Sex, pols and videotape

*

As Wally said, "Really, you can't make this stuff up."

Wally Edge, that is, of the website PoliticsNJ.

Yesterday, PT included in CLIPS an AP story on Atlantic City Councilman, the Rev. Eugene Robinson, having been caught on videotape in a sex act with a woman whom the Councilman apparently paid for the encounter.

PT is hardly interested in fanning the flames of prurience, but he was curious about HOW the story got around.

He had stumbled on it while trying to get an online clip of the Jay Williams NBA story which was in the Courier print edition but not online. The hunt led to Newsday, the Long Island newspaper which is legendary for the completeness of its online AP feed, constantly updated.

Lo and behold, the AC item was right next to the NBA story, so PT included it under the New Jersey heading.

It was only after CLIPS had been sent out that there was the luxury of time to read the story.The first thing noted was that the AP item was dated the 8th -- Friday.

But the story itself says a 4-minute DVD -- evidently transferred from a videotape -- was delivered to South Jersey journalist and talk show host Virginia McCabe on Monday, November 27.

The DVD was delivered by a man apparently wearing a disguise of oversized glasses, fake beard and baggy clothes. She broke the story online with a blow-by-blow description of the DVD contents the same day.

Almost two weeks to seep to the outside world? That intrigued PT.

Surely, other attention must have been paid?

The Press of Atlantic City, the town's paper-of-record, gave it scant attention on the 28th with a two-sentence brief --

"A local radio talk show host claims to have a videotape showing Atlantic City councilman Eugene Robinson performing a sex act with an unidentified woman. Robinson's attorney claims the tape is the creation of former city council president Craig Callaway who pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in August."

PT had better luck with Wally Edge, perhaps the most entertaining columnist and political trivia-meister on the PoliticsNJ website.

Wally posted three entries (see links at end of this item), making an oblique jab at McCabe, who, it seems, may have been hawking the DVD for sale.

NBC's local affiliate, WMGM Channel 40, was shown the DVD by McCabe. Their technical staff determined it had been copied from a videotape, and was able to construct a clear shot of the woman's face, which had been edited on the DVD by 'pixellating' her image in different frames.

WMGM's news story was taped and posted to YouTube here.

Robinson and his attorney connect the videotape and an alleged attempt to blackmail him into resigning his Council seat by former City Council president Craig Callaway, who resigned in August after pleading guilty to receiving bribes. Robinson and Callaway had been political allies. Callaway wore a wire for an undisclosed period of time, and further indictments of local political figures and vendors are expected.

Meanwhile, the Callaway family held a press conference denying Robinson's charges, the details of which are included by McCabe in her posts.

As AP's Mulvihill observed, in other places, such surreal politics might be devastating, ". . .but Atlantic City is not like other places."

And, thank God, Plainfield is not like Atlantic City.

-- Dan Damon

Links of interest --

• Virginia McCabe's complete coverage: "Robinson sex videotape stories"
• Press of Atlantic City, 2-sentence coverage: "A.C. councilman Robinson on sex tape?"
• Geoff Mulvilhill's AP story: "AC politics: Sex, lies, and videotape"
• NBC News40 Video on YouTube: "Atlantic City councilman sex-tape scandal"
• Wally Edge's coverage on PoliticsNJ: Posts One, Two and Three.

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