Vt. Legislator Investigated for Lewd Acts, Local Media Ignore Party Affiliation

By Mike Sargent (Bio | Archive)
August 18, 2009 - 16:01 ET
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A candidate for lieutenant governor of the great state of Vermont may be under criminal investigation for lewd acts in public.

Oh, and by the way, he’s a Democrat.

One might miss that fact by reading the NBC affiliate’s report too quickly – the party affiliation of state Senator Ed Flanagan is buried in the tenth paragraph.  One might argue that noting the party affiliation of Vermont politicians is somewhat redundant; however, one must also recall that Senator Bernie Sanders is an independent-leaning-socialist and the governor is a Republican.  Another local report completely omits his party affiliation.  

Oddly enough, this is not the first time the esteemed state senator has attracted complaints about this sort of thing:
According to Totten's account, the incident is not the first time YMCA members have complained about Flanagan's behavior. Sources inside the YMCA told Totten of several instances that concerned them, including one incident where Flanagan allegedly was running on a YMCA treadmill wearing only shoes, socks and a watch.
Amazingly, Flanagan offered this non-apology apology for his more recent behavior:
"If I did anything to offend anybody, I'm very sorry," Flanagan told WPTZ.com.
If, indeed.  If a candidate is accused of performing lewd acts in public – to the point where it triggers a criminal investigation – it may be safe to assume that somebody, somewhere, was offended.

More importantly to NewsBusters: If one is going to bother reporting scandalous behavior by politicians – and I think it is safe to say that journalists should – one should be sure to not bury the party affiliation of those accused.

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The sign says "You must

August 18, 2009 - 16:07 ET by mattm

The sign says "You must wear shoes on the treadmill" - it doesn't mention any other clothing items. 

"No shirt, No shoes, No pants, No service." - restaurant sign.

What a visual!

August 18, 2009 - 16:17 ET by QueenMum

Watch for it .....

Yup. You knew this was coming. It's fun to stay at the ???

Tiki Archambeau?

I know there's a parody just waiting to be written. I'll leave that for the more creative sorts here at N.B.

P.S. Sorry Mike. I just couldn't resist.

"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out
of other people's money."

—Margaret Thatcher

Seems to be a given when it

August 18, 2009 - 16:17 ET by bigtimer

Seems to be a given when it comes to party affiliation and news stories that are not good about said party member...unless of course said member has an 'R' behind their name...then it is mentioned at the top...in-between and the end of the story...sometimes even in the Headline of the story.

Nope...no bias/hypocrisy ..none at all.

Not going to change anytime soon either...if ever.

Obama's a Community Agitator, a walking, talking destroyer. ~ Rush Limbaugh

Small Scale

August 18, 2009 - 23:26 ET by prosanity

I live in Vermont. It IS redundant to note party affiliation. Everyone's a Democrat or Progressive unless otherwise noted. WPTZ wrote their piece for a VT TV viewing audience, and nearly everyone knows Flanagan is a Democrat. Sorry, NB, I don't think there's much of a story in this one. 

Politics are VERY small scale here and Vermont politicians take their nanoscopic feifs quite seriously. Chittenden County is the biggest of these VT nanofeifs. Obviously Flanagan has some pretty severe emotional issues he's dealing with considering the allegations of what he did. But, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets away with a tiny slap on the wrist - and is re-elected. So goeth VT politics.

All of civility depends on being able to contain the rage of individuals. ~ Joshua Lederberg

Of course, you could have still have fun with it ...

August 19, 2009 - 10:20 ET by legacyrepublican

As a Vermonter, you still can have some fun with this story, even though you know he will get re-elected ...

You could say that Flanagan's lewd act was whowing the world what a flatlander he is.

Or, Flanagan will never be accussed of being a Vermonster.

Or, Flanagan was showing off the infamous state's view of Camel's Dump.

Have some fun with him.

Hey, we need to give the media a break here. They must...

August 19, 2009 - 10:55 ET by jawebster1

have thought using the words "Vermont politician" and "Democrat" was being redundant.  Jim Webster