In the lead item on Friday's “Grapevine” segment on FNC's Special Report, anchor Bret Baier credited NewsBusters for documenting how Thursday night ABC's World News and NBC Nightly News stories, on Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick being sent to jail by a judge, “failed to report Kilpatrick's party affiliation.”
Baier first outlined how the AP neglected to mention his party, but “when Alaska Senator Ted Stevens was indicted” last month “the AP made his party affiliation clear” since “the article included the word 'Republican' seven times and 'GOP' four times.” Baier then pointed out:
Media watchdog Web site NewsBusters.org reports that both ABC World News and NBC Nightly News also failed to report Kilpatrick's party affiliation.
The cited Thursday night NewsBusters posting, “Kilpatrick Leads Democratic Group, Yet All But CBS & FNC Refuse to ID Him as (D),” recounted:
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is hardly reticent about touting himself as a Democrat. After all, he's the Vice President of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors and in January was re-elected its representative to the Democratic National Committee. But in ABC and NBC news stories Thursday night about how a Michigan judge ordered him to jail immediately for violating his bond, neither identified him as a Democrat (verbally or on screen) -- not even in a full two-minute NBC story. On CBS, fill-in anchor Russ Mitchell didn't mention Kilpatrick's party in three teases/plugs for the upcoming story, nor in the introduction to it, but two-thirds into his report, Dean Reynolds, who in a March story failed to ID Kilpatrick, referenced: "Once a rising star in Democratic Party politics..."
Making that same "rising star" point, from a smoggy (or foggy?) Beijing, NBC anchor Brian Williams managed to avoid mentioning Kilpatrick's party affiliation:
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was once viewed as a rising political star in the United States. Tonight he has fallen pretty far from those early lofty and glowing predictions...Two of the cable news networks were no more accurate. Filling in on MSNBC's Hardball, Mike Barnicle avoided Kilpatrick's party in a brief item on news of his jailing while on CNN's The Situation Room anchor Wolf Blitzer did not note Kilpatrick's Democratic affiliation in several updates and plugs and, in a full story in the 5PM EDT hour, the MRC's Matthew Balan noticed, Mary Snow failed to verbally name Kilpatrick's party in her piece. The only hint came in this chyron at the bottom of the screen for barely three seconds: "MAYOR KWAME KILPATRICK (D) DETROIT."
Catching up with the news from Friday night, NBC Nightly News didn't report on Kilpatrick while ABC again failed to identify Kilpatrick's party. Fill-in anchor Kate Snow read this short item on the August 8 World News:
In Detroit, a court let Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick out of jail where he had been held for violating his bond. Moments later, he was arraigned on charges of assaulting a police officer. It's all related to perjury charges stemming from a civil trial last year.
In “Again This Morning, No (D) for Incarcerated Detroit Mayor,” the MRC's Matthew Balan ran down how CBS's Early Show didn't mention Kilpatrick on Friday morning while stories on ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today maintained the blackout of his party affiliation.
Thursday NewsBusters post by Rusty Weiss: “Mayor Ordered Jailed -- AP Apparently Doesn’t Know Party Affiliation.”
The full lead “Grapevine” item on the August 8 Special Report with Brit Hume, though anchored by Bret Baier:
Earlier we told you about Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick getting out of jail today. Thursday, when the Associated Press reported that he had been imprisoned for violating terms of his bond in his perjury case, the AP failed to mention his party affiliation. Kilpatrick is a Democrat. But back on July 29th, when Alaska Senator Ted Stevens was indicted, the AP made his party affiliation clear. The headline read, quote: “Ted Stevens indicted, longest-serving GOP Senator.” The article included the word “Republican” seven times and “GOP” four times.
Media watchdog Web site NewsBusters.org reports that both ABC World News and NBC Nightly News also failed to report Kilpatrick's party affiliation.
