Name That Party: 3 Dems in FBI Probe, Party Affiliation Omitted/Buried

I think it is finally getting to the point that when an Old Media story goes out over the wires without mentioning the party affiliation of troubled politicians, people naturally assume that all the criminal actions in said story are being perpetrated by Democrats. But, that assumption aside, we are still seeing reports nearly every day that omit the "Democrat" in any story involving criminal Democrats. Here is yet another one.

The Associated Press posted a story on the FBI's probe of questionable campaign donations to Senator Patty Murray and Representative Norm Dicks of Washington state. The possibly worrisome donations were from PMA Group, a lobbying firm founded by an aide of Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania. With all these politician's names being thrown around in the AP report, though, it is curious that not a one of them were ever identified as Democrats. Not once.

The AP does report that Senator Murray has donated her $3,500 contribution to a charity while Dicks told reporters that he was going to wait until the FBI was done to decide what he'd do with the cash. The AP also tells us that the two "reportedly received thousands of dollars from a wine steward, or sommelier, and a golf club employee who were identified as PMA officials on campaign finance reports." We learn of the John Murtha connection, too. But nowhere is the word "Democrat" mentioned.

A larger treatment of the story appears in the Seattle Times on March 23. In that story, David Heath reporting for the Times waits until the 9th paragraph to mention that Dicks and Murray are Democrats. But after that first mention, the word is used several times.

In any case, what we see if the Associated Press once again omitting the Democratic affiliation of troubled politicians.