HIS escapades.

So get off your high horse. This isn't about poking our business into other peoples' lives. It's about exposing the absolute hypocracy of those who do.

[highflag]

"We certainly weren't going to rush to air with accusations against a sitting Senator without doing due diligence on the reputability of the claims".

That pronouncement got an audible laugh out of me. Retry the same set of circumstances with the subject in question be say Sen. Boxer, or Schumer and watch how fast they go to air with it.

This is the network that lends legitimacy to the "Birther" movement.

[progressivelady]

He used tax payers dollars to keep it hush when that ran out and he had to use hes own money thats when he had to speak up he had to protect what was hes, a greedy hypocrit who preaches the babble but does not practice it himself

[Madmac]

Fox news: "We Didn't Force Ensign To Admit Affair" That's the stuff we cover up...

[JessWonderin]

"Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma " KNEW about it for EIGHTEEN MONTHS!!!!

Seems those fine Oaies have no problem supporting hypocrisy . . . and WHEN will we be hearing "John Ensigns RESIGNS"??? . . . or is THAT demand only made for DEMOCRATS or "tap dancing"?

In time we will get the sappy press conference with forgiving wife, preacher and Republican "colleages" gathered asking God to forgive him and let's get on with keepin' the promise to attack gays and Democrats' personal bedroom behavior . . . .

Isn't paying your boinkee salary from government funds a CRIME??????

[justice11]

SOMEONE NEEDS TO GO TO GRETAWIRE AND SEE WHAT SHE'S POSTING ABOUT THE LEFT NOW! WE'RE BEING CALLED SMALL AND PIGS BY HER NOW! THIS IS REALLY GETTING BAD!!

[justice11]

LOOK AT THIS POST GRETA VAN SUSTEREN HAS ON HER BLOGSITE! THE LEFT IS KNOW BEING ACCUSED OF BEING SMALL AND ARE NOW PIGS! SHE WANTS HER FOLLOWERS TO SHAME US NOW! HOW UNPROFESSIONAL IS THIS? I THINK THIS WOMAN NEEDS TO GO BACK TO HER PREVIOUS PROFESSION!!! REALLY! You all know that I am a big advocate of the First Amendment and that advocacy has led to the struggle for me to keep this an open forum. I hate it when people are nasty but I also know the dangers in taking away free speech. Yes, people have a First Amendment right to be small. I rely on you all to help with your comments and shame the pigs who show up and post. You know who the pigs are. They are obvious. And yes, the First Amendment is not absolute (you can't falsely yell fire in a crowded theatre.)

[albar]

Fair and balanced lies.....what else is new

[army193]

Senator Ensign goes on TV to admit to affair on June 16th, Letter sent on the 11th and Aid to Ensign admits to knowing of letter. Did Fox News tip off the Politician for favor rather than report a breaking story against a Republican?

Thursday, June 11, 2009
Fox News- Corporate Office
1211 Avenue of the America’s (sic)
New York, New York 10036

Megyn Kelly,

More than any time in my life I understand why people take matters into their own hands. I am disheartened! I have sought wise counsel, tried to do the right thing and continue to run into road blocks (sic) in dealing with a very terrible circumstance and injustice that lives in my life. I am hoping you and Fox News can help.

My name is Doug Hampton. I am a former employee of US (sic) Senator John Ensign. I worked for Senator Ensign in his official government office on Capitol Hill from November 2006 to April 2008. My responsibilities were the oversight of his personnel in Washington as well as the state of Nevada. Duties included budgets, policy and public speaking on behalf of the Senator and his initiatives.

read the full letter here: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jun/19/text-husbands-letter/

[Jaladeno]

Has Fox referred to Ensign as a "D" yet? They mislabeled Larry Craig as a "D" often while he was attempting to explain his Mr. Bojangles routine in the latrine.

[sasidechick]

they do that all the time. we know WHY they are doing it but you would think since they are a supposed NEWS organization, they would get the FACTS correct----but it is Fox, after all.

[carpdd]

BREAKING NEWS ! Fox news actually claims that they do some fact checking before airing a story. There does not seem to be any evidence of this at this time. Stay tuned.

[mattwin]

Funny Fox thought the liar was telling the truth and the person telling the truth was lying. Great investigative reporters.

[RaderBarbarian]

"Somehow, somebody told the Senator something and I don't know how that happened." Okay. Yeah. We get it. It's called "deniability," right? I read about that some place. You guys at Faux are really, really smart. No one will believe you tipped the Senator off, I am sure, after reading this!