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.
