Since Imran Awan's arrest in late July, the Daily Caller has published roughly two dozen follow-up stories on various aspects of the scandal involving the longtime rogue Democrat IT staffer and his inexplicably enriched family members.
The Associated Press and the New York Times have, from all appearances, published nothing since July 28.
At APNews.com, the site which has replaced the wire service's old "Big Story" site but which also theoretically includes important coverage from other AP-subscribing sources, the last story on Awan, the IT staffer for former Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, was on July 26, the day the Congresswoman officially fired him.
The AP's main national news site, hosted.ap.org, which usually but with some notable exceptions contains stories going back about two weeks, has no relevant story.
A search at the the New York Times indicates that the paper hasn't done a story on Awan since July 28 — and that story's fake-news headline ("Trump Fuels Intrigue Surrounding a Former I.T. Worker’s Arrest"), as I noted at the time, made it appear that President Donald Trump was the person having problems with rogue IT staffers.
Meanwhile, here are ten of the many items the Daily Caller has published in the past month during the AP's and Times's self-imposed silence. Much of the substance of those on the list which follows will be explained for readers who haven't fully kept up with the scandal's multi-faceted and outrageous developments:
- August 1 — "GOP Rep: House IT Scandal Among ‘All-Time Congressional Scandals’ Of Last 30 Years." That time frame would take things back to before the infamous House Bank scandal, which ended the careers of dozens of Congresspersons who routinely wrote checks despite having insufficient funds in their House Bank accounts to cover them. Of the 22 congresspersons singled out for particularly egregious abuse in this scandal (and although, to be clear, many other congresspersons engaged in the practice), 18 were Democrats.
- August 3 — "Florida Congressman Pays Girlfriend’s Family, Money Launderer For Unexplained Work." If it involves Florida and political corruption, you almost have to know that the name of Congressman Alcee Hastings, who was one a federal judge until he was impeached and convicted by the House and Senate, respectively, in 1989, will come up. In this instance, Hastings allegedly "used his taxpayer-funded office to pay high salaries to a convicted money launderer, as well as Hastings’s girlfriend and her daughter, and the Florida politician won’t say what kind of work the convicted money launder(er) does." This is potentially relevant to the Imran Awan case because it "raise(s) questions about how common it is for members of Congress to place 'ghost employees' on the payroll" — an allegation which potentially applies to Awan's vastly overpaid relatives.
- August 4 — "DWS: Imran Awan Is The Kindest, Bravest, Warmest, Most Wonderful Human Being I’ve Ever Known In My Life." This item by Jim Treacher, whose penetrating sarcasm is a national treasure, isn't newsworthy by itself, but it does link to a Broward County (FL) Sun Sentinel item where Wasserman Schultz ridicules the notion that Awan was trying to flee the U.S. when he was arrested at Dulles Airport after having transferred about $300,000 to an account or accounts in Pakistan. If a Republican congressman made such a claim about an aide in a similar situation, the late-night leftist activists posing as comedians would be all over it.
August 4 — "Wasserman Schultz Says Laptop She Sought To Keep From Police Was Awan's, Not Hers." Imagine that: After resisting police efforts to seize the laptop based on issues relating to whether it belongs to a "member" (of Congress), Wasserman Schultz has now totally changed her tune, claiming that, in reporter Luke Rosiak's words, "it was Imran’s laptop but purchased using taxpayer funds from her office," and that, in her words, "This was not my laptop. I have never seen that laptop. I don’t know what’s on the laptop."- August 5 — "Jeb Bush Just RIPPED Debbie Wasserman Schultz Over The House IT Scandal." What Bush said or didn't say isn't nearly as important as the should-be-obvious point that if someone like Chuck Schumer or Andrew Cuomo was "ripping" a Republican involved in a scandal like this, you'd have to rent a major hotel meeting room to accommodate the establishment media horde which would be hanging on their every word instead of ignoring the successful governor of one of the nation's largest states.
- August 8 — "Grassley Seeks Immigration Files For Pakistani Suspects In House IT Probe." Yes, "suspects" is plural: "the immigration files were requested for ... (Imran Awan's) wife, Hina Alvi, his brothers Abid and Jamal, sister-in-law Natalia Sova and friend Rao Rabbas. All are suspects in the criminal investigation, which became public in February."
- August 17 — "Two Former Wasserman Schultz IT Aides Indicted For Conspiracy Against US."
- August 18 — "Media Ignores Indictment Of Wassermann Schultz IT Aide." How often does the actual indictment of criminal arrested on serious charges while potentially facing far more serious charges relating to a congressional scandal get totally ignored by the establishment press? I'm sorry, I meant to ask how often that happens if the person involved is or is associated with a Republican or conservative. Answer: almost never.
- August 22 — "Dem Rep Dodges Questions On Arrested House IT Staffer." New York Congresswoman Yvette Clarke "agreed last year to sign away $120,000 of missing computer equipment for the two former IT aides who authorities now believe stole the gear from Congress," and "refused to answer questions" from a reporter about Awan.
- August 24 — "DWS 'Islamophobia' Claim Prompts Angered Marine To Go Public On Awans." Yes, Wasserman Schultz and Awan's Bill Clinton-connected lawyer are claiming that the matter is of no substance, and that it's really about "Islamophobia." It's really hard to blame the Marine involved for getting extremely angry over this when he sees someone who has sworn to uphold the Constitution and protect this country's interest so obviously demonstrate that she cares about neither.
That's more than enough examples to make the point.
Anyone who really believes that none of these Daily Caller stories are of national interest is either completely incompetent, works for the national establishment press as a de facto Democratic Party operative with a byline, or both.
Meanwhile, we must recall that in the single story the New York Times has deigned to write about the Awan situation, reporter Nicholas Fandos, in addition to employing the fundamentally dishonest Trump-related headline cited earlier, tried to claim that "Many here (in Washington) are finding it hard to say" whether "the (Awan) family’s story (is) the stuff of a spy novel, ripe for sleuthing and criminal prosecution, or simply an overblown ... story, typical of midsummer."
If this were a story about Republicans and conservatives, it would be a national establishment press obsession.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
