UPI, Chicago Tribune fail to identify disgraced ex-governor, lobbyist as Republicans
In an August 21 article on the rejection of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan's appeal for a new trial on fraud and corruption charges, United Press International and the Chicago Tribune failed to identify Ryan as a Republican.
By contrast, the Associated Press identified Ryan as a Republican in its report on the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, which upheld the convictions of Ryan and his lobbyist associate Lawrence Warner on 18 counts of corruption and racketeering charges.
Media Matters for America has documented other recent examples of media outlets omitting the party affiliation of Republican officials who have been convicted of a crime or are under investigation or indictment.
From UPI's August 21 report:
A 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel Tuesday rejected former Illinois Gov. George Ryan's appeal for a new trial on fraud and corruption charges.
The 2-1 decision clears the way for the 73-year-old ex-governor to begin serving a 78-month sentence he received after a six-month trial last year, WLS-TV, Chicago, reported.
The Chicago Tribune said Ryan's legal team may file another appeal with the full 11 judge court.
"We conclude that the district court handled most problems that arose in an acceptable manner, and that whatever error remained was harmless," Judge Diane Wood wrote on behalf of the three-judge panel. "We therefore affirm the convictions."
Two jurors were removed during Ryan's federal trial because they had not disclosed criminal backgrounds.
Ryan was convicted of corruption for handing out state contracts to co-defendant Larry Warner and other friends in return for gifts, trips and other kickbacks.
Warner was sentenced to nearly 42 months in prison.
From the Chicago Tribune's August 21 article:
The legal team for former Gov. George Ryan pledged this afternoon to seek another appeal after a federal appellate court this morning affirmed his sweeping fraud and corruption convictions.
In a crushing legal blow to the former governor, a three-judge panel from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled 2-1 today that Ryan received a fair trial last year despite a series of juror controversies.
In earlier allowing the former governor to remain free pending the appeal, the court had warned that Ryan and co-defendant Lawrence Warner would have to report to prison within 72 hours if -- as happened today -- they lost their appeal. Ryan faces a 6.5-year sentence in prison.
[...]
"No court anywhere has ever deprived a defendant of his life and liberty under these circumstances," [former governor and Ryan attorney James] Thompson said, alleging that the verdict was unfair because two jurors were replaced during deliberations.
In its 2-1 decision this morning, the three-judge panel found that U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer acted within her authority when she replaced the jurors after the Tribune revealed they had failed to disclose information about their criminal backgrounds.
[...]
Thompson said Ryan will now ask the full 7th Circuit -- a group of 11 judges -- to review the three-judge panel's decision. He said Ryan would also appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
Ryan was convicted in April 2006 on charges that as secretary of state and governor, he doled out sweetheart deals to co-defendant Warner and other friends and used state resources and employees for political gain.
Warner's conviction also was affirmed today.
Warner, who was sentenced to almost 3.5 years in prison, had also been allowed to remain free while the appeal was pending.
Thompson said Ryan was disappointed by the decision but said he is a "strong guy."
By contrast, the AP did identify Ryan as a Republican:
A federal appeals court upheld former Gov. George Ryan's racketeering and fraud conviction Tuesday and refused to grant him a new trial in the biggest political scandal to rock Illinois in decades.
Attorneys on both sides were left trying to determine if the 73-year-old former governor, once the state's most powerful Republican, would now have to report to prison immediately.
Ryan was convicted last year of racketeering conspiracy, fraud and other offenses for taking payoffs from political insiders in exchange for state business while he was Illinois secretary of state from 1991 to 1999 and governor for four years after that. Prosecutors said he had steered state contracts and leases to insiders and used tax dollars in his political campaigns.
In his appeal, Ryan's attorneys had argued that the jury's deliberations were flawed.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer had replaced two jurors with alternates after deliberations in the case had already started, and the defense said unauthorized documents brought into the jury room poisoned the deliberations.
Disgraced Ex Governor?
Not in my eyes, this was a man who suspended the unfair death penalty in Illinois, I do not care what party he is from he is a hero in my eyes. Bless you Gov Ryan.
Single-issue voter here?
Ryan took bribes and kickbacks from trucking companies to let incompetent drivers drive trucks, and one of those incompetent drivers killed a family on the highway.
Even if Ryan tried to outlaw completely the death penalty, his corruption negates it.
If he saved one innocent life, I could care if he took a million dollars in bribes.
Jlyons, Archae is right. Ryan's sec. of state's office took bribes for truck driver's to get their license. One such truck driver paid a bribe to get his license and caused a highway accident that killed 6 innocent children. While I applaud Ryan for ending the death penalty and commuting sentences he still has to be held responsible for the corruption in his office that lead to the loss of 6 innocent lives.
And if in taking those bribes he helped facilitate the death of 6 innocent children...do you still not care about him taking the bribes.
A HERO in your eyes??? Then you are in serious need of some glasses pal. Ryan used the death penalty issue to deflect his upcoming bribery trial and his complicity in quashing an investigation into a fiery crash on an Illinois highway that killed 6 innocent children.
The truck driver who caused that crash had obtained his license through bribes paid to Secretary of State office employees, which Ryan oversaw at the time as he was the then Secretary of State.
Ryan forced employees to purchase fund-raising tickets for his election campaigns, which was determined to be partly responsible for the bribes taken by state employees. He also allowed many of his friends and cronies to bilk the citizens of this state through corrupt deals, fancy vacations given to Ryan etc. The man was and is a crook!!
