Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards arrived in Haiti this week to aid in the earthquake relief. Sure, this is the same week when he finally admitted to being the father of the two-year-old girl he has denied, who was born out of the extramarital affair he confessed to last year after denying that also. Some critics are saying that Edwards is trying to get involved in Haiti to deflect the scandal surrounding him being Rielle Hunter's baby daddy. I think Edwards should tell the critics to kiss his arse.
One good thing, if there is one, to come out of the tragedy in Haiti is that it has shown us that a lot of the gossip, rumors, and nonsense that we allow ourselves to be consumed with on a daily basis is really petty. In the week and a half since the earthquake devastated that poor country, it has been the focus of nearly all news outlets, and once-nonstop items like Harry Reid's "negro dialect" remark and Tiger Woods's sex scandal have taken a backseat. Even John Edwards's admission, as big of a deal as it could be since people have suspected it for so long, isn't getting the attention today that it would have two weeks ago.
While the interest in Haiti continues to build, as evidenced by the two-hour "Help for Haiti Now" telethon that aired tonight on dozens of television networks and social media sites, the public's insatiable appetite for scandal will soon return and leapfrog their attention on Haiti. But for now, it's good to see priorities being where they should be. Haiti needs every person who can help to help. That includes fallen-from-grace figures ranging from John Edwards--who has years of experience aiding impoverished people and nations--to Kanye West, though it's been rumored that West was banned from participating in tonight's telethon. It's not so much for his Taylor Swift-mic-hijacking-antics as it is for his famous "George Bush doesn't care about black people" comment that aired live during a similar telethon to aid Hurricane Katrina relief nearly four and a half years ago. I wouldn't have blamed MTV, which hosted tonight's telethon, if they didn't want West to be a part of the star-studded affair, but a rep for the network reportedly said that they did "reach out to Kanye."
After watching the Haiti relief telethon tonight, I went on MTVNews.com because I knew they would have extended coverage. And while looking at the many Haiti-related stories that have been posted today, I saw "John Edwards Wants To Help Rebuild Haiti." Included in the story is a three-minute video interview with him by SuChin Pak. I was worried when I heard the first sentence come out of the MTV News anchor's mouth--"So Senator Edwards, we saw you come in and everybody's been sort of whispering around town or on base..."--but she was just acknowledging the elephant in the sand and quickly let him explain how he's helping the struggling country. See the video below.
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