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Is this nitpicking by liberal media critics or a disturbing pattern?
But in reporting on Ryan’s conviction, news outlets repeatedly failed to inform viewers that he is a Republican. As noted by blogger Joshua Micah Marshall, an April 17 “web exclusive” Time article by staff writer Eric Ferkenhoff omitted Ryan’s party affiliation but managed to highlight that of current Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, whose office is also under investigation […]The network news shows each briefly mentioned the conviction during their April 17 broadcasts. But in doing so, neither NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams nor CBS Evening News anchor Bob Schieffer informed viewers that Ryan is a Republican. On the April 18 edition of NBC’s Today, news anchor Ann Curry also reported the news without mentioning Ryan’s party.
Numerous Fox News hosts and anchors similarly ignored Ryan’s party affiliation during their April 17 reports on the conviction. They included Juliet Huddy, Martha MacCallum, Page Hopkins, and Harris Faulkner. CNN anchor Zain Verjee also failed to identify Ryan as a Republican during the April 17 edition of CNN’s The Situation Room.
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 1:04 pm
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For the past several years, George Ryan’s party identification has been rather ambiguous so perhaps it is fitting that he is not described as a Republican.
He certainly did not govern like one.
Comment by Establishment Republican Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 1:32 pm
If there’s a “pattern,†I think it’s fair to say that it’s isolated to the coverage of this story. I mean, it’s not like the media has made a big secret of Tom Delay or Duke Cunningham being Republicans. I didn’t notice a lack of GOP references in the stories about Abramoff.
Comment by grand old partisan Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 1:47 pm
Rich, the day Ryan emptied Death Row and sold out the prosecutors who spent months getting those convictions, is the day Republicans expunged him from the party. Much is made of the Willis family grief, but what of the grief of the families who lost loved ones to death row inmates.
Comment by Barnaby Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 1:54 pm
Well how does it feel. You never hear the media say that a Democrat is going to jail they never mention their party. This has to be a first. What it really shows is that who ever filed the first story, they all copied it the same. Now what does that say for the Drive by media.
Comment by The Conservative Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 1:54 pm
Of course this goes on all the time, and GOPers are more often the beneficiaries of such kid-glove treatment than Democrats. I remember when Janklow (sp?) the former governor and congressman from Nebraska was convicted of vehicular manslaughter just how INfrequently he was identified by party.
Why should this be a surprise? Study after study of the Sunday pundit shows, cable political programs, and even NPR have shown that politicians or analysts on the right appear significantly more often than their counterparts on the left.
Comment by truth squad Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 2:11 pm
Correction: Janklow was from South Dakota.
Comment by truth squad Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 2:12 pm
Given some of the comments above, I suppose we should just be thankful that he wasn’t identified as a Democrat!
Comment by Anon Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 2:15 pm
So their main examples of this horrible oversight are a bunch of national news readers who merely spit out a line or two from a blurb of broadcast wire copy?
Oh no, the LA Times waited until the 20th paragraph to say George is a Republican, what will LA residents do without this information so crucial to their daily lives?
This group might want to take on more pressing matters like counting grains of sand. I’ll bet their tinfoil hats help them get good reception on all the media shows they apparently hate to watch.
Comment by anon Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 2:15 pm
It probably is. Nationally the liberal media wants to believe that the GOP is very corrupt. Look at what they try to do with Bush and Tom DeLay.
Comment by Levois Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 2:33 pm
Is the fact that George is a Republican RELEVANT? I think not. He is not a current officeholder, like Bush DeLay, and his conviction does not leave a vacancy in an office (official or partisan). . . Whether TV, radio or print, a newsperson has only so many words they can use to tell a story.
On the other hand, maybe ‘Barnaby” is right — people might just assume that anyone who is so opposed to putting people to death (many of them shown to be innocent) must be a democrat! Yes, George sold out those prosecutors who spent months getting convictions of guys like Rolando Cruz. . .I bet brickhead Joe is still mad about that!
Comment by IVOTE! Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 2:57 pm
What planet would you have to be from to not know that George Ryan was a “Republican” Governor?
Comment by Jechislo Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 2:58 pm
Jechislo, I read a story today about one of the jurors who had never heard of GRyan before. She moved here from California.
Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 3:00 pm
Levois, reread the original post. Your comment makes no sense.
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Anon 2:15pm, their “main examples”? Media Matters wasn’t the first to notice this pattern, but they certainly documented it very well. Their “main examples” included pretty much every major and minor network and cable news outlet. (They skipped Latino media…). Get a grip.
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The Conservative, please name one instance where a Democrat was indicted or convicted and their party affiliation was not mentioned by the media. Just one (I’ll even accept Podunk Township Dog Catcher Joe Schmoe, (D-Palookaville)).
Otherwise, you’re just making malarkey up. (Wouldn’t be a first time that a conservative did so.)
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Finally, G.O.P. missed the point when he wrote: “If there’s a “pattern,†I think it’s fair to say that it’s isolated to the coverage of this story. I mean, it’s not like the media has made a big secret of Tom Delay or Duke Cunningham being Republicans. I didn’t notice a lack of GOP references in the stories about Abramoff.”
