Name That Party

Tuesday's CBS Evening News highlighted an ethics investigation of a long-serving House Democrat, but viewers were not clued in to his party affiliation verbally or with any an on-screen notation. Yet CBS slapped a party name on screen as a Murtha critic spoke: “Rep. Jeff Flake (R) Arizona.” Fill-in anchor Maggie Rodriguez avoided Murtha's party as she asserted “there are few politicians as…

Vincent Fumo's chronicle of corruption is extraordinary, even by the "standards" of Philadelphia, PA. Thus, it's a journalistic fail that in a story about the convictions of former 30-year state senator Fumo and longtime associate Ruth Arnao, NBC Philadephia (HT Michelle Malkin) did not identify his or her Democratic Party party affiliation. Here is a portion of NBC Philly's early-morning story:…

It's become axiomatic that the mainstream media are reluctant to identify the party affiliation of public officials found engaging in untoward behavior.  If the offending party is a Democrat, that is.Today's CNN story, Pennsylvania official checks into rehab following arrest, is yet another example.  It begins:Pennsylvania's acting secretary of labor and industry has entered a rehabilitation…

The Associated Press wire relayed a short item on Friday about how outgoing Mayor Barrie Parsons Tilghman (D-Salisbury, Md.) recently slammed bloggers as the greatest threat to her fair Eastern Shore city. Via the Maryland Daily Record: SALISBURY — In her final State of the City address, Salisbury Mayor Barrie Parsons Tilghman warned residents of what she sees as…

"Villaraigosa affair may not be one to remember," prophesied the July 7, 2007 headline in the L.A. Times. A year and a half later, the Associated Press danced around the Democratic Los Angeles mayor's adulterous liaison with a Spanish-language reporter assigned to the city hall beat.From today's story on his March 3 re-election accessed at CBSNews.com (emphases mine), notice how the AP pulls its…

You've got to hand it to Jim Provance of the Toledo Blade. He managed only to identify the party of a Republican in a story that is primarily about a Democratic administration's failure to produce timely financial statements. Democratic Governor Ted Strickland, his administration, and his appointed Democrats in Ohio's Office of Budget and Management are not going to have the state's records in…

There's an N-Word you apparently write at your own risk if you're in the establishment media. It's "nationalization." The Associated Press's Stephen Bernard, with the help of old reliables Jeannine Aversa and Martin Crutsinger, blew through almost 800 words (link is dynamic; 12:49 p.m. version is saved here for future reference, is now authored by Crutsinger, and is longer than what I originally…

CNN and The Washington Post had institutional memory lapses today.  On CNN Saturday Morning News, this was the lead story from anchors Betty Nguyen and T.J. Holmes:BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen. We do want to thank you for starting with us. It is the 21st of February, and we do want to begin with some breaking news.HOLMES: Yes, and kind of a -- a shocker…

Well, isn't THIS interesting. In a December post (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I reviewed ABC's online "The Faces of Political Scandal" slideshow, which featured mini-profiles of 14 politicians in recent years who have been tainted by scandal and/or crime. At the time, I noted that: Of the 14 politicians identified, seven are Democrats and seven are Republicans. Five of the seven GOP members…

Former Chicago Democratic Alderman Arenda Troutman was sentenced today to four years in prison for mail and tax fraud. In covering her sentencing, both the Chicago Sun-Times article (picture at right is cropped from that article) and Jeff Coen's Breaking News piece at the Chicago Tribune failed to mention that Troutman is a Democrat. Now it would be easy to say, "But of course she's a Democrat;…

This "Name That Party" situation has many of the usual elements. There are several stories about two Democratic judges involved in criminal behavior in Pennsylvania, and, with one exception, they "somehow" don't get around to identifying their party. But this saga is different for two reasons: The crimes to which the judges have pleaded guilty involve "thousands" of juveniles. In one lonely…

Disgraced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was released shortly after midnight this morning, having served a 99-day jail term. Reporting the story, the Associated Press noted the pol's Democratic Party affiliation in the fourth paragraph of its story, after noting that he "looked thinner and his beard was fuller" than when he was admitted to jail. Yet in a 43-second AP video narrated by…

Seven weeks after his arrest for allegedly attempting to peddle Barack Obama’s Senate seat, Rod Blagojevich was removed as governor of Illinois on Thursday. ABC, CBS and NBC all offered full reports last night and this morning, but none of the anchors or reporters provided any hint that Blagojevich was a Democrat. Back on December 9, reporting on the then-governor’s arrest, NewsBusters noted…