Yesterday, CNN’s Reliable Sources had ProPublica managing editor Stephen Engelberg on to discuss an investigation that he once led into the past sexual misconduct of Rep. David Wu.
Engelberg explained how he became a “reluctant convert to the value of sex as an investigative subject,” on Howard Kurtz’s program, which also featured Charles Pope, the Oregonian reporter who broke the current Wu story.
“I think at some point you have to acknowledge…that politicians will behave badly, they will lie about it, perhaps under oath,” said Engelberg. “And that as a member of the Watergate generation of reporters, who wants to be investigating sort of grand constitutional threats, we have to acknowledge that this, too, is a story. And it's relevant to voters and it goes to the character of the people who are doing the public's business.”
In his lastest “A Closer Look” column, Engelberg explained how Wu’s resignation - a “little more than a blip in the year’s cavalcade of sexual misconduct by elected officials” - offered a compelling argument for why news organizations should aggressively pursue allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct nonetheless.
Watch the interview below.
