ABC: Enquirer offered sources $50k

The National Enquirer is enjoying an extended victory lap since it exposed former Sen. John Edwards' affair with a campaign worker.

National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation" program on Wednesday included Enquirer senior executive editor Steve Plamann in its discussion of how the media should handle rumor.

"We got a little lucky, and we’re also a little bit good," Plamann said of the Enquirer's series of stories on Edwards dating back to October.

The panel also included News & Observer political reporter Rob Christensen and Brian Ross, chief investigative correspondent for ABC News, the network that landed the interview in which Edwards admitted to an affair two years ago with Rielle Hunter.

In his segment, Ross said it wasn’t just luck that enabled the Enquirer to corner the market on key sources on the story.

"They pay people to talk to them. We're not in a position to do that," Ross said. "Again and again in trying to pursue this story, we would be asked by people who were central to it, 'What’s in it for me? They've [the Enquirer] offered me $50,000. What do you have?' We have a cup of coffee. So we're at a disadvantage there."

More after the jump.

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Plamann said the Enquirer is prepared to pay for quality information.

"This is true, we do pay sources, and this is a case where we were able to use that policy to get the truth," Plamann said.

Plamann acknowledged that the fuzzy photo of Edwards holding what the Enquirer purports is his
"love child" was not taken the night the tabloid's reporters caught him in the Beverly Hilton after a late-night hotel meeting with Hunter.