As predicted by Bryan Preston of the PJ Tatler, the supposedly non-partisan Texas Tribune downplayed the story about the Project Veritas video showing Battleground Texas illegally using voter registration information. How did The Texas Tribune do that? By bizarrely makiing the focus of their deflect story the Texas Secretary of State, rather than the video itself.
Here is Preston's detailed analysis of The Texas Tribune's deflection:
As I noted above, when they have covered previous videos that made Democrats look bad, the Trib neutralized the actual content of the video as much as possible. That in mind, read their story on the latest video. The Tribune handles a video that it cannot avoid covering, with a great deal of tactical awareness of how to underplay the video’s content.
First, they don’t embed the video in their story. They link it, requiring readers to take an extra step to click on the link and then come back to read the rest of their article.
Second, they downplay what the Battleground Texas organizer says in the video. They write all around that content — which is the heart of the story — with quotes from a number of other people, plus hints that James O’Keefe is a bad person. They cap the story off by quoting a Democrat Party lawyer who defends Battleground Texas. What a surprise! And then they finish with a Democrat talking point about voting rates in the state.
Capping all of that, the Trib headlines the piece as blandly as possible — “Battleground Texas Activities Draw Questions.” Yawn.
And the photo. Don't forget the photo on the story that completely misses the point, Bryan:
There is another problem with the Trib’s coverage. The photo atop the story is not a photo of the Battleground Texas organizer, or James O’Keefe, or Wendy Davis. It’s a photo of the Texas secretary of state. She is not really the driver of the video. But by writing her into the lead, the Trib can justify the photo placement, which conveniently moves the most obvious photo choice — a screenshot of the BGTX organizer — off the top, and out of sight altogether.
