An October 5 CNN.com article falsely claimed that former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) “resigned last week after Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington [CREW], a left-leaning watchdog group, posted some of the e-mails he exchanged with [a] former male page in 2005.” In fact, as ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross, who broke the story, reported on September 29, Foley resigned “after ABC News” -- not CREW -- “questioned him about sexually explicit internet messages,” not emails, he allegedly exchanged “with current and former congressional pages under the age of 18.” Even the emails in question were reportedly not first posted by CREW; on October 4, The Wall Street Journal reported (subscription required) that CREW posted the emails “on its Web site after ABC broke the story,” and CNN.com, in a separate October 5 article, noted that the emails first appeared on “a little-known Web site called Stop Sex Predators ... on September 24, four days before ABC News reported Foley's e-mails with [the] 16-year-old page.”

According to the Journal, Ross said “CREW wasn't his initial source for the emails and that he wasn't aware that the group had them”; the CNN.com article on the weblog Stop Sex Predators noted that CREW “obtained the e-mails in July,” but that it “forwarded them directly to the FBI for investigation.” As Media Matters for America has noted, media figures have uncritically reported claims by the FBI that CREW was uncooperative with the investigation.

Further, by attributing Foley's resignation to CREW, the CNN.com article lent support to the baseless conspiracy theory, frequently reported by the media, that Democrats were behind the leaked emails, despite a report in The Hill newspaper that a House Republican aide provided Foley's alleged emails to the media and Ross's statement that the sources for his initial Foley report -- to the extent they had partisan affiliations -- were Republicans.

From the October 4 Wall Street Journal article, "Ex-Pages Brought Explicit Messages to Light":

ABC first heard about the [...] emails in August, but Mr. Ross said the network was focused on stories about the anniversaries of Hurricane Katrina and Sept. 11, 2001, and didn't immediately turn to it. He said he wasn't familiar with the Stop Sex Predators blog, which was launched in July. On Sept. 24, 2006, four days before ABC's posting, that blog posted emails from Mr. Foley to a former page that asked how the young man was weathering the hurricane and what he wanted for his birthday.

By that point, several other entities had been tipped to the emails, including the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which shared the information with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

From the October 5 CNN.com article, "Page's family: Leave our 'hero' son alone":

Foley resigned last week after Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a left-leaning watchdog group, posted some of the e-mails he exchanged with the former male page in 2005, who was then 16 and had worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander, a Louisiana Republican.

From the October 5 CNN.com article, "Mysterious blog scooped media on Foley messages":

One of the more curious angles to emerge from the scandal surrounding Foley is the creation of a little-known Web site called Stop Sex Predators. It was at that site on September 24, four days before ABC News reported Foley's e-mails with a 16-year-old page, that the Florida congressman's correspondence first appeared.

Because the site was virtually unknown at the time, bloggers were skeptical of the e-mails' authenticity. Nothing is known about the site beyond the small number of postings on it.

[...]

However, the identity of the site's owner remains a mystery. Though the site posted the e-mails before the ABC News report, the site does not appear to be that news organization's original source.

ABC's Brian Ross told the Wall Street Journal that he “wasn't familiar” with the Web site before his online report Thursday about the e-mails. (According to Ross, it was only after his report was posted that he received transcripts of the more lurid instant message exchanges between Foley and pages.)

After Foley's e-mails were reported, others disclosed knowledge of them. Several news organizations, including the St. Petersburg Times and the Miami Herald, had been made aware of the initial e-mails but chose not publish them.

Tom Fiedler, executive editor of the Herald, told CNN that the paper had been tipped to the e-mails but did not run a story because their language, while “inappropriate,” was also “ambiguous in what it actually meant or what a message might be.”

The liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington also obtained the e-mails in July. It forwarded them directly to the FBI for investigation.

A tip from reader T.D. contributed to this item. Thanks, and keep them coming.