Reuters reporter deliberately withheld damaging info on Beto O'Rourke for a year

In reporting on Sen. Cruz's narrow victory, why does the press not consider the - effectively - campaign publicity that came from CNN, MSNBC (et al) and TV talk shows that all went against Cruz? TD

Rick Moran  "In the November, 2018 election, Rep. Beto O'Rourke came within 3 points of toppling GOP incumbent Senator Ted Cruz. O'Rourke used that near miss and the excitement his candidacy generated nationwide to launch a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination last week.

"But what if Cruz had slaughtered O'Rourke? It's a relevant question because a reporter for Reuters deliberately withheld damaging information that would almost certainly have made a lot of Texans who ended up voting for him think twice.

"The story by Joseph Menn ran on Friday and detailed O'Rourke's membership in the notorious hacking group known as the Cult of the Dead Cow*. While a member of the CDC, O'Rourke hacked online games and stole credit card numbers in order to make free long distance calls. That's not only a serious invasion of privacy, but it's also credit card fraud for which O'Rourke could have been prosecuted and sent to jail.

"Menn defends his decision not to run the story during O'Rourke's Senate campaign because he was writing a book. He says he hadn't nailed down the information completely and no one at the CDC would go on record about Beto's membership in the group. Menn finally made a deal with sources in the CDC not to run the story until after the 2018 election.

"Menn's book is about the CDC and he says he first learned of O'Rourke's involvement in late 2017." . . .

. . . "If writing a book negatively affected Menn's ability to be a journalist, he should have been forced to choose. Instead, he helped launch the national career of a politician who should have gone to jail for credit card fraud."  (Emphasis mine, TD)

*. . . "The Cult of the Dead Cow was notorious for releasing tools that allowed ordinary people to hack computers running Microsoft’s Windows program. It is also known for inventing the term “hacktivism” to describe human-rights-driven security work. O’Rourke’s membership could explain much about his approach to politics and subverting established procedures in technology, the media and government." . . .  From the Guardian's, A big hand for Beto O'Rourke and his amazing waving arms .