NY Pol Indicted… But What’s That Party?

January 24, 2009 | Filed Under Crime, GOP, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston |

-By Warner Todd Huston

Today we have the corresponding opposite to prove the point of our favorite game, “Name That Party.” You see, today we have the case in point of the former Senate leader of New York’s legislature Joseph Bruno. Mr. Bruno has been indicted on those ever lovin’ federal corruption charges for “defrauding the people of New York from 1993 through at least 2006.”

He’s a rotten so-and-so, of course. Apparently the FBI has been after him for months and since before he retired from the state legislature. Now he faces an eight-count indictment issued by the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York.

So, from what party does this ner-do-well hail…

Well, it’s the Republican Party. And how do we know this? Well, check out the beginning of this AP story: (my bold throughout)

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Joseph Bruno, the former majority leader of the New York Senate and for a time the most powerful Republican in state politics, was indicted Friday on federal corruption charges.

Or we could check out the AP’s short slug on the story which waits all the way until the second sentence to inform us what party that Mr. Bruno belongs to.

A danged, rotten old Republican! Imagine.

Or, we could take a look at this very first paragraph of this NewsDay story:

Former State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno was indicted Friday on charges of illegally mixing his private business dealings with state government - another twist in the Albany drama that has surrounded the one-time Republican powerhouse for more than a year.

Hmmm. He’s noted as a Republican right away. Shocking.

At least The New York Times waited until the third paragraph of its treatment of this dastardly GOP rat.

But, then there’s the Washington Post that was in such a hurry that it didn’t wait for the story to start at all but told us right in the headline that “Former NY GOP Leader Indicted.”

Reuters gives us the important news of party affiliation in it’s first sentence, too.

And, on top of that, nearly every single local New York paper, TV and radio report filed on the Internet includes Bruno’s party right in the first few sentences.

So, what we have here is proof of the claim we’ve made repeatedly that if the Old Media finds a criminal Republican politician, the fact that he is a Republican leads the story. Whereas, and as we’ve chronicled dozens and dozens of times in the past, when the media finds a criminal Democrat that politician’s party is either buried at the end of the story or never mentioned at all because… it isn’t “relevant” to the tale.

The Media are soooo transparent, aren’t they?

(Photo from albanysinsanity.wnymedia.net)

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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, Human Events Magazine, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston

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