Former New Orleans Mayor Nagin, Arraigned on Bribery Charges, Not ID'd

Tom Blumer
February 21st, 2013 10:28 AM
At the Associated Press yesterday, Michael Kunzelman managed to write a 500-word story about the arraignment of former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on bribery charges without once mentioning that Nagin is a Democrat. That's probably not a "Name That Party" record for "Most Words Used in an AP Story about a Democratic Politician Tainted by Scandal and/or Corruption," but it's especially galling…
 

Name That Party: Reuters, AP Fail to Tag Ray Nagin, Under Federal Inve

Tom Blumer
February 13th, 2012 11:56 PM
Maybe there's some unwritten guideline in the press relating to when a politician who is no longer holding office doesn't have to have his party label applied if he gets into some kind of trouble -- even if that trouble is related to when he was in office. The suspicion here is that the rule only applies to past Democratic Party officeholders, and that the guideline period is unduly short. A…
 

AP Lede on O'Keefe Raises Watergate Specter: 'What Did the Right Wing

Matthew Balan
January 27th, 2010 7:43 PM
The Associated Press on Wednesday insinuated there might be a wider conservative plot behind James O’Keefe’s alleged misdeeds at Senator Mary Landrieu’s office, and invoked the Watergate scandal in their lede: “Was it an attempt at political espionage? Or just a third-rate prank? How high did it go? And what did the right wing know and when did they know it?”AP writers Michael Kunzelman and Brett…