The pattern is one of sucking up to the party in power. The GOP controls all three branches of gov’t and the right-wing screaming whiners have so cowed the lazy media that they don’t dare tick them off anymore (heck, there were right-wingers complaining that Peter Jennings was avoiding conservative issues with the “excuse” he was sick… this was before he announced he had lung cancer).
Tom Delay and Duke Cunnigham were in the GOP Leadership, their party affiliation should have been mentioned just as Rostenkowski’s Dem affiliation should have been.
It’s a two-way street which is why this avoidance of party mention was so glaring.
As far as Abramoff, the media went to convoluted lengths to try and twist Dems into the mix too (saying he “gave donations to both Democrats and Republicans” as often as possible), despite the fact Abramoff gave ONLY to Republicans and conservative PACs.
You can look that up. Abramoff donated to only the GOP and the right-wing. No Dems or liberals involved.
Yet the media insisted on including both Dems and Repubs.
As far as the Ryan avoidance of affiliation… whether intentional or not it was a very noticeable absence in the news reporting — especially in the media outlets which mentioned Blago (who, in all fairness, is only under investigation and has not been indicted of anything) AND the fact he’s a Dem.
I continue to wonder why conservatives whine so much that the media is somehow liberal. If anything (present company excluded Rich) the media is lazy and just regurgitates what it hears from press releases, blast faxes and massaged/overpolled talking points in pols’ speeches with little thought or research (all in the name of “fair and balanced” — but what sort of balance is it when a sliver of a minority special interest group, on either side, gets as much or more say than ordinary mainstream folks?).
The national media in this nation is owned and controlled by that all-powerful conservative tool: the bottom line. There’s a race to be more like Fake News rather than to be balanced — but this is disturbing since Fake News already has all the audience it’s going to get. Ordinary Americans actually prefer balance, not bias toward one side or the other.
Comment by NW burbs Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 3:05 pm
Rich, Media Matters as a whole is a part of the left, but it’s founder David Brock started out with the right-wing noise machine and then the scales fell from his eyes and he switched to the good guys.
Comment by NW burbs Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 3:07 pm
truth squad you are making a statement without backing it up with any facts. please refernce the studies you state in your comments. of course, you may be right if you consider dan rather and the late peter jennings to be right leaning.
Comment by ron Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 3:10 pm
I cant help but laugh at how some people are now saying “well he acted like a democrat so…” here is a crazy news flash…he is a republican, ran as one, was elected as one, and served as one.
Does it matter if they id him by party on the news? Maybe, maybe not, but it is laughable that the best some people can come up with is that Ryan halted the death penatly so he wasnt really a republican. Give me a break!
Comment by THE Hankster Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 3:11 pm
Um, NW burbs, what in god’s name are you talking about?
I don’t know why the media left out Ryan’s party affiliation. But I think you’d be VERY hard pressed to prove that it’s part of a broad, wide-ranging pattern of “sucking up†to the GOP. No offense, but the argument that you have presented lacks both coherence and evidence.
The media didn’t go to “convoluted lengths to try and twist†Dems into the Abramoff story. I don’t believe there were any stories that claimed he donated to Dems (if you think there are, please provide a link). There were stories that said his clients included interest groups that donated heavily to both Dems and Republicans. And since that happens to be true, I don’t see where the problem is.
Please present some examples to show how the omission of Ryan’s affiliation was not an isolated incident.
Comment by grand old partisan Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 3:33 pm
Umm, NW Burbs I read the post hence why I posted my comment.
Comment by Levois Wednesday, Apr 19, 06 @ 4:42 pm
THE INTEGRITY OF OUR JURY SYSTEM IS AT STAKE…THESE JURORS HAD A RESPONIBILITY OF FULL DISCLOSURE RE: THEIR BACKGROUNDS…PREDICTION - MISTRIAL = RYAN & WARNER GET ACQUITTED.
THERE IS NO WAY THAT THEY CAN BE CONVICTED BY A BUNCH OF LIARS…I MEAN C’MON THE ONE JUROR PUNCHED HIS PREGNANT SISTER…GIMME A BREAK.
Comment by THE TRUTH Thursday, Apr 20, 06 @ 12:26 am
It is the media leaning over backwards to be politically correct. They don’t want to seem like they are picking on a Party or organization but rather “just a man”.
I guess that the media wants to portray that an individual was responsible for his reprehensable actions rather than a whole organization or group of people. It is much like the Afro-American individual that goes to prison for being a serial rapist. Does the media state “an individual that was an Afro-American was sent to prison today for serial rape”? No, and they shouldn’t either. Why denigrate a whole body of people for the actions of one bad apple. It wasn’t a Republican, a Protestant, a caucasion male, or a Kankakee resident that abused the Illinois and federal legal system. It was one screwed up “little man” who decided to try to take advantage of others through the use of the office of power that Illinois citizens entrusted him with. Period.
Comment by Beowulf Thursday, Apr 20, 06 @ 6:44 am