Media Ignore Fannie Mae Ties to Clinton But Harped on Enron Ties to Bush

Reporting on a fresh development in the Fannie Mae accounting scandals, the media again dropped another opportunity to raise the Clinton administration connections. But when it was Enron which defrauded investors, the media wouldn't let the public forget the connections Enron executives had to President Bush.

You can find my article on this at FreeMarketProject.org. Here's an excerpt:

After Enron’s collapse, the media frequently reminded the public of political ties top executives in the failed energy company had to the Bush administration. The same standard, however, wasn’t applied to mortgage broker Fannie Mae (FNM), whose former CEO served in the Clinton White House and was speculated to be on presidential hopeful John Kerry’s short list for Treasury secretary. The print media continued that double standard in covering a comprehensive new report on the scandal released February 23 by former Sen. Warren Rudman (R-N.H.).

Of the nation’s top five newspapers, only The New York Times mentioned Raines’s Clinton connection. The Wall Street Journal didn’t just ignore Democratic links to Fannie Mae, it reported on Republican connections. In the last paragraph of that story, reporter James R. Hagerty pointed out the “strong ties” between the chairman of gulf Bank and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and linked that to a failed investment.

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The Free Market Project previously documented how much the media overlooked about Democratic connections to Fannie Mae. According to that April 2005 report: “Former Chief Executive Officer Franklin Raines and former Vice Chairman Jamie Gorelick were both instrumental figures in the Clinton administration.”