Mayor Ordered Jailed – AP Apparently Doesn’t Know Party Affiliation

To paraphrase a line from my good friend B. Spears, ‘Oops, the AP did it again!'

What journalistic crime has been committed this time? How about, selective memory when it comes to a Democrat running afoul of the law.

Picture this if you will. The Mayor of a major U.S. city has been ordered to jail for violating bond. The MSM reports on the situation, but fails to mention the Mayor's party affiliation anywhere in the article. This makes it a foregone conclusion - the Mayor is a Democrat.

While it is common place for the MSM to avoid mentioning the word Democrat in a headline involving someone being charged, indicted, or sent off to jail, it is taking it a giant step further when they fail to mention it all together.

Contrast this with the recent headlines surrounding the indictment of Ted Stevens. The AP headline read as follows:

Ted Stevens indicted, longest-serving GOP senator

GOP - Right in the headline!

To be fair, I suppose it's easier to type and more compact. After all GOP is a three letter abbreviation, compared to the word ‘Democrat.'

But wait, the AP headline managed to squeeze in the phrase ‘longest-serving' in this situation. How did they ever find the print space?

What's more, the article also includes the word ‘Republican' seven times throughout, ‘GOP' four times, and a gratuitous reference to Larry Craig to boot.

Yet somehow the AP's journalistic integrity (*cough*) seems to have evaporated at the prospect of mentioning a controversy involving a Democrat.

In fact, the word Democrat appears in their article about Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick roughly zero times. Give or take.

Therefore, I would like to offer the MSM a few suggestions as to how they could have included a mention of Mr. Kilpatrick's party affiliation throughout the article.

We'll start simple; Kwame Kilpatrick is a Democrat.

There, we said it. It's out in the open now. No need to be ashamed.

Let's try something a little bolder; Kwame Kilpatrick addressed the 2004 Democratic National Convention

Risqué, I know. But now that we've jumped in head first, let's explore some other options; something akin to the aforementioned gratuitous link to Larry Craig. I shall lay it all on the line for you MSM.

Kilpatrick was once investigated for a wild party involving strippers at his city-owned mayoral mansion. A stripper who claimed to have performed at The Manoogian Mansion party was a victim of what one member of the Detroit Police Department dubbed a ‘deliberate hit.' It has also been reported that Kilpatrick made use of a Detroit Police motorcycle for his own personal use. He is also embroiled in a lawsuit involving police officers claiming to have been fired for investigating the mayor's personal affairs. Oh, and did we mention that he had a sexual affair with his chief of staff in 2002 and 2003?

Somehow, the AP was unable to find this information after the hours of extensive research that I'm sure were poured into the article.

I'd be willing to bet though, that if this were a Republican Mayor, every controversial item in their lives since birth would poke out from within the report.

UPDATE:

I 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:

After receiving the most votes of the dozen candidates in Tuesday's nonpartisan primary, Hendrix, the city's former deputy mayor, and incumbent Kwame Kilpatrick, another Democrat, are left to duke it out in the Nov. 8 general election for mayor.

Being a Democrat apparently was newsworthy in this instance.

Also, they had this past National Briefing which states:

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick of Detroit has decided to stop wearing his trademark diamond earring. "That little insignificant thing in my ear gave off a bad spirit of rebellion," Mr. Kilpatrick, 35, who is locked in a tight race for re-election, said Wednesday. He said it overshadowed the fact that he had a law degree and was leader of the Michigan House, adding, "I'm able to do things like put together the best emergency operations plan in the country." Mr. Kilpatrick, a Democrat, showed up without the stud on Wednesday at a church event to announce his endorsement by several religious leaders. He stopped wearing the earring during his 2001 campaign after a poll showed that women ages 40 to 55 did not like it. (AP)

It would seem that an earring scandal also warrants a mention of party affiliation. But jail time? Not so much.

One more example is this article in 2001 which adds:

State House Democratic leader Kwame Kilpatrick beats City Council president Gil Hill to become Detroit's next mayor.

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.