Let's start with the MSM's complicity in this. The NYT (registration required) details how the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald both sat on the story until after it was broken by ABC News. The parochialism of both papers is astounding; in each case, they acknowledge making a judgment about the activities instead of allowing readers to decide for themselves:
“We determined after discussion among several senior editors, including myself, that the content of the messages was too ambiguous to lead to a news story,†Fiedler said in the Herald.
The Times' Bill Adair wrote: "The Times and other news organizations did not publish their stories
because reporters and editors found insufficient evidence of
wrongdoing. But the reporters' calls had alerted Republican lawmakers,
who now say they moved quickly to investigate the matter."
So, newspaper editors are judge, jury and executioner. No room for the reader in this equation. And then there is the fact that as editors deemed the e-mails not newsworthy, 
House Republican leaders deemed the matter troubling enough to launch immediate investigations internally (even if they eventually did nothing about them beyond asking Foley to stop contacting pages).
There's more MSM blame to throw around in Florida: The Palm Beach Post has not said it received the original e-mails back in November 2005, but it is guilty of dissembling about Foley's homosexuality and covering it up, according to Bob Norman of New Times in Broward/Palm Beach.
Then there's the trouble for the GOP leadership. The conservative Washington Times called for House Speaker Dennis Hastert to resign in the wake of revelations that he knew about the e-mails for some time without taking appropriate action. "The matter wasn't pursued aggressively," the conservative daily wrote. Oh, and more delicious irony: Hastert used the newspapers' inaction on the story to justify his own inaction.
Finally, there's Foley himself. The blogosphere is abuzz with speculation that the former congressman might be undergoing Scientology rehab, since the fax he sent about his alcohol rehab came from a Clearwater telephone number and Foley has a long history of friendliness with Scientology, as first revealed in Blurbex. TPM Muckraker and Wonkette have followed, with links to our original item.
This article appears in Sep 27 – Oct 4, 2006.