We find ourselves waiting with bated breath for the news media’s outright indignation, its thunderstruck fury at Democratic Mayor Ethan Berkowitz’s confession to some sort of hanky-panky in recent years with a reporter.
After all, unless he resigns, he is mayor of Anchor Town for about six more months. Plenty of time for the media to peel the onion and get to the truth.
For Berkowitz’s part, he says he had a “major lapse in judgment … several years ago when I had a consensual, inappropriate messaging relationship with reporter Maria Athens.” He says he is sorry and apologized to the people of Anchorage and his family. He says he is “embarrassed and ashamed.”
Athens, if you will recall, went on social media Friday with a bombshell claim Berkowitz posted inappropriate nude photos to a website.
Now, the news media, trepidatious for days about reporting any of this smarm surely will do what they do – doggedly dig to the bottom of the “inappropriate messaging relationship,” whatever that is. Surely there are more pictures than what have surfaced. None of the texts in those messages has been publicized. What else is involved? Who said what to whom? Was the mayor’s private City Hall bathroom involved? Details. The public wants details.
Answering those questions – and many, many more – is what the media do. Just look at how they recently and relentlessly charged after flirtatious text exchanges between former Republican Attorney General Kevin Clarkson and a woman who works in the governor’s office. No mercy. No holds barred. They are still trying to get answers. That is the kind of thing the media do – and surely will do to in this case to get the truth in the Berkowitz affair.
We fully expect in a few days, or maybe weeks, to have the whole, sordid, salacious Berkowitz story along with its seamier details after the media does their thing.
But, hey, we are not holding our breath.
