Liberal Bias For What They DON’T Say, Too

For the last few weeks I have been watching two stories that, were they about Conservatives or Republicans, would have been scandals that would have shaken the rafters of the MSM. But, since these stories are about two favored Liberals, one old and one newly minted, we have seen no faux outrage, no shocked commentary, no calls for heads on pikes to be posted at the entrance to Congress, and no calls for resignations. Oh, the stories were reported all right, but all sensationalism was eschewed with the usual extrapolation to the level of a “culture of corruption” cast aside for a straight, newsy style atypical to their normal means against Republicans.

These two stories and the lack of passionate coverage of them by the MSM shows that the MSM employs as much liberal bias in what they chose not to cover as they do in what they chose to go ahead and focus upon.

The two stories I’ve been following are:

• Story one: Dem Senator Resigns Post Because Husband Makes Money on US Contracts She Controls
• Story Two: Senator’s Aide Brings Senator’s Gun Into Senate Offices

With the first story, Senator Diane Feinstein (D, CA) has resigned as chairwoman and ranking member of the Senate's military construction appropriations subcommittee over charges that she has a “conflict of interest” because her husband has mysteriously made a hefty sum of money as a result of military contracts awarded to firms he has investments in.

As the Patriot Post has it:

California Senator Dianne Feinstein abruptly stepped down from the Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee this week, hoping to stem the tide of questions surfacing about the role she has played in defense contracts won by her husband, Richard Blum. An investigation pursued by the liberal California press and funded by The Nation magazine's investigative fund revealed that a number of defense contracts awarded to Blum's companies have interesting links to appropriations actions made during Feinstein's term on the committee.

Now, it's good that, as the Patriot Post puts it, a "liberal California press" pushed this story. But have you heard it outside of California? I have seen this story all over the place in the right leaning Blogosphere. Michelle Malkin, Paul Mirengoff of Powerline, News Max, Judicial Watch, and of course Newsbusters. All have reported on the story. I have also seen it in the Sacramento Bee, and a small paper in California called Metro Newspapers did a very extensive story on the issue. I have also seen a few terse and short notices in other traditional MSM sources, but no sensationalized or editorialized accounts.

So, where are the Haliburton-like calls of impropriety? Where are the charges of the “culture of corruption” and the claims of the unseemly connections? Where are calls for Senator Di Fi to step down and leave the Senate over her “appearance of graft”? Where are the Network’s talking heads sternly reporting on this depredation of ethics? Where are the outraged pundits?

Curiously, they remain practically silent.

Who can doubt that, were this a Republican, the MSM would sponsor a drumbeat of attacks against the perpetrator of such an ethics violation? Who doubts that the Democrat Congress would take up the MSMs drumbeat and the news over the issue would be inescapable, showing up everywhere you turn? And wouldn’t this story be a natural one to highlight after the lie that the Democrat's handed us upon their take over of Congress? After all didn't they claim they would be bringing back an “ethical” Congress?

Story Two: Senator’s Aide Arrested Bringing Gun Into Senate Offices

In part, the AP reported this on the day of the incident:

An aide to Sen. Jim Webb was arrested Monday when he entered a Senate office building with a loaded pistol belonging to the senator.

Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said the aide was charged with carrying a pistol without a license and possessing an unregistered firearm and unregistered ammunition.

A congressional official briefed on the incident said Webb gave the gun to Thompson when the assistant drove him to an airport earlier in the day. Thompson, upon entering the Senate building, forgot he was carrying the weapon.

"To our knowledge, this incident was an oversight," Webb's office said in a statement. It said it had no other details.

An “oversight”? This is a claim that the MSM seems to have taken for granted as if this is all there is to the story. It has since been dropped like a hot potato.

Now, this story got a bit more coverage by the MSM than the first one did, but I found only one report that seemed to go beyond a straight just-the-facts report of the incident in any way. That was a piece by the Washington Post’sDana Milbank who treated the story more with lighthearted amusement than condemnation.

But most of the reports were matter of fact affairs that simply reported the facts of the case.

MSNBC , Reuters , The New York Times , The Hill, and the L.A. Times all took on the story with no hint of editorializing… again a far cry from what they would do if this were a story about a Republican.

The story quickly faded into the past with no more notice paid it, all denizens of the MSM giving Senator Webb a pass and deciding en masse that it was to be a non-story. This whole incident showed quite well that leftists really don’t care about individual candidates -- even their own -- but only about beating the GOP. Webb, despite what he has said in the past or truly believes in, was thought able to beat the left’s enemy du jour, George Allen, back during the 2006 midterms. On that basis alone they support him and continue to do so.

After all, Webb is very high on the 2nd Amendment and is well known for his off the wall positions on race and American history. In his book “Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America”, Webb comes to the conclusion that his white southern kinsmen should rise up and take back their country from whatever enemy he sees ruining his beloved south which would be considered a "racist" position if a Republican took it. Not to mention that Webb had been a Republican until about 5 minutes before he announced his run for the Senate as a Democrat. Also not to mention that he obviously is sort of a creep with his personal relationships and comportment -- which even this story proved by Webb’s quickly throwing his own aide under the bus.

Yet, the left was able to look away from what Webb really believes in so that they could support a candidate that could beat George Allen. The candidate did not matter as long as he could win.

Imagine what they would have made of this story if Webb were a Republican… or should I say if Webb was still a Republican!

And that is really the nub of the point of this story. The left doesn’t care about the facts and they don’t really stand on any principle as an insoluble point. All matters are fungible if they can be used to defeat the foe. The anti-gun issue would have been a perfect club for the left to beat an enemy in the Senate over the head with, but Webb is one of their boys. So, that whole anti-gun thing is forgotten. Being against corruption and ethics violations is great to use as a weapon against the GOP, but Senator Feinstein is their girl, so the issue is quickly and quietly dropped.

The left is just as hypocritical with what they don’t say as with what they do say and as one of the left’s most important allies the MSM provides as much cover as needed to score the win. Even if that means letting a good story go away… or two stories as the case may be.