AP Continues Trend of Failing to Identify Democrats Embroiled in Scandal

On a day in which the AP found newsworthiness in scandals involving both Democrats and Republicans, only one party was expressly identified within the articles.  Can you guess which one?

It is the grand AP tradition known as 'Name That Party' - a tradition which includes the following:

• Fraudster Hassan Nemazee, finance chair for Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.
• Money laundering mayors Peter Cammarano III and Dennis Elwell.
• John Conyers wife.
• Jesse Jackson Jr. and Rod Blagojevich.
• and of course, Kwame Kilpatrick.

That's just a brief summary of the more recent transgressions committed by the AP.

In their story covering the taped sex comments of Assemblyman Mike Duvall, the AP has no problem identifying the lawmaker as a Republican.  In fact, they label him as such within the headline:

Calif. GOP lawmaker quits over taped sex comments

Yet, when it comes to a story involving the 48-count indictment of two former Pennsylvania judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella Jr., accused of taking millions of dollars in kickbacks, the word Democrat is nowhere to be found.  This news, it would seem, was not even worthy of a capital 'D'.

While affairs such as Duvall's are abhorrent and should be condemned, what the judges from Pennsylvania did can be considered far worse - sending kids that never deserved such harsh punishment to detention centers, scarring them for life.

The Duvall article is so thorough in its party identification, that it not only mentions this in the title, it goes on to sprinkle in such phrases as:

• GOP lawmaker
• Republican state lawmaker
• Conservative groups (twice)
• and 'One of five Republicans'

Oddly enough, the AP also saw fit to identify every other name mentioned within the article with their respective party, including:

• Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles
• Assembly Minority Leader Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo
• and Senator Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto

When it comes to news involving a kids-for-cash scandal on the other hand, the editors at the AP are unable to locate the 'D' key.

This, of course, comes as no surprise to readers of NewsBusters, as the coverage of the kids-for-cash judges, and the AP's choice to remove their party label has been chronicled by Tom Blumer in the past. 

Photo Credit:  AP Photo via CBSNews.com