As 200 G-Men Swarm, Cleveland Press 'Forgets' What Party Runs Cuyahoga County

If there is a previous record for "Highest Level of Saturation Press Coverage with No Political Party Affiliation Named" (HT to e-mailer Jason), the Cleveland press corps almost broke it.

In looking over three publications' stories about today's massive and far-ranging police actions in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, Ohio, I found only one reference to the Democratic Party affiliation of those involved. Cleveland's sole daily newspaper put up a half-dozen related blog entries and failed to name anyone's party in any of them.

First, though, from the always-reliable (in shielding troubled Dems' party affiliations) Associated Press, writer Joe Milicia named no party in eight paragraphs:

FBI searches county offices in Cleveland

FBI and IRS agents served at least 10 search warrants Monday at Cuyahoga County offices, businesses and homes as part of a public corruption investigation, authorities said.

About 200 FBI agents, some brought in from Pittsburgh to help with the searches, raided the county administration building, engineer's office and an information services center.

..... Agents entering the administration building searched the third and fourth floors, including Auditor Frank Russo's office and Commissioner Jimmy Dimora's office, Wilson said. FBI vehicles were spotted at both oAgents entering the administration building searched the third and fourth floors, including Auditor Frank Russo's office and Commissioner Jimmy Dimora's office, Wilson said. FBI vehicles were spotted at both of their homes.

At the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the paper's 9:35 AM blog entry (video is available at the link) also put up eight paragraphs without identifying the Democratic Party affiliation of any of those involved:

Cuyahoga County offices, businesses, homes raided in FBI corruption investigation

More than 100 federal agents swooped into Cuyahoga County offices, the homes of officials including County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, and several businesses. The FBI said it was investigating public corruption, but agents would not confirm whether all of Monday morning's raids were connected.

• Agents cordoned off county workers on the administration building's third and fourth floors and targeted Dimora's office. The workers were sent home after filling out forms identifying themselves.

• Searches were also conducted at the West Side office of the county engineer and the county's data center. .....

• The searches involved both the FBI and the IRS, including the tax agency's entire Northeast Ohio criminal unit.

Separately, the Plain Dealer is working on entering the record books for "Most Related Blog Entries with No Party Affiliation." Besides the one just excerpted, there's this, this, this, this, and this.

Only Kim Wendel of TV station WKYC broke the party-affiliation silence in the story's seventh paragraph -- but only after missing at least a half-dozen opportunities to do so in the previous six:

FBI/IRS raid the Cuyahoga County administration building, other county offices, officeholders' homes

The FBI and IRS executed search warrants early Monday morning inside the Cuyahoga County administration building, the county engineer's office and elsewhere throughout Cuyahoga County, including the Independence home of Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora; the Mayfield Village home of Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo; and the Parma home of J. Kevin Kelley, a Russo employee and a Parma school board member.

At the county administration building, the FBI's Scott Wilson said the raid was the culmination of a longstanding investigation but did not elaborate when asked by Channel 3's political correspondent Tom Beres.

FBI and Internal Revenue Services vehicles encircled the building early this morning. They have questioned and released dozens of employees on the third and fourth floors.

Those employees were told to go home.

People inside the building said the search warrants are being executed on the third and fourth floors and that the warrants are focused on information regarding public and political corruption.

The third floor is where Russo's office is and the fourth floor houses the Cuyahoga County commissioners -- Jimmy Dimora, Tim Hagan and Peter Lawson Jones.

Dimora is also chairman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.

Of course we don't know the full nature of what the FBI and IRS were looking for, exactly what led them to conduct their searches, or what they might have uncovered. But it would appear that the "use by" date for the "culture of corruption" theme employed against Republicans by Democrats to gain political power in the Buckeye State during the past few years might have passed.

In Ohio, it's likely that even most casual followers of the news know that Cleveland and Cuyahoga County politics are dominated by Democrats. But again, as with the ongoing criminal situation involving Democratic Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (commented on last week at NewsBusters and BizzyBlog), the whole nation deserves to know which political machine is involved with corrupt and/or criminal activities. As in Detroit, Cleveland-area journalists appear to be determined to prevent that as much as they possibly can.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.