—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
The media
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 21:12 ET by iveseenitallNo surprise. The media in America is corrupt. In fact, those who say "liberal" bias doesn't exist in the media are now correct. No more bias tilting toward the left.The media IS the left in America. The left owns the media. No pretense anymore. They lie for the left, sans conscience. They cover for the left, sans conscience. No better examples than the Barry Obama fawning and the almost non- existent coverage of the Edwards story. "Freedom of the Press" exists no more in this country. Seeking facts and telling the truth have vanished. The "function" of "journalism" in America is now to spew left-wing propaganda and protect, rather than expose, wrongdoing. The very freedoms the First Amendment of the Constitution was written to protect are now under attack by those given that freedom and responsibility. Ironic and sad.
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
Very well put...
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 22:12 ET by unkeeafI couldn't agree with you more. As leftist, these scum want to take this country down and reubild it in a socialist/communist image. Unfortunately, I think we've only seen the tip of the iceberg. When you control the press, you control the minds of the weak, uneducated & lazy - enough of whom vote to sway elections.
I agree unkeeaf - it's just the tip of the iceburg unfortunately
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 22:37 ET by Dee BunkI thought it couldn't get worse than the Election 2000 coverage and then after Sept 11 - I remember talking with a neighbor who said this would mark an end to political correctness and at the time I said that I hoped he was right but I had a feeling it could get worse. It did. You can't even call terrorists terrorists and you can't mention that they are Muslim. You can't use any technique to get information that makes someone uncomfortable, they are still trying to make it illegal to listen in on terrorists phone calls, and now enemy combatants have access to our legal system, and you can't racial profile in airports or anywhere. All these politically correct things are made politically correct by the media.
As bad as the media were with election 2000, the Iraq coverage, coverage of the Bush administration, Katrina and Election 2004 and 2006 and now 2008 have all been consistently and increasingly worse and more bias.
All we can hope for is that this is another bubble that will burst with a huge explosion of common sense by regular people.
That will probably happen...
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 22:48 ET by unkeeafBut I fear only after a tragedy has befallen us so horrendous that all pretenses are cast aside. Unfortunately, if that occurs, I think many of the MSM types we complain about may find themselves treated to the Mussolini meat hook if they're in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Brent... We had a few
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 21:09 ET by Clear thinkerBrent...
We had a few people over for dinner this evening. I left Fox news on in the other room loud enough so we could listen while we ate (I know it's rude, but it's my house). Anyway, when the name Newsbusters came up in this piece I yelled "hey that's my site". After a quick explanation that it's not actually 'my' site, we continued arguing the rest of the meal concerning the why's of giving, or not giving, a politicians party affiliation in a story about crime, corruption etc. The end result was. Everyone agreed that the liberal MSM is part of the DNC Party.
45 Communist Goals for America http://www.nationmakers.com/com_goals.htm
Clear - I'm curious if any said party affiliation isn't always
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 22:17 ET by Dee Bunkrelevant. I think it should always be mentioned in any story about a politician whether it's good or bad. Party affiliation is always relevant when talking about a politician
Dee...
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 22:26 ET by Clear thinkerAbsolutely!
Every single time they are put in print, aired on radio or TV, party affiliation should always be included. Good or bad, Dem or Rep. Hell, even Liberatrians when they get caught with hookers or drug dealers ;-)
45 Communist Goals for America http://www.nationmakers.com/com_goals.htm
You can guaran-damn-tee
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 22:36 ET by sarcasmoThey'll label Libertarians, but most of 'em are very, very boring when it comes to that stuff, being freedom advocates instead of hypocrites. Anyway, the non-labelling is definitely a prime example of antilibertarian bias by the media.
JMR
The tax & spend drug war looks racist in the real world.
Sarc - the reason you don't find criminal Libertarians
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 22:43 ET by Dee Bunkis because they don't have power. If they ever get power they will have the same problems. The crooks always go for the power and you will get people pretending. Most of the crooks and liars are just crooks and liars.
I wish that our two party system was Republican and Libertarian and then I'd probably be an independent voting for the best and most honest between the two candidates.
