The week after it took the NBC Nightly News until the fourth day of coverage to inform viewers that disgraced then-New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is a Democrat, Friday's NBC Nightly News ran a full story on the scandalous behavior surrounding Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, but never identified his political party. Naturally, given the lack of a party identification by the mainstream media journalists, he's a Democrat. Anchor Brian Williams set up the story:
The city of Detroit is in a crisis over government and leadership. The current Mayor is just the latest Detroit Mayor elected on a promise to clean up and revitalize the city. Now he's been caught in a sex scandal, a trail of electronic messages reportedly provides the evidence, it threatens his career and then some.
Reporter Kevin Tibbles, also sans any mention of a party affiliation, outlined:
The Detroit city council votes overwhelmingly to ask the Mayor to resign. 37-year-old Kwame Kilpatrick, in his second term of the Mayor of the Motor City, is mired in financial, political, and personal scandal, but refuses to budge.
My Thursday, March 13 NewsBusters posting, “Hell Freezes Over? NBC Nightly News Finally Calls Spitzer 'Democratic Governor,'” recounted:
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, substitute NBC Nightly News anchor Ann Curry and reporter Mike Taibbi failed to identify disgraced outgoing New York Governor Eliot Spitzer as a Democrat, but on Thursday night Curry finally informed NBC viewers of the party affiliation -- a fact network journalists always consider relevant when a Republican gets caught in scandalous behavior. Curry set up a story on incoming Governor David Paterson by uttering the word she's avoided all week: "Now to the fast moving developments in the wake of the revelations that New York's Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer was a client of a prostitution service. NBC's Mike Taibbi now with the man who's to take over for Spitzer on Monday."
But, reverting to her default conduct, in an item about the passing of very liberal ex-Senator Howard Metzenbaum, Curry never mentioned his ideology or party as she hailed his life as "the classic American success story" of a man who "always fought for the little guy, taking on the oil and insurance industries" while he "stuck to his populist principles."
The Friday, March 21 NBC Nightly News story:
BRIAN WILLIAMS: The city of Detroit is in a crisis over government and leadership. The current Mayor is just the latest Detroit Mayor elected on a promise to clean up and revitalize the city. Now he's been caught in a sex scandal, a trail of electronic messages reportedly provides the evidence, it threatens his career and then some. Here is NBC's Kevin Tibbles.KEVIN TIBBLES: In a city long beset with problems-
VOICE: Seven yeas one nay.
TIBBLES: The Detroit city council votes overwhelmingly to ask the Mayor to resign. 37-year-old Kwame Kilpatrick, in his second term of the Mayor of the Motor City, is mired in financial, political, and personal scandal, but refuses to budge.
MAYOR KWAME KILPATRICK: We have nothing to hide. We have been totally up front.
TIBBLES: It was while testifying under oath last summer in another matter that the Mayor's critics say he did hide something: An affair with his chief of staff, Christine Beatty.
REPORTER's VOICE: Were you and Mayor Kilpatrick either romantically or intimately involved with each other?
CHRISTINE BEATTY: No.
TIBBLES: The Detroit Free Press examined nearly 14,000 messages from Beatty's city-issued pager, messages critics say may prove the pair lied on the stand. Some of the messages concern city business. But many others were personal and explicit. Now a local prosecutor is considering whether to charge the pair with perjury.
PAUL ANGER, DETROIT FREE PRESS EDITOR: On the one hand, a tremendously talented individual and on the other hand you have an individual who has made really bad decisions.
TIBBLES: When the scandal broke, Kilpatrick, who is married with children, went on television.
KWAME KILPATRICK WITH HIS WIFE, JANUARY 30: I truly apologize to you.
TIBBLES: And has continued to defend himself.
KILPATRICK, MARCH 11: This unethical, illegal, lynch mob mentality has to stop.
TIBBLES: The speech prompted a veteran Detroit anchorwoman from NBC station WDIV to deliver a rare on air editorial calling on Kilpatrick to step down.
WOMAN ON TV: The Kwame Kilpatrick roller coaster has to stop.
TIBBLES: The prosecutor is expected to announce Monday whether charges will be filed. Kevin Tibbles, NBC News, Chicago.
—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center
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Comments Policy
Finally something from my neck of the woods...
March 21, 2008 - 20:33 ET by UphillMAYOR KWAME KILPATRICK: We have nothing to hide. We have been totally up front.
This might be the biggest lie ever coming from a mayor in Detroit. And that is saying a lot considering who has "led" the city in the past.
It would be nice to just
March 21, 2008 - 20:37 ET by gopsteveIt would be nice to just once, have these NBCCBSABC execs on the chair explaining this...
