Maine Newsman who Uncoverd Bush Drunk Driving Story is now a Trucker

Cohen's change is at once radical and logical -- propelled by a boyhood fascination with trucks and necessitated by a career crisis. Cohen, who is 53, was the reporter who during the 2000 presidential campaign learned of George W. Bush's arrest for drunken driving in Kennebunkport 24 years earlier. He told an editor at the newspaper of his find, he said, but the paper never published the story. When the arrest was uncovered by a Portland television station and a barrage of news reports followed three months later, the Portland paper's decision to ignore the story became a story unto itself. Cohen said the Press Herald made him the scapegoat in the matter.In March of 2004, Cohen left the paper, by his account, after being demoted and punished for a number of alleged infractions. Press Herald editors, including the manager editor, Eric Conrad, declined to comment. Out of work, Cohen came up with the idea to become a trucker. Cohen might have stayed with reporting, but for the story that slipped away -- the scoop that top political reporters at big papers had been searching for and unable to uncover. ''I called the police chief and asked if he had dirt on Bush," said Cohen, whose beat at the paper included coverage of Kennebunkport. ''He said, 'Yes, we did, in 1976 for drunk driving.' Cohen told his supervisor what he had learned. The supervisor, Andrew Russell, he said, told him to drop the matter. ''I left it at that," he said, much to his chagrin. The story later exploded, and when word got out that the Portland paper had known about but not reported Bush's drunken-driving arrest, the matter became the talk of political and journalistic circles. 'His decision to talk about it, he said, provoked his demotion at the paper, followed by other punitive measures, forcing his departure. Cohen threatened a lawsuit claiming that the newspaper had violated his First Amendment rights. Last week, the newspaper and Cohen agreed to an out-of-court settlement. [more]