On Thursday, Feb. 9, news organizations across the country began reporting an Associated Press story concerning Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid’s involvement in the Abramoff scandal.
The AP’s more than 1700 word story began:
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid wrote at least four letters helpful to Indian tribes represented by Jack Abramoff, and the senator's staff regularly had contact with the disgraced lobbyist's team about legislation affecting other clients.There’s much more of the AP story here and here.
The activities - detailed in billing records and correspondence obtained by The Associated Press - are far more extensive than previously disclosed. They occurred over three years as Reid collected nearly $68,000 in donations from Abramoff's firm, lobbying partners and clients.
Big news, isn’t it?
But on Thursday here in North Carolina one of the state’s two largest circulation dailies, the liberal trending left Raleigh News & Observer (A McClatchy Co. paper), didn’t tell its readers anything about Reid and his staff’s connections to Abramoff and his staff.
On Friday, Feb. 10, The N&O was still not saying anything to readers, many of whom count on The N&O to be what it says it is: “fair and accurate” and “free of news bias.”
Well then, why wasn’t The N&O reporting the Reid/Abramoff story?
Friday afternoon I emailed that question to N&O public editor, Ted Vaden.
Vaden promptly emailed back:
Re the Reid story, our nation editor said it was a long story and we didn't have space for it today. She plans to run it over the weekend.Today, Saturday, Feb. 11 The N&O finally covered the AP’s 1700 word plus “long story.”
And according to Microsoft Word Count, The N&O’s Reid/Abramoff “report” is just 237 words.
Does that surprise any adult N&O reader?
I was surprised.
Sure, I know The N&O filters the news to suit its views. But that it would take the AP’s story and cut so much out of it, especially after sitting on the story?
I didn’t think The N&O would do that.
Now, where do you think The N&O placed its Reid/Abramoff story?
Before this morning, I’d have guessed page one; maybe a single column story near the bottom of the page. Not as prominent coverage as The N&O would have given the story had it involved say, Republican Rep. Tom DeLay.
But still, with Democratic Senate Leader Reid now reported to be so heavily involved in a scandal The N&O has repeatedly reported on page one, how could The N&O do anything other than put the story on page one?
If it didn’t, who would believe The N&O's “fair and accurate” and "free of news bias" claims?
Well, guess what? The N&O didn’t put the story on page one.
The N&O didn’t even put the story on page 3A, its Nation & World page.
The professional journalists who filter the news for N&O readers “placed” the story back on page 8A.
More about The N&O and it’s Reid/Abramoff coverage tomorrow.
Meanwhile, if you want to know what the AP reported in its 1700 plus word story about Reid and Abramoff you can read it here at the ABC News site.
And after that I hope you’ll take a careful look at the way The N&O covered Senator Reid.
0 comments:
Post a Comment