Ryan was running for Governor of Illinois when those children were killed by that truck driver and he quashed the Secretary of State Inspectors Office investigation into allegations the truck driver gained his license through bribes. This FACT was proven in the Operation Safe Road trial - spawned by the crash- in which Ryan was convicted of corruption.
As a result of Operation Safe Road investigations and trials, 75 other cronies, associates and employees of Ryan have also been convicted.
Perhaps, since Ryan's actions that he was ultimately convicted for, contributed to the deaths of those 6 kids, (complicity may have allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Ryan) there was more than humanity behind Ryan's halting executions in Illinois.
Subsequent investigations and the release of several death row priconers wrongly convicted and sentenced to death hlps to illustrate the need for reform and/or elimination of the death penalty, but George Ryan is no hero.
He is a convicted felon who is still free while he files yet another appeal for a new trial. How many of those death row inmates, or just about any regular citizen convicted of a crime, would still be out of jail while their cases are appealed? The answer to that is ZERO.
George Ryan is a Zero, his actions caused the death of six children, he is a convicted felon and deserves to be in federal prison.
I suggest you find a new hero...maybe Michael Vick is more along your line.
This story depends on if the UPI and the Chicago Tribune, when it comes to listing democratic politicians.
If they do, but ignore the political affliations of republican crooks, then it deserves to be discussed and rightfully slammed.
Just remember who owns UPI - Rev. Sun Myung Moon, head of the Moonies and owner of the neocon rag Washington Times.
As a long time reader (about 25 years) of the Trib you can trust me when I say they definitely protect Republicans when they can. I believe the editors are themselves Republican. Traditionally, the Trib was the conservative paper and the sun-times the liberal. When Murdoch bought and trashed the times the Trib claimed to be moving more towards the center. But at their heart, they're still the same editors. They're not as bad in some ways as the right wing tabloids but in a sense they're worse because they enjoy a perception of integrity. They treated the Clinton penis scandal like it was the coming of armageddon and have since soft-pedaled Bush's world of scandals. U.S. now torturing people? Illegal wiretapping? Nothing to be too concerned about. Bush administration knew and ignored the threat of al queada? Barely deserves mentioning. Blow-job in the White House? Weeks of tabloid sized headlines announcing every new twist of the case. Their part in this is obscured mostly by the fact that pretty much the entire MSM is guilty of the same thing. But to the smaller point, yes they have done this ignore the party affiliation of a dirtbag if he's a republican and repeat it constantly if he's a democrat. It's a cheap little trick that I can't help noticing. It's nice to have a site like MM now that points this out.
Sounds like the third-rate GOP rag I had to suffer with when I lived in Colorado - the Pueblo Chieftain.
Although one cannot say for sure, rather than a right wing conspiracy, my guess is the Chicago Tribune probably felt everyone reading the newspaper, especially those in Chicago, ILLINOIS, already knew their former governor, Ryan was a Republican. It would be interesting to see how many other stories the Chicago Tribune has reported that do include his political affiliation.
NPR Also suckled their corporate masters...
NPR, in their short news segments every two hours: I heard this Ryan verdict mentioned twice.
They didn't say that Ryan was a Republican. NPR continues its move to outfox Fox.
Somehow, I get the feeling someone in the Bush Misadministration threatened NPR with a massive funding cut if they didn't become more like Faux News.....
Actually, AA, The Chicago Tribune is famously Republican, as in NEVER endorsing a Dem candidate since its inception. After the 2004 election, one wag wrote a letter to the editor (and I give them credit for publishing it) that the Tribune would "endorse a dead chicken as long as it was Republican."
How's that working them now?
Of course, endorsements come from the editorial board which is separate from the news room.
At least that's what I'm told when I criticize our local Minneapolis Star Tribune for being overtly liberal in its editorials. But at least they are consistent. I can count on consistently disagreeing with their position.
There is an editorial from the tribune in which they talk about the last Illinois Gov who went to Prison. That was former gov. Dan Walker, a democrat. In the editorial, neither has their party affiliation mentioned.
Anyone in here in Illinois who doesn't know Ryan is a Republican is deaf, dumb and blind. However, I agree that his party affiliation should be part of the story.
Do you imagine it impossible for right-wingers to conspire to do anything? Do they never work together to accomplish something or get a certain message out? Or do you just cynically use the word 'conspiracy' to mock and dismiss people you disagree with?
You know, it's funny that you talk about Reps working in groups, because this Democrat majority Congress hasn't done much in their 7 months of "work", but they have managed to get the lowest approval ratings of any Congress in history.
Smitty Once again, a rightwinger with the Congress approval rating thing. It's amazing how the right gets its message into all your heads. As though comparing Bush's approval rating to that of the Congress as a whole makes any sense. Lets see, the righties don't approve because they're the righties and the democrats are in the majority. And many sane people don't approve because they think Congress isn't doing enough to stop Bush. So, in light of the fact that much of their disaproval comes from people opposed to Bush it's just a cheap rhetorical trick to hold up this number as though it means something. Do you understand this? It's a cheap trick. You've either fallen for it or you're just trying to play it the same way because you're a dittohead. Congratulation either way.
They've still got five years and five months to catch up to the "Let George Do Anything" Congress of the previous six years.
At least this Congress has begun to provide some oversight on Our Dear Leader.
RRRwhaaa???
Perhaps a Chicago newspaper could get away with assuming everyone reading knows the political affiliations of a former Illinois governor.
But UPI is writing for a much broader, national (and maybe international) audience. They can't fall back on that excuse.