ABC paid little attention to Rep. Cunningham's GOP affiliation
Over the course of a November 28 ABC World News Tonight segment on Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham's (R-CA) November 28 resignation from Congress after he pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from defense contractors, neither ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross nor anchor Elizabeth Vargas mentioned that Cunningham was a Republican. The only party identification ABC offered during the nearly three-minute report was four seconds of on-screen text that included "(R) California" underneath Cunningham's name. Because the Cunningham scandal is the latest in a series of ethics investigations concerning Republican political figures, his party affiliation is particularly relevant.
Throughout the otherwise hard-hitting World News Tonight report, Ross and Vargas described Cunningham merely as a "congressman from California" and "a powerful figure in Washington" (Cunningham held a position on the House Appropriations Committee subcommittee for defense and was the chairman of the House Intelligence subcommittee on terrorism and human intelligence.) During a video clip of Cunningham's statement to the press, ABC's on-screen text identified him as a Republican:
Cunningham's guilty plea follows an admission in an unrelated case by lobbyist Michael Scanlon, who pleaded guilty on November 21 to conspiring to bribe a member of Congress and other public officials. Scanlon is a former aide to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), who stepped down from his leadership post after being indicted for money-laundering and conspiracy to violate Texas campaign finance law. According to a November 22 New York Times article, the federal investigation into the alleged defrauding of Indian casinos by Scanlon and GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff may expand to members of Congress, such as House Administration Committee chairman Bob Ney (R-OH), who was reportedly identified (though not by name) in court papers regarding the case. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, was indicted for perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements in the investigation into the alleged outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) is also under investigation by federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission for initiating the sale of stock in HCA Inc., a hospital chain founded by his family, shortly before a weak earnings report caused the company's share price to plummet.
At first I thought "Not such a big deal" ... but of course his power comes from the fact that he's a member of the governing party and the fact that he was the 4th most powerful member on the defense appropriations committee. Damn right the "R" is important.
So this is a worthy post of "conservative misinformation" if an "otherwise hard-hitting" story identifies the man as a Republican on the screen but neglects to do so in the audio?
Ummm ... well, OK. (roll eyes)
i swear the CNN article i read yesterday morning also failed to mention that cunningham is a republican.
i just checked, and the article now includes that info. it was updated at 10pm EST last night.
Over the course of a November 28 ABC World News Tonight segment on Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham's (R-CA) November 28 resignation from Congress after he pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from defense contractors, neither ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross nor anchor Elizabeth Vargas mentioned that Cunningham was a Republican.
...a week ago, when Rep. Murtha proposed a six month gradual redeployment and an "over-the-horizon" regional presence, the corporate media (pro-administration, pro-war) not only couldn't get Rep. Murtha's resolution straight, they couldn't keep from identifying him, and the entire support for his resolution, as Democrat.
Led by the Republican controlled House leadership, the corporate media mischaracterized the resolution, insulted the congressman, and slammed the entire Democratic opposition to the war.
...now consider the excerpted first sentence of the item, posted above: nobody's so thick as to not be able to guess what it was Rep. Cunningham was being bribed/paid to do...
To use his influence as a congressman in the House of Representatives to appropriate funds for Operation Iraqi Freedom
...funds that go to defense contractors; and who's so slow that they can't figure out where that bribe money, as a kickback of sorts, ultimately comes from...
The congressionally appropriated funds for Operation Iraqi Freedom
...and seeing as it was House Democrats, led by Rep. Murtha, who attempted to bring our Sons and Daughters home from Iraq; and that House republicans viciously opposed them and played every dirty trick they could think of (including having Rep. Schmitt call Mr. Murtha a coward, right there on the House floor; right there into the Congressional Record); this all makes Rep. Cunningham being a Republican as important a detail as any in his bribery conviction.
How many other House Republicans are being bribed by defense contractors? From their greedy and unending support of funding (to those same defense contractors) a seemingly unending Operation Iraqi Freedom (more than 200 billion dollars so far; I remember when the administration originally said it would cost 80 billion; I anticipate it will cost way more than 300 billion), I bet there are many more Republicans in the House taking money from defense contractors, as a kickback of sorts, for their support in appropriating funds for ...
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Republicans, in Washington D.C., are fast getting a nationwide and international reputation, as the most greedy, lieing, unethical, war-mongering, death-profiting, veteran-insulting, intelligence-distorting, and...
bribe taking bunch of slimeballs
...to walk the earth.
Led by Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham
Demo02020: "Republicans ... greedy, lieing (sic), unethical ..."
Do the names Bill Clinton, Henry Cisneros, Ron Brown, Mike Espy (acquitted), Daniel Rostenkowski, Hazel O'Leary, Bill McCuen, or Jim Traficant mean anything to you?
left045
you mean those people also took bribes from defense contractors, sending U.S. troops to their death all in the name of 200 billion dollars for the contractors (and a few million kicked back to Republicans)?
if so, they should be shot, along with Republican Randall "Duke" Cunningham and all the other Treasonous (Republican) slime balls who are getting wealthy on the deaths of our Sons and Daughters in Iraq.
And I looked up to this now creep as an outstanding american citizen, not only be one of the few republicans I would vote for, but also tell my sons there goes a real american hero. And I said before that Lockheed got the sole source contract for the JSF fighter because Mrs Cheney was ( is ? ) on the BoD at Lockheed Corp. I may have to take back that previous statement and eat a shoe.
Apparently the NBC Today show is not mentioning his party affiliation either. [link to mediamatters.org]
Remind me again, how many does it take to make a conspiracy?
I also watched the NBC Today Show segment this morning as was astonished that not once did they note Cunningham's Republican party affiliation. This report, like many others, also avoided any mention of his chairmanship of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism and Human Intelligence. This is significant, because it shows that the Republicans placed a crook in an important leadership position in charge of protecting our security. There is no doubt in my mind that if Cunningham were a Democrat, this fact would have been mentioned prominently. Every time I think the MSM is finally starting to come around to balanced reporting again I get another slap in the face.
When I first saw the article posted about Cunningham, I actually had to go to the House of Reps web site to get his party affiliation.
re: ABC paid little attention to Rep. Cunningham's GOP affiliation
Apparently the NBC Today show is not mentioning his party affiliation either. [link to mediamatters.org]
Remind me again, how many does it take to make a conspiracy?
============================================================
No more than two.
And the right wing conservative corporate Republican media conspiracy to protect and sustain the corrupt fascist corporatist Republican cabal government, along with their equally corrupt and evil con and neo-con Republican media hacks and shills, is working overtime in apologist mode for the Republicans that they are sustaining.
--it wouldn't be so bad, but knowing that they would all be crowing it from the rooftops had he been a dem is what makes it so irritating.
And there's the real crux of this thread. If it'd been a Democrat, the news cycle would've run pictures of him 24/7 with the word DEMOCRAT emblazoned next to his defeated image, along with endless statements of outrage from the usual Republican talking heads. Notice how we haven't heard a single word from the Republicans nor the Democrats about old Duke-Stir? The former is silent because as usual they ignore scandals among their own flock and the latter can't get a line of text unless they say something that the Republican's don't like and can ridicule.