Here at NewsBusters yesterday, Brent Baker, Ken Shepherd, and Scott Whitlock noted now the TV networks, with rare exception, avoided calling indicted Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick a Democrat.
On the print and online side of Old Media, the Associated Press also avoided identifying Kilpatrick's party (HT to an anonymous e-mailer). This follows on the heels of another such example almost a week ago.
AP writer Corey Williams, in a 400-plus word article carried at Breitbart and posted just before noon yesterday, missed clear opportunities in at least the first, second, and sixth paragraphs of his report to tell readers that Kilpatrick is a Democrat:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2008/03/25/ap-joins-kwame-kilpat...
(Can you name where this has happened locally?)
Let's see:
Stephen Thomas, Democrat, former Toledo Public School Board member. Never mentioned in stories about him allegedly spending union money on strippers.
Karyn Mcconnell-Hancock, they mention she was on City Council, but not a Democrat.
Carty Finkbiener, for the first few days of the Carty vs Marines incident, no mention. Was even noted in a major publication.
Tom Noe - always is mentioned as a Republican
Bob McCloskey - I don't remember and have not had any recent press.
Anyone else?
It's a SECRET!
Of course, it could be stated that if we're discussing a Rusty City politician, then of course you're talking about a Democrat. Those union goons wouldn't put a lousy Republican in office, now, would they?
2 observations (note - I am not a Democrat, so these aren't defensive comments):
1) The Detroit mayoral race doesn't pit one party against each other. Kwame was not elected as the "Democratic candidate." In fact, Freeman Hendrix, Kwame's opponent in the last mayoral race, is also a Democrat. Its not like a gubernatorial election where you have a D candidate, an R candidate, and maybe some independent candidates.
and
2) I have seen references in the local and national news regarding Kwame being a Democrat. For example, here's the opening paragraph to a story that has appeared on Reuters, Yahoo news (via Reuters, of course)
"Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and official misconduct on Monday stemming from a sex scandal and the prominent Democrat's, handling of an $8.4 million settlement of a whistle-blower lawsuit against the city."
(Story can be found at the following links:
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2431691120080325
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080324/ts_nm/detroit_mayor_dc)
Anyhow, like I said, I'm not a Democrat - just someone who gets annoyed at all of this bickering about D's doing this, R's doing this, one side gets special treatment by the media, blah, blah, blah. (As far as I'm concerned, neither side is better than the other. lol )
Maybe they just pulled a Fox Noise...
The republicans and democrats have enough sleaze balls among their ranks to make it unnecessary to mention their party affiliation.