It was good to see the major New York papers giving the story of John Edwards’s mistress the coverage it deserved this morning. It made the front page of the Times, the Daily News and the Post (“He’s a Lyin’ Cheatin’ No-Good Hypocrite!” — not a quote, mind you, but a statement of editorial opinion) while the Wall Street Journal merely teased the story on the front page (you had to turn to A3 to get the dish). It made me think all was right with the world (now that he went public on ABC Nightline, trying to have it both ways by admitting to the sin of arrogance while implying he wasn’t so bad because his wife was in remission when he started fooling around) and it answered the netizens who complained that mainstream media was being irresponsible not investigating the affair before.

Now begins the long climb to redemption for the man who would be president if not a champion of the poor. First he’ll have to reach the requisite level of truthiness that others are demanding of him (with the questions turning from “did you shag her?” to “how long have you been shagging her?”) and then come up with some kind of public role for himself — but he had to do that anyway. He can look to the example of Bill Clinton, who went from denial to tortured, albeit half-assed admission — and hopefully do it better. 

Watching David Carr make the rounds of TV interviews and magazine features, all in the name of promoting his crack-head-turned-crack-reporter memoir, The Night of the Gun, I have felt he was making his own amends, redeeming himself in the public eye but also allowing us to forget the example of James Frey, whose story of addiction and imprisonment turned out to be a million little pieces of baloney. 

Carr mentioned the Frey fiasco in his interview on the Colbert Report and has used it to explain why he videotaped his “sources” — former friends and family members — about his darkest days. No one wants an act of public self-redemption to turn into the kind of spankfest Frey got from Mother Winfrey. It was especially instructive to see him slip out of the trap so many of Colbert’s guests fall into. Since Stephen Colbert plays a character named Stephen Colbert, savvy guests tend to either dismiss his tack as an act, or treat him as if he were real. 

When Colbert, in his right-leaning, O’Reilly Factor mode, opened with a zinger — “You are a former crack addict, and you are a reporter for the New York Times. Which of these two do you think is more damaging to society?” — Carr did not slip. “I don’t think that’s a tough call,” he said. “Journalism, if it’s practiced appropriately, is a civic good… Using crack cocaine is an idiotic activity that will eventually result in mania and death.”

Telling the truth is always easier when you don’t have to think about which truth to tell.