Network newscasts comply with White House declaration that "[n]othing more will come from" resignation of Susan Ralston, a Bush aide with ties to Abramoff
SUMMARY: Despite front-page coverage in The Washington Post and The New York Times, the resignation of Susan Ralston, a key aide to White House senior adviser Karl Rove, soon after a congressional report disclosed Ralston's extensive connections with Jack Abramoff, has gone unreported on ABC, NBC, and CBS.
Newscasts on the three major television networks have completely ignored the resignation of Susan Ralston, a key aide to White House senior adviser Karl Rove, soon after a congressional report disclosed Ralston's alleged connections to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and receipt of numerous tickets to sporting events and concerts from Abramoff. The story appeared on the front page of The Washington Post and The New York Times on October 7. The Post article included a quote from White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino, who stated that, following Ralston's resignation, "Nothing more will come from the [congressional] report, no further fallout from the report." But the news of Ralston's departure -- as well as the White House's purporting to wash its hands of the matter -- has gone unreported on ABC, NBC, and CBS, including weekend and morning programming, according to a Media Matters for America review.*
Ralston, formerly an administrative assistant to Abramoff, who was sentenced to more than five years in prison in March after pleading guilty to fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy to bribe public officials, stepped down from her position as special assistant to President Bush on October 6. The move came soon after a House Government Reform Committee report documented hundreds of contacts that Abramoff's lobbying group had with the White House and singled out Ralston as "the most frequent recipient of [sporting event and concert] tickets from Abramoff." Further, the report alleged that Abramoff repeatedly lobbied Ralston after she became a top aide to Rove and that she played an integral role in establishing lobbying contacts, meals, and special events for White House officials.
An October 9 Times editorial noted the lack of attention given to the Ralston resignation, stating: "The sordid Mark Foley controversy has diverted public attention from another major Washington ethics scandal -- the influence peddling involving the disgraced former superlobbyist Jack Abramoff. That's good news for the Bush administration."
And an October 8 Post editorial noted, "Ms. Perino's comments were occasioned by Friday afternoon's announcement that Ms. Ralston was resigning. Not, mind you, because she did anything wrong but because, as Ms. Perino said, 'she did not want to be a distraction to the White House at this important time.' White House lawyers won't bother to figure out whether Ms. Ralston violated the gift rules, officials said, because she's leaving anyway."
It's hardly surprising the big 3 can't do a piece on this...between Foley, Iraq, N. Korea, and E.Coli, the Abramoff story would be like showing a Teletubbies clip in the middle of The Grudge.
Rove has known for a long time that the majority of the MSM's owners and editors (and way too many of its reporters) are nothing more than ball chasing puppies.
It's like he's got a tennis ball cannon (suped-up by Tim The Tool Man) and an unending supply of bell-filled balls that he can fire at will and in any direction as the situation dictates.
Their ratings and viewership continues to slip. It's as if they don't care if no one is watching, perhaps it's better that way. I guess network news could tell the whole story for once and the truth -- wow that could be a whole new concept.
Just like nothing more ever came from the Plame scandal . . . here we have a WHITE HOUSE AIDE with ties to one of the biggest and most corrupt bribery scandals in recent memory, and the reaction is like that small puff of smoke in the bottom of the canyon whenever Wile E. Coyote falls over the rim in the Warner Brothers' cartoons . . .
And back during the height of the Plame scandal, what was it Bush promised, that he would fire anyone associated with the leak? Then the fingers started pointing toward both Shooter and Turd Blossom . . . all of a sudden Bush had nothing more to say . . . but, we did have our one "show" indictment {Libby}, just like we now have our "token" resignation in the Abramoff scandal {Ralston} . . . its almost as though BushCo said, "all right, you've got your token indictments/resignations, just move it along, nothing more to see here . . ."
was speculation, and the media could be off for weeks and months on something. now we have major stories, including a story that could not have been any bigger, the downing street memo, and the media ignores them. the mainsteam media is by and large a propaganda outlet for the major corporations that own them, and their self interest is to keep their republican poodles in office. keep them jumping through those corporate hoops to reward their masters.
on a couple teenage pages, at least we might have seen a couple bits on the news.
And if she was "hot".
ethics scandal? ho hum.
naughty sexy bouncy bouncy ethics scandal? Take the phone off the hook and hide the remote!