Eighteen years ago tonight, ABC News revealed that Florida Republican Congressman Mark Foley had sent lewd text messages to several underage congressional pages. Confronted with the evidence, Foley resigned from office that very day. “In a statement, he said he was deeply sorry and apologized for letting down his family and the people of Florida,” ABC’s Brian Ross relayed on the September 29, 2006 World News.
The quick resignation of a Congressman who had not previously been a national figure should have pretty much ended the national media’s interest in the story. But ABC, CBS and NBC spent a huge amount of airtime over the following weeks trumpeting the scandal, the idea being that Foley’s bad behavior could bring down Republican candidates all across the country.
On October 1, World News Sunday anchor Dan Harris led off his newscast with what he…
