AP Kept Blago's Party ID Out of Three Pre-Sentencing Stories on Tuesday
Wednesday afternoon, Matthew Balan at NewsBusters noted that two of the three network morning shows failed to mention disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's Democratic Party affiliation.
Not that it's an excuse, but what was probably their primary raw material, namely three Tuesday reports from the Associated Press, completely failed to tag Blago as a Democrat, specifically the following (idea HT to NB commenter "trak65"):
- Don Babwin and Michael Tarm, as carried at Yahoo News -- "After crime, punishment awaits ex-Gov. Blagojevich"
- An unbylined item carried at the Portland (ME) Press Herald -- "Defense: Ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s actions were criminal" (currently dated December 7, but content is clearly from Tuesday)
- Michael Tarm, as carried at TriValleyCentral.com in Arizona -- "Blagojevich hoping for light sentence"
Wednesday's coverage of Blago's 14-year sentence at the AP and the New York Times tagged him as a Democrat in the third paragraph, which beats nothing. But most short broadcast announcements won't get that far, and it's reasonable to believe that the journalists involved know that. Reuters waited until about Paragraph 15.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
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Comments
I am quite sure...
Submitted by c5then on Thu, 12/08/2011 - 8:54am.
That if they thought there was a slim chance they would get away with it, the media would have labeled him as a Republican.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
...AND,
Submitted by ontheright on Thu, 12/08/2011 - 10:37am.
most likely, the Repubs wouldn't have even attempted to set the record straight - it's their new "non-attack" strategy after all.
Unfortunately, We the People are in the mess we're in today because Conservatives/Repubs have continuously employed a "non-attack" strategy through the years and the liberal cesspool that is DC has deepened as a result...