Posted on 03/12/2008 12:28:22 PM PDT by John Jorsett
Ronald Reagan often said "I did not leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me."
For floundering and foundering New York Governor Eliot Spitzer -- a twist on the Gipper's words. Spitzer didn't leave the Democratic Party: the Media just didn't see the need to mention the fact that Spitzer was - at least until noon Wednesday -- one of the most powerful Democrats in the nation.
On Monday afternoon, the Big Three Networks (NBC, ABC and CBS) and the Associated Press led the charge of the wall-to-wall coverage of the breaking news that Spitzer was involved with an interstate prostitution ring. And with near unanimity they failed to mention that Spitzer is a Democrat.
Spitzer - who since his years as the Big Apple's swashbuckling anti-capitalist Attorney General the Press has glowingly called the Champion of the Everyman -- was caught on one or more wiretaps dialing for damsels to the tune of $5,500 an hour.
Only the press can fail to see the irony of calling someone who inherited $500 million - and who hires ladies of the evening at hourly rates equal to a semester's tuition at a state university - a champion of the everyman.
Ronald Reagan also said, "It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first." Spitzer has finally, formally joined the two in the latest installment of the late New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's on-going game show "Defining Deviancy Down."
he media, as expected, inundated us with Spitzer stories. They went on and on at great length analyzing the merest minutiae and every detail related to the Spitzer saga - save one. Nearly all their reports were bereft of any mention that he is a (shhh!) Democrat.
NBC has been the worst offender. They have not -- as of early Wednesday morning -- yet labeled Spitzer as a Democrat in any manner.
They led off their Monday Nightly News cast with "Fall From Grace", a four minute story on Spitzer that made no mention -in either word or graphic - of the fact that he is a Democrat. Tuesday morning on their Today show they ran eleven Spitzer stories - in none of them did they label him a Democrat in any way. Tuesday's evening news again made no mention of Spitzer's Party affiliation, but somehow managed to verbally and graphically identify Republicans in their story on Spitzer.
That is thirteen NBC stories on Spitzer over nearly two full days, with no reference whatsoever to him as a Democrat.
ABC fared just barely better. Through Tuesday night, no one on either World News Tonight or Good Morning America said the word "Democrat" in reference to Spitzer. Two times for a total of six seconds -- once on Monday night and once on Tuesday morning -- a "D" was placed by his name in an on-screen graphic.
Like NBC, they too identified Republicans in their Spitzer stories as Republicans, and managed the added coup of assailing the Rs as partisan for wanting the apparently unaffiliated Spitzer to resign.
Congratulations ABC, for being six seconds more credible than NBC.
This is devolving into the network news equivalent of the Gong Show, where one utterly miserable contestant takes some sort of perverse pride in being gonged six seconds later than another utterly miserable contestant.
Hurrahs to CBS's Katie Couric, who on her Evening News actually called Spitzer a Democrat once. But the glory soon faded, as no one on Tuesday morning's Early Show did, relying on two spots totaling fourteen seconds worth of graphically delivered "D"s, and diminished further still with Tuesday night's news also failing to deliver the label.
Gong!
Our old friend, the Associated Press, broke the story with 590 words Monday afternoon, without any Spitzer Party mention. They then came back with a "BREAKING NEWS UPDATE" - perhaps it had come to their attention that he is in fact a Democrat? Alas, no. Eighty-six additional words, nary a "Democrat" amongst them.
Another, related question also remains unanswered -- of what Party affiliation is Customer #9 (Spitzer's Emperor Club call-sign)'s favorite girl, Kristen? The Media may very well deliver this before they do Spitzer's party.
And this is by no means the first time that a Democrat in hot water is transformed by the Media as if by magic into Unaffiliated Man.
Recall Gary Condit, the California DEMOCRATIC Congressman who in 2001 ran into trouble when his Capitol Hill intern and secret paramour Chandra Levy turned up missing and later dead? The Big Three Networks ran a total of 179 stories over the course of the saga -- only 14 contained a reference to him as a Democrat, less than 8%.
And current DEMOCRATIC Mayor of Detroit Kwame Kilpatrick - embroiled in a sex scandal involving his chief-of-staff - has been repeatedly delivered to the public as Unaffiliated Man by Media outlets great and small since the story broke in January.
Just more episodes in the never-ending Gong Show - Media series. (The real) Gong Show host Chuck Barris, somewhere, is smiling.
* If a politician's party affiliation is not mentioned, he's a Democrat.
* If media outlet's bias is not mentioned, it's left-wing.
* If a criminal's race is not mentioned, he's black.
Take it to the bank.
This article would have been better if the author had done a similar analysis on the plethora of stories about Senator “Wide-Stance” Larry Craig, whom I anecdotally recall was identified as a Republican in every story about his incident.
Well, doesn’t everyone know that good Democrats don’t do these things? And of course if they get caught up in something like this, it has nothing to do with the fact that they are Democrats.
Whereas Republicans by definition are evil, so if a
Republican is involved, the MSM plays it up because by definition the Republicans are evil. Thus, because they are Republicans, they do bad things.
(sarcasm off now)
This is very true with the periodic rioting that has happened in France in the past few years. News reports frequently reported that “youths” were committing violence, without being more descriptive about who these “youths” were. To the casual observer, you wouldn’t know that it was African/Muslim immigrant “youths” expressing themselves.
“* If a criminal’s race is not mentioned, he’s black.”
The race of the Orange county jewelry store robber who was shot to death by the cops wasn’t mentioned. He was white.
Reverse discrimination.,....or something like that....must be a first though...
Republican Senator Larry Craig, one of two Republican senators from Idaho, was arrested for lewd and hypocritical actions. Republican leaders refused to comment on the case, which is the latest in lewd and hypocritical cases in which Republicans have been involved. President Bush, also a member of the Republican party, has not commented on this latest news invovling Republican Senator Larry Craig.
Gosh, I’m glad they never mentioned Larry Craig’s party affiliation!
/s
So real it coulda happened.
How then, do you know that he was white? I read that, since he was dead, they were withholding identification until notification of next of kin. When they finally ID'd him did they include a photo?
* If a criminal’s immigration status isn’t mentioned, he’s an illegal.
You don’t understand ... it’s presumed that those who engage in this tawdry behavior are Dems; it’s only when the perp is NOT a Dem that party identification required. That’s their story and they’re stickin’ to it.
Of course. That omission was deliberate, intentional and done with full and complete knowledge and awareness of the reason for the action.
Try this. Go to Google, and type in “Larry Craig Bathroom”. 4 of the 10 entries that come back will either show the “R”, or label him as a conservative (that’s the text that shows up on the search results, not the mentions in articles that are cited).
Now do Eliot Spitzer Hooker.
Not ONE of the 10 responses have any reference to him being a liberal or to his party affiliation.
I thought the Today Show was funny. They even identified a democrat critical of Spitzer to make it appear as if it was a democrat criticizing a republican.
The race of the animals that murdered the Auburn and UNC coeds has not been mentioned...they’re both black.
BTW, Gary Condit Sandra returns TWO of 10 entries identifying him as a democrat. But one is a blog entry complaining about how he was not identified as a democrat.
Of course, there are a lot of people who can't put two and two together.
And any responsible media outlet would verbally report it, but that isn't our reality in this country.
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