The headline from CBS.com on July 24, 2008 told the bleak story of the nation's largest newspaper chains. "NEWSPAPER PROFITS PLUMMET, FUTURE BLEAK", the headline read. Meanwhile, the future also looks increasingly challenging for national network and cable news as well, as more and more people decide to get their daily news from the Internet.

The fact is that an increasing number of people no longer trust the mainstream media. The reality is that after the primary campaign of John Edwards and the media's lack of any credible investigation and reporting into his now publicly acknowledged "affair", who can really blame them?

Certainly, the National Enquirer deserves credit for uncovering the Edwards story. In addition, citizen journalists from the Blogosphere worked hard to keep the story alive. Slate.com's Mickey Kaus analyzed the story and correctly outlined the mainstream media's political double standard that prevented it from accurately reporting and investigating the sordid matter.

But really, did you ever think that you would see the day when the National Enquirer would become the new national standard for investigative journalism? It is, in a word, shocking. However, it has now become a reality with the admission by John Edwards that he had an affair in 2006 with his novice film maker and former campaign employee.

The sad truth is that John Edwards was allowed by the mainstream media to run a 2008 primary election campaign based on personal integrity. A premise that was never challenged by them, despite abundant evidence to the contrary. He was depicted daily on the campaign trail as a supportive husband with a wife afflicted with cancer. He was a loving father. He had married his high school sweetheart and their marriage was deep, committed, and long lasting.

Of course, it was all a political fairy tale and the mainstream media knew it. What other conclusion can you come to based on the facts that are on display today? This sordid story contained all the loose ends that should have been tied together to ask the pertinent questions that would have led to an Edwards' admission of faulty personal judgment and adultery before August of 2008. An admission of the truth that would have resulted in his withdrawal from Election 2008 long before the first votes were even cast.

Just look back at the headline from the National Enquirer in early October of 2007, three months before the actual voting began in the Iowa Caucuses.. The National Enquirer's newspaper headline read: "PRESIDENTIAL CHEATING SCANDAL! ALLEGED AFFAIR COULD WRECK JOHN EDWARDS' CAMPAIGN BID". The article references sources and emails that were used as a basis for the paper's ongoing investigation.

Edwards would say at the time: “The story is false. It's completely untrue, ridiculous.” "I've been in love with the same woman for 30-plus years," Edwards added, “and as anybody who's been around us knows, she's an extraordinary human being, warm, loving, beautiful, sexy, and as good a person as I have ever known. So the story's just false."

Sadly, that was the end of it. Nobody from the mainstream media pursued the story or even reported it again. The only publication that would continue to investigate would be the National Enquirer. There were no questions concerning a child without a father's name on a birth certificate. There were no questions about an unemployed former female employee without any financial concerns. Certainly there were no media questions about a $150,000 a year young female film maker without a resume who worked on the Edwards campaign team. In fact, no questions at all from a compliant media until the truth became known last week.

As a result, there were no questions posed from the media on the matter during his entire primary election campaign. Thus, Edwards was allowed to continue his fairy tale campaign to a surprising second place finish in the Iowa Caucuses.

Indeed, the Iowa vote for John Edwards may have changed the final outcome in Election 2008 for Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and the entire nation. Edwards finished second in Iowa, just four points behind Barack Obama and one point in front of Hillary Clinton.

In retrospect, the importance of the vote in Iowa cannot be understated. For Barack Obama, Iowa was a victory that made him a serious national candidate. However, for Hillary Clinton, her third place finish would prove to be the end of her campaign of election inevitability.

The truth is that, without Edwards in the race as the ultimate family man, Iowa would have probably been a victory for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would not have gotten his subsequent springboard of media exposure. It was publicity that he would need to win crucial delegates in other primaries to remain ahead in a closely contested Democratic primary nomination with Hillary Clinton.

In addition, the strategy of the campaign of Senator Clinton was frontloaded. Her inevitability was based on victories in all of the early primaries. She put her campaign money into the early states and had no real campaign strategy for the later ones. Her third place finish in Iowa was really the beginning of the end of her Presidential campaign.

In criticizing the objectivity of the mainstream media, Bill Clinton called the media coverage of Barrack Obama, especially on the issue of the Iraq war, "the biggest fairy tale" that he had ever seen. It is now clear that he may well have been referring to the wrong Democratic Presidential candidate.

The John Edwards fairy tale campaign in Election 2008 highlights a mainstream media that is distinguished only by its ineptitude. In fact, it may have altered the Democratic primary process by a lack of investigative journalism, competence, and objectivity. The Presidential candidates and the entire American democratic process deserve far better.

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