Media Report Sheehan’s Peace Movement Exit, Not Her Democrat Party Departure

Well, sports fans, it appears the media have figured out a clever way to report the events surrounding antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan this weekend without insulting the political party they are shilling for.

Looking at the major media outlets that have begun to cover this story, the strategy appears to be to report Sheehan’s Daily Kos post from Monday, wherein she stated that she was resigning “as the ‘face’ of the American anti-war movement,” while totally ignoring her Saturday post when she defiantly declared, “I am leaving the Democratic Party.”

Pretty sneaky, wouldn’t you agree?

However, this certainly appears to be the modus operandi as demonstrated by the following articles on the subject published Tuesday which included absolutely no reference to her statements Saturday:

• CNN: Anti-war mom Cindy Sheehan gives up her protest
• Fox News: Cindy Sheehan Quits as 'Face' of Anti-War Movement
• CBS/AP: Cindy Sheehan Calls It Quits
• Yahoo/The Nation: It's Up To You Now

In reality, the Associated Press piece covered by CBS is the most disingenuous, as it early on referred to Sheehan’s disappointment with Thursday’s Congressional vote to fund the war in Iraq:

"I've been wondering why I'm killing myself and wondering why the Democrats caved in to George Bush," Sheehan told The Associated Press by phone Tuesday while driving from her property in Crawford to the airport, where she planned to return to her native California.

It seems this would have been a perfect opportunity to share with readers just how disappointed Sheehan was in the Democrats by pointing out that just two days earlier she had decided to quit the Party.

I guess that would be too much like journalism.

That said, it’s going to be very interesting to see how this gets covered during the day, as CNBC just did a blurb about Sheehan’s statement Monday. Of course, there was no reference to her leaving the Democrats.

Color me unsurprised.

And, now that AP has a piece out there, it will be fascinating to watch which outlets cover it, or ignore it.

Stay tuned.