Democrat
March 21, 2008 - 21:11 ET by ScrapironAny time there is no party identification it's a demorat and sometimes when someone is identified as a republican they are demorats. The Lame Stream Media just can't help themselves. They are ate up with BDS to the point of making jackasses of themselves on every broadcast and in every article they print. That's why I cancelled the rags and seldom watch the Lame Stream Media beyond my local news. It's time for everyone to start notifying the advertisers they aren't reaching anyone on these outlets. Maybe that along with the support of homosexuals is why major corporation are biting the dust. Ask Ford how it feels.
Old, Retired and glad of it.
Perhaps...
March 22, 2008 - 07:54 ET by heldmywIt is because if it is a Democrat in trouble, it is obviously a mistake or an evil plot and party has no bearing.
If, on the other hand, it is a Republican in trouble, it's inherent in their mean, tiny little souls as part of their filthy Republicanism and therefore relevant.
See? All fixed! The MSM is right. We're just too ignorant to see.
Shouldn't there be a big
March 21, 2008 - 22:23 ET by JerryShouldn't there be a big (R) on the screen, after all, his picture is to the right of Brian Williams.
When asked if he went to war with Iraq to derail the impeachment vote: “I don’t think any serious person would believe that any President would do such a thing." - President Clinton (Dec 1998).
Yep, I watched this report
March 21, 2008 - 22:58 ET by msh1973Yep, I watched this report (mentioned it in the open thread). I couldn't believe it, not a word about Kilpatrick being a Dem. Quite maddening.
No Reason
March 22, 2008 - 00:44 ET by okiehawk44Could it be the media doesn't think it necessary to identify the party affiliation of a black mayor? Obviously to them ALL blacks are (D).
Typical
March 22, 2008 - 08:08 ET by capavPerhaps as Obama views the "typical white person", the media views "the typical black". No need to identify, assume democrat. I pointed out this continued method by the media to my husband some time ago and even he now notices it. Maybe we can ask Dan Abrams to give his "verdict" on the subject. Yeah, right!
But wouldn't that be called...
March 22, 2008 - 09:37 ET by goldenthroatOkiehawk44,
Interesting point - but wouldn't that be called "guilt by association"?
It certainly doesn't fit those like J.C. Watts, Clarence Thomas, Alan Keyes, Ken Blackwell and others - they're all Republicans.
Oh yeah, the MSM would probably refer to them as "Uncle Toms".
Air America - Radio For The Politically Impaired!
When I first began to check
March 22, 2008 - 03:26 ET by riff_raffWhen I first began to check out NB, I would usually get all frustrated at the numerous, daily examples of blatant, left-wing media bias presented here. Not so anymore. Now I just read them and smile. Because I now realize and accept how much better things are.
The MSM still has their leftist bias, but there are thousands of blogs and websites exposing it. Just a few short years ago, there was no blogosphere to expose this hypocrisy. Look how far we've come since!
The best part about it is that the dinosaurs in the MSM seem to think they can get away with spewing the same biased propaganda (er, news) that they did 10 or 15 years ago, and expect no one will call bullsh*t on them. I just love to see their expressions of "outrage" when they're caught lying.
To this day, Dan Rather and Mary Mapes profess innocence (or ignorance) over the Rathergate scandal.
I still have half a mind to file a federal civil rights lawsuit against Rather and CBS for knowingly trying to use forged documents to alter the outcome of a federal election, thereby denying me my constitutional rights to a free and fair election. Anybody out there want to make it a class action lawsuit? CBS has deep pockets.
I think, after much
March 22, 2008 - 06:29 ET by DontFeedTheTrollsI think, after much consideration, that the MSM is of such a narrow collective mindset (like all 'progressives') that they assume ALL elected officials MUST be democrats unless something has gone terribly wrong. After all, what right-minded individual would vote for an Independant or even a (shudder) Republican? Therefore, the only reason to identify a politician's party would be if he/she is NOT a democrat.
D
Keep the ILLEGALS out, join NumbersUSA to send free faxes to your reps.
Well, it *is* safe to assume
March 22, 2008 - 11:21 ET by Edward LeeWell, it *is* safe to assume a politician being reported on for corruption is a Democrat, unless it is stated otherwise (at least that's what I do). Perhaps that is why precious ink is not wasted to print it :-)
Passport-Gate - Party Affiliation
March 22, 2008 - 11:19 ET by YahooWatcherYahoo/AP :http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080322/ap_on_el_pr/passports_candidates
"The unauthorized digging into electronic government files on politicians recalled a 1992 case in which a Republican political appointee at the State Department was demoted for searching Bill Clinton's passport records when Clinton was running against President George H.W. Bush."
The only time party affiliation is mentioned is when, you guessed it, some Republican is involved.
Culture of Corruption
March 22, 2008 - 11:54 ET by m1xramThis must be that "Culture of Corruption" we've heard so much about. Party affiliation: UNSPECIFIED
m1xram
m1xram
March 22, 2008 - 12:08 ET byyou mean in the deceptive MSM or the Dems?
"Man created god(s) Anything believed was created by man"----Syrius