Douchey Little Local Fishwrap Strikes Again

In the front section, page 5A today was this little AP gem, headlined:

Details emerge on Rep. McKeon’s Countrywide loan

So we read it and of COURSE he’s a Republican, but HEY! If he deserves to get skewered, by all means ~ sharpen the knives! Sordid story about his western wear business going south, income plummeting, etc., builds a case for a guy in a LOT of financial distress who very well might have taken advantage of his position. However, in the FINEST tradition of the Pensacola News Journal, we get this very leading final ~ and please remember FINAL means “as PUBLISHED in the edition of the paper we all received in our homes and was NOT LINKED from the News Journal’s website” ~ paragraph, which had major dad and I seeing stars:

…House investigators are trying to determine whether McKeon and three other congressmen, including fellow California Republican Elton Gallegly, broke rules against gifts when they received loans as part of a VIP program where some of the favored customers were known as “Friends of Angelo.”

That was it for the article: naming ONLY two of the FOUR, identifying those two as REPUBLICANS and implying they were guilty of…something, while completely forgetting about the other possible miscreants.

WHAT?!?!?!?

So I went looking for the link and, of course, the PNJ website is so cheesily unusable, it’s migraine inducing. But I always try to give them the benefit of the doubt, quote my sources directly AND save myself the pain-in-the-ass of taking a picture of the stupid article in the paper, then having to type in the whole line for a search and praying for a hit. Wound up having to do that anyway.

Right off I got a hit.

It’s AMAZING what a partisan little RAG can leave out of a paper when they want to, n’est pas?

The original article is twice as long. Immediately, I noticed another sentence they’d left off the end of ours and the next paragraph is clearly more informative:

…The House ethics panel will also investigate whether they performed any favorable actions for the lender.

The other two congressmen are Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y. None of the lawmakers has been accused by the ethics panel of any wrongdoing, and may never be if they convince investigators they had no knowledge of the discounts. Preferential terms are not illegal but can be looked upon as a gift and must be declared in financial statements.

NOT illegal? No one’s been accused of anything? Well, who knew?

Sure couldn’t tell from the tenor of the snippet WE got on 5A.

It goes on from there with more information on McKeon’s case in particular, but can you imagine? If I hadn’t been incensed about what I saw as blatant “guess that party” manipulation, I would have NEVER been aware of just how egregious the sin of editorial omission really was.

Now, the entire Countrywide episode (just like their schweet little trading deals) REEKS to high heaven and should be exposed for ALL the noxious vapours to escape, BUT.

I do mean ALL the noxious vapours. Not the judiciously edited ones your little platform gives you sway over.

One Response to “Douchey Little Local Fishwrap Strikes Again”

1. aelfheld says:

   February 13, 2012 at 5:06 pm

   All members of Congress should receive special treatment.

   They should be required to pay twice what everyone else does.

   At a minimum.