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

[TrippyWeekender]

Want to guess how FOX News would have reacted if the Senator had been a Democrat?

[goodog]

FOX Noose would have sat on the Zodiac letters, if they thought they were written by a Republican.

[karela]

There have certainly been a lot of times when they rushed to report without verifying because they get it wrong most of the time. BTW, Fox is lying. They told somebody. It may have been some higher up Republican who then told Ensign, but they told somebody.

[pissedmichael]

Typical Fox. No ethics--no harm, no foul. What, who me? Stooges would be embarrassed.

[AuntieChrist]

The real question is, did FΟX in their zealotry to possibly set an example for anyone who may go to the press in the future with such news, expose their source to the extremists in the right wing?

http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/06/did-fox-news-out-a-source-to-protect-a-republican-senator/

[donia1970]

According to Fox - "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."

What in t h*ll does this mean? Doubletalk at its best. How can you state that no one alerted Ensign - then in the next sentence, state that "somebody" told the Senator something - but it wasn't us. Well HELLO - it was Fox that had the letter - sooooo, "somebody from Fox ALERTED him!

[notyouraveragebear]

Who cares where the story came from.

The story is true - Sen. Ensign is an adulterous liar. The only ones I feel anything for are his children.

[goodog]

Yeah!

His children...

...who ALSO got a sweet job out of the deal!

[pricespector]

What difference does it make? The story's out and Fox broke it. Nothing more, nothing less.

[donia1970]

..personally, I don't give a rats' a$$ about it - I simply hate HYPOCRITES!!!

[goodog]

"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."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw6LBbeXTww

"This... Is... HUGE!"

"Um... okay then... We certainly weren't going to rush to air with accusations against a sitting REPUBLICAN Senator..."

[MESGAIN26]

fox didn;t break the story they tried to cover it up (a) the first cable channel to know about the affair and (b) the last cable channel to report on it. Meanwhile, Ensign's office says he came forward after learning that Hampton contacted a national television network, which we now know is Fox

[JessWonderin]

"Fox broke it"???

wow, you outta change that channel more often . . . . Fox just sat on it long enough for Ensign to toss the half tube of KY and Viagra out . . . . and prep a "blackmail" defense.

[marthainmaine]

The NY Times sat on the wire tap story until after the 04 election. But that was ok...because they are sooo liberal and just protecting the country.

Let's face it . We have state media.

[nowThenzen]

yea ,,, maybe true, ugh

[sjones66]

way to falsely conflate two different things. The NYTImes did not tell the government officials that it had them and was going to expose them, giving them a chance to damage control first.

Hello?

[vote2009]

breaking: John Ensign takes offensive in affair drama. the senator will use all his power to attack the credibility of Hampton.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23952.html

[goodog]

"Doug Hampton took a job with Allegiant Air, a Las Vegas company whose CEO is a major Ensign supporter."

This notorious campaign supporter ought to declare Hampton's salary as the political contribution that it obviously is.

[shanester]

Another holier than thou Repug caught in a sex scandal.....wow! I'm shocked!

Horny bastards!!

[goodog]

"I love this country and considered it a great privilege to work in the US (sic) Senate. I am bringing this to you and Fox News to address this professionally and correctly."

Isn't it a shame that a man in THIS day and age has to preface his hope to ruin the rat who's been b@ngin' his wife with reassurance that he's doing it for his country instead of the commies?

What world? What a world.

[Travis bdboy]

Whoa whoa whoa......wait people.....i'ts just starting...I'm sure all the truth will come

out....and not out of Fixed News but the people that were involved...we have lots to

learn yet...keep your powder dry, this will be good... I already have the popcorn on

[goodog]

"The Ensign-backed Republican Renewal Project — a political action committee in Nevada launched on Ensign’s vision to rejuvenate the state’s Republican Party after Democratic gains — had been scheduled to host a fundraising barbecue Friday."

One wonders if they'll be serving any cooked goose or wait until later when it's really well done.

[LeftLeanWing]

""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."

Oh Really....

But they had no problem reporting a story about a Sitting Senator attending a Madrassa that they DID NOT do ANY due diligence.

[nk007]

Bravo Lefty! Its about time someone called FOX on its b.s. about wanting to do "due diligence" to this story. I also don't trust the claim that no one at FOX altered Sen. Ensign prompting him to pre-empt the story, thereby minimizing its impact, by confessing.

[DrDemon]

I believe them.... afterall, he's is a Repugnican !

[nastywolf]

Up until today's revelation that Ensign's been extorted by his former aide, I figured that the scandal is his personal problem and it shouldn't affect his senate position. But now, knowing that Ensign tried to cover up the extortion and lied to his constituents about it, he's proven to be a character too flawed to handle the responsibilities, powers & privileges of his office. Who's to know if he wouldn't trade off Senate votes under similar circumstances, in the future. He should resign, immediately.

[karmafriend]

After reading the letter to faux news, it looks like Ensign has been busy using his power as U.S. Senator to destroy the couple financially, by messing with any & all employment opportunities.

[karmafriend]

The key to the denial/lie: "Definitely no one on our editorial team called anyone in Senator Ensign's office prior to the announcement."

No one on the "editorial team", eh?

LOL

As soon as they got that letter it went straight to the top.

[nk007]

Karma,

You make a good point. By specifying the "editorial team," FOX left some wiggle room just in case information turns out that a FOX employee who may not be on "editorial team" altered the Senator.