Omitting indicted lawmaker's party was an error

toledoblade.com ^ | 06/10/07 | Jack Lessenberry

[TornadoAlley3]

The angry, anonymous e-mail was typical of a dozen other phone calls and e-mails I received last week. "Why in the article today about the indictment of (U.S. Rep.) William Jefferson was there NO mention that he is a Democrat?

"In no other Associated Press article about the matter anywhere does it fail to mention this. There is zero disconnect from The Blade's committed left editorial page and its committed left news page."

The answer is that while The Blade makes every effort to keep the news columns free from any bias, this time, our newspaper simply screwed up and made an unfortunate and embarrassing error.

Ron Royhab, The Blade's vice president-executive editor, agrees. "This should not have happened. Any time a politician is in the spotlight, for good or ill, their political party is a relevant and necessary part of the story."

Unfortunately, by the time the mistake was brought to his attention, it was too late to tell from the computer system which editors had handled that particular story, but I can assure you that he intends to let editors in charge of that department know how he feels about that.

There is a separation between news and opinion. And while The Blade's editorial page has been harshly critical of the Bush Administration, I would not describe it as a "committed left" page, but an independent one. On some topics, The Blade has been conservative, as in the paper's support for the death penalty. It is worth noting that The Blade endorsed both Ronald Reagan and, in 1988, George H. W. Bush. On the national level, however, it has clearly favored more Democrats for office over the last decade.

Partly for that reason, the editors of the news columns need to work hard to keep the news columns free of any hint of bias. By the way, I don't agree with the writer that The Blade intentionally "buried" the story, which was on Page 3, which is traditionally devoted to national news.

[TOneocon]

BULLSH!T

[Chode]

and the RATS, take another one in the...............HA ha!!!

[pnh102]

Their only regret is getting caught. They probably did the same thing with Gary Condit (D-CA).

[PGalt]

And, by the way, The Blade ran an editorial clearly identifying him as a Democrat - and demanding he resign.

Lefty Jack Lessenberry covering for his fellow propagandists. What a clown. I've read some of his bilge in Metro Times. He is disturbing.

[Bahbah]

Do they even believe themselves?

[csvset]

I wish The Blade had made a reference to it in the front-page "Inside" box, but Mr. Jefferson's district is a thousand miles from Toledo.

He is not an especially important congressman.

Ouch! Damn, Billy Jeff, you have been dissed, yo !

[FreePaul]

There is a separation between news and opinion.

Apparently not. At least it's not in most papers and national news services.

[Erik Latranyi]

Let me ask this, Mr. Editor:

Why doesn't this ever happen when the public official has an "R" after his name?

[RushLake]

You beat me to the punch. Dittos!

[AlaninSA]

Their only regret is getting caught. They probably did the same thing with Gary Condit (D-CA).

As you'll remember, Condit was most often referred to in the news as "Rep" Gary Condit...and that caused confusion in identifying him for many...as they thought he was a "Rep"ublican.

[saganite]

Complete and total BS. Rush has been pointing out these “oversights” for years. It’s not new and it’s not accidental.

[stevie_d_64]

Hey you forgot an “I” in that word...

Could have been a typo, the keys are so close together, it could happen...

(See, I bet everyone stops and looks down at their keyboard now!)

hehehe, gotcha!!!

Anyway I agree, the Toledo Toilet Paper is BS...

(And yeah, I left out a bunch of letters there...hehehe)

[Thermalseeker]

Do they even believe themselves?

Doubtful, but they expect us to swallow this pathetic excuse. And these folks actually call themselves "professionals"?

What I'd like to know is why it is in virtually every story that appears in the laimstream media where a DemocRat is caught with his hand in the cookie jar party affiliation is either not mentioned or it gets only casual mention or it's buried in the story in paragraph 18? (rhetorical question, I know the answer)

[vamoose]

Unfortunately, by the time the mistake was brought to his attention, it was too late to tell from the computer system which editors had handled that particular story,

Why the heck do you need computer system to determine who handled the story? Why not just ask the editors? "Hey Joe, did you handle the Jefferson story yesterday?" or, "Steve, who did you assign the Jefferson story to?"

[SamuraiScot]

Why the heck do you need computer system to determine who handled the story? Why not just ask the editors?

Because he would find out, and then (presumably) feel obliged to tell us what trivial, ineffectual thing he was going to do about it.

[cgbg]

Now they are blaming their left-wing bias on "the computer".

rofl

[sig226]

None of them would admit it since the piece actually caused a problem for the paper. Courageous journalists and all . . .

[AlphaOneAlpha]

“The Blade’s editorial page has been harshly critical of the Bush Administration, I would not describe it as a “committed left” page, but an independent one.”

Hmmm, yeah, right. On a par with the NY Times.
You know them, the All the News That’s Fit to Twist crowd

[Arrowhead1952]

Complete and total BS. Rush has been pointing out these “oversights” for years. It’s not new and it’s not accidental.

That is so true. I know many articles in the Austin paper that usually mention the (R) in the first line of the first paragraph if it is any kind of corruption involved and usually above the fold of A-1.

The William Jefferson article was buried on A-9 or A-11 and the same day, they published a Ben Sergeant cartoon about the guest lists that had the devil visiting the VP's house.