I never said they wouldn't.
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 22:58 ET by sarcasmoI just said you can guaran-damn-tee the libertarian-hating news media would label them properly. I'm under no illusions about the LP, hell, they just picked Barr over my preferred candidate. I think our media system will put up a big fight against an actual 2 party system, since the duopoly is working so well for those currently in power. The good thing about Libertarians is that actual smaller government (as opposed to Republican gasbags talking about it and then voting for bigger government anyway...) tends to lead to less possibility for Ted Stevens style criminality.
JMR
The tax & spend drug war looks racist in the real world.
Pretty Obvious
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 21:16 ET by Agrarian-DecentralistGood grief. He's black. His first name is Kwame. He's mayor of Detroit. Sure, the media should always identify a political figure by party, but in this case, it would be almost redundant.
Typical!
Sat, 08/09/2008 - 07:11 ET by DontFeedTheTrollsTypical lib, what with the stereotyping and all. Next it will be all xxx are dumb, all xxx are greedy, all xxx are oversexed, etc..
D
Keep the ILLEGALS out, join NumbersUSA to send free faxes to your reps.
You left out the extremely
Sat, 08/09/2008 - 09:02 ET by SickofLibsYou left out the extremely large xxx.
Let's see ...
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 21:37 ET by 10ksnookerthe drive by media covers up for Edwards, and then fails to see the party affiliation of the jailed Mayor. I wonder why?
Racism
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 22:17 ET by Sergeant ROCKA clear cut case of racism if there ever was one!
Indoctrinate-U
Our Education. Their Politics.
Update
Sat, 08/09/2008 - 00:06 ET by Rusty WeissI would like to add the following. Some arguments for the other side seem to reference the fact that the Detroit mayoral process is a non-partisan election. They suggest that the AP may not mention that Kilpatrick is a Democrat because of this reason, and I believe that there are holes in that argument.
Despite the election being non-partisan, I think the fact that this man was a speaker for the Democratic Convention in 2000 and 2004 makes him a notable member of the party.
Additionally, the AP printed this article about his pending mayoral election in 2005 which states:
Being a Democrat apparently was newsworthy in this instance.
Also, they had this past National Briefing which states:
It would seem that an earing scandal also warrants a mention of party affiliation. But jail time? Not so much.
One more example is this article in 2001 which adds:
There are more examples of this to be found. It being a non-partisan election does not in any way warrant the omission of the word 'Democrat' from Kilpatricks run-ins with the law.
I've got it!
Sat, 08/09/2008 - 10:50 ET by NorthCoasterSo, when something will show the Democrats in a good light or Republicans in a bad light, the party label is used. When something shows the Democrats in a bad light or Republicans in a good light, the party label is not used.
This works with the preferred ideologies of the journalists too. We see and hear news that way it fits the preferred ideology of the MSM instead of presenting all of the known facts.
Hooray for Fox, The
Sat, 08/09/2008 - 14:02 ET by bigtimerHooray for Fox, The Grapevine segment (one of my fav's) and of course to NBs!
Keep up the good work, I am so tired of the no mention of party if it is a dem. but every other sentence a has party affiliation if the person talked about is a republican...it really gets under my skin... yet they keep it up...then when questioned once in a great while in some interview somewhere they have the audacity to claim there is no liberal bias with the msm...of course we all know they are lying through their teeth intentionally.
"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh
Sorry for repeating myself, but...
Sat, 08/09/2008 - 23:22 ET by m4ster chief...some things can just be assumed.
Take his photograph to any street corner in the country, show it to one hundred passers-by and ask, "What political party do you think this man belongs to?" I venture to say eighty-five percent would guess correctly. The earring helps in this case.
when ?
Mon, 08/11/2008 - 10:03 ET by welderforeKenneth J Roberts
When are the people going to wake up never>? I would have it that all the fawning news agencys would wind up in the trash heap of failed papers and that their readership would drop to two people the owner and the manager . people need to check this out for them sleves .