LA Times Reporter Tells Matt Lauer How They Broke Schwarzenegger Story

LA Times reporter Robin Abcarian appeared on the Today Show last week to discuss how the paper broke the news of Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s extramarital affair and love child.

Towards the end of the interview, Matt Lauer asked if the LA Times felt vindicated by the story, since the paper took a lot of heat in 2003 for reporting on Schwarzenegger’s history of sexual harassment.

The consummate professional, Abcarian replied:

I think vindication is the wrong word… We felt at the time we published those allegations in 2003 that they were important, they were verified. Many of the women stepped forward and allowed us to use their names. There was no question to us that he was a serial sexual groper at the least, and the fact that the timing was so close to the election was simply a fact of an compressed election cycle.

So vindication is not really what we’re in it for because we always believed at the time that these were true stories and we happened to deal with some fallout.

Allow journalists the world over to feel vindicated on your behalf, Abcarian.

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