Posted on 07/05/2006 8:07:22 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
by Mark Finkelstein
July 5, 2006
Merely because someone has just died doesn't mean you can't use the article announcing his death to take a swipe at President Bush. If you're the Associated Press, that is.
In this article, published only minutes after Lay's death, the AP somehow found it pertinent , after only three short paragraphs announcing the death, to report that Lay was "nicknamed 'Kenny Boy' by President Bush."
The MSM has gotten more mileage than a Prius coasting downhill out of W's 'heck of a job, Brownie' to then-FEMA Director Michael Brown in the wake of Katrina. Looks like they're going to stick with a winning formula, even when it comes to the dead.
AP is of course unsubtly trying to tie Pres. Bush to the Enron scandal. In doing so, AP ignores not only that the Clinton administration had chummy dealings with Lay and Enron. Beyond that, the implication is that Bush only bestows sobriquets on good friends. As the WH press corps well knows, he has nicknames for many of them, including a good number whom no one would confuse for administration fans.
But why let truth - or decorum in reporting a man's death - get in the way of a partisan swipe at a Republican president?
AP/NewsBusters back-from-4th ping to Today show list.
Yeah, but Bill and Hill called him often.
I wonder what the Houston Comical's nickname for him was. They were in bed with this criminal. He got them the 51% vote they needed for their billion dollar stadium referendum (baseball, basketball, football).
Must've lost their copy of the AP Stylebook.
I really wish that SOME media outlet would report on the fact that all the shady dealings happened during the Clinton Administration! The clean-up of all the scandals started shortly after Bush was inaugurated. Lay had sleep-overs at the WH during the Clinton Administration. The MSM conveniently ignores the Clinton/Lay friendship.
In the NewsBusters piece I link to a Media Research Center article detailing some of the Clinton/Enron dealings.
I guess they didn't point out that it was Dubya that prosecuted that case via Alberto Gonzales either.
Excellent point!!
You can be assured that the AP never had respect for the truth and now the dead.
I wonder what W calls AP.
LOL. I bet he has a few choice ones!
What a crock. I read the article via a link on drudge and noticed the swipe as well. I really do hate the media.
THE MSM LIES ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT. THEY LIE ALL THE TIME.
Probably "A$$-Paper!"
I love pithy headlines. Too bad nobody used it.
Ken lay dead.
Oh, it wasn't just in today's death notice. The "KennyBoy" reference has been in every "Lay found guilty" article and in most of the articles covering the Enron trial, too.
The Sun probably will tomorrow
CNN is also running the line'Bush called him Kenny Boy'along the bottom of their news cast. cnn doesn't say what his golfing partner Clinton called him.
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