One of the halflings on MRC’s Newsbusters attempts to cry bias in pointing out that a Republican congressman (Randy “Duke” Cunningham) pleading guilty to being bribed for $2.4 million should receive “fair and balanced” coverage with a corrupt Democratic state senator. Up next: How the 9th grade class president’s misapproriations of the candy fund is exactly the same as Bush’s lies about WMDs! Fair and balanced, kids.
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> & who used to be a US Congressman”
Hm. And why would they be looking to *past* congresses? I’m guessing it’s because they couldn’t find any comparable corruption in the *current* democratic members. That’s pretty impressive.
This is a weak retort, Private. There are perfectly legitimate reasons besides so-called “bias” that Cunningham’s plea gets more play than Ballance’s sentence.
For example, Ballance going to prison affects N. Carolina’s legislature. That’s big news in one state. Cunningham’s plea changes the national Congress, and it certainly won’t help the GOP’s hopes of retaining or winning seats to have Cunningham trotted out in 2006 as a poster boy for corruption.
Maybe that “Liberal Media” is already bending over backwards to achieve that “Fair and Balanced” thing, since, as one of Josh Marshall’s readers points out:
“The current AP story on Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham contains no mention of his party affiliation.”
“with a corrupt Democratic state senator….”
(Let me add what Oliver predictably left out: “…who used to be a US Congressman just like Cunningham.”)
You can do better than this, can’t you?
He wasn’t a US Congressman when indicted or convicted. He resigned due to a diagnosis of myasthenia gravis in June 2004. He was then indicted in September 2004 after his replacement, G. K. Butterfield was elected to replace him in a special election. Ballance was a Freshman Congressman having been first elected to Congress in 2002. He was not exactly chair of the Defense Appropriations Sub-Committee in the House like Duke. Butterfield easily won re-election to a full term in November.
Ballance was a corrupt man. But him getting busted would be like Jean Schmidt or some other small-time Republican getting nailed. Irrelevant as a national issue (even though it was rightly covered heavily in North Carolina).
PrivatePyle: Gomer, that you?
“How the 9th grade class president s misapproriations of the candy fund is exactly the same as Bush s lies about WMDs”
Don’t understand. Are you trying to say the 9th grade class president then didn’t misappropriate any funds? There were and are NO NONE NADA NEIN NICHTS NYET Bush lies documented re Iraq. So why use that as an example about misappropriations?
Dugger, Randy Cunningham, A real ace, not a Hollywood pretend one, screws up big time.
So when Republicans are caught being corupt it is a “culture” but when Democrats are caught it is simply an isolated incident?
Anyone who thinks that corruption doesn’t run equally deep through both parties is simply not being honest. Today you got one of ours, tomorrow we’ll get one of yours. It’s the national pasttime — not baseball — but rather, “Gotcha.”
Yes, a large and growing web of GOP corruption versus isolated corrupt Dems. Yeah, same thing. And since when has the modern con movement been concernced with hypocrisy?
Oliver – the point the NB article was making was not what you said.. even though if that was the point, it’s true. corruption = corruption. He was saying that it was not reported and this disproves the whole “culture of curroption” bullshit.
Notice the end of the Newsbusters item:
So now “the bloggers” are in on the MSM conspiracy too? Good thing we have those honest folks at MRC to keep ‘em all in line.
The post Oliver linked to made the claim that the MSM is pushing the idea that Republicans are corrupt. But that isn’t what the mainstream media is doing. If Nancy Pelosi argues that the Republican Party is corrupt, that’s a lot different than a newspaper reporter reporting that a Republican official was found guilty of a crime. A member of Congress being found guilty of a crime is, like it or not, national news. A state representative being found guilty of the same crime is, like it or not, local news. There is no reason whatsoever for a primetime network news show to report on the travails of a state lawmaker — unless it was a slow news day. To use MRCs own iconpgraphy: Congress = National News; State Legislature = Local News. Big difference.
Find me an example of a reporter writing or saying that Cunningham’s indictment is more evidence that Republicans are corrupt and I’ll show you a biased, unfair news report. Show me Nancy Pelosi doing the same thing and I’ll yawn. That’s what politicians, partisans and pundits do for a living.
He said it wasn’t reported… by linking to a news report of it? A sitting U.S. congressman who takes a $2.4 million dollar bribe is not equivalent of a state senator being involved in shady behavior, no matter how loud your squeals of “they all do it” are.
Oliver, this is an isolated incident. What Cunningham did is give liberal loudmouths like you more energy to continue the liberal drumbeat. The fact is almost all politicians are corrupt and for your to pooh-pooh Democratic corruption is digusting.
He did say that .. but the underlying point was the [Mancy Pelosi's] quip “Culture of Corruption” cry is quite hypocritical.
If there is a problem with the MSM underplaying Democratic corruption or liberal media bias in general (which I think is there big time), it still machts nichts here. Cunningham done wrong, big time wrong, and deserves the glare of bad publicity etc. The man was a hero and threw it away. He gave the other side plenty of ammunition to make gross negative generalizations. The problem here is Cunningham.
Dugger
Ian,
Oliver, this is an isolated incident.
What Cunningham did is give liberal loudmouths like you more energy to continue the liberal drumbeat.
The fact is almost all politicians are corrupt…
For your to pooh-pooh Democratic Republican corruption is digusting.
Even Republicans are realizing the GOP is drunk and corrupt with power. It’s Tammany Hall all over again. If its being a liberal “loudmouth” to point out these facts, well, the facts must be biased. Again.
Anyone who thinks that corruption doesn t run equally deep through both parties is simply not being honest.
How is the current Democratic party as corrupt as the current Republican party?
Link? Source? or pure bullshit speculation?
(Remember: Rove, DeLay, Scanlon, Abramoff, Frist, Cunningham, Ney, Scooter, ….)
As more people get caught up in Scanlon’s web I am sure that these people will continue to whine. The Bush Justice Dept must be out to get Republicans.
mr.curmudgeon disingenuously twists my post as to only apply it to the immediate present. Of course, taking a look through history will show that The Democrats are just as corrupt as the Republicans. Just because it is the Republicans in the news today doesn’t mean the Democrats weren’t in the news yesterday or won’t be again tomorrow. What comes around goes around.
A “few bad apples”, you say?
Yeah, they just support the twice indicted Tom DeLay, lie for George Bush and Dick Cheney and plead innocence at the tirades of Coulter, Limbaugh, O’Reilly, etc. with their “shame”.
Oliver your cup is empty … here’s some more:
Ian demonstrates why he needs to get out more.
No, Ian, this isn’t an isolated instance. Cunningham got caught doing what many in the GOP do better and more quietly. Cunningham was just stupid in that he made no attempt to cover his crimes.
Others have mentioned Abramoff/Scanlon/Safavian/DeLay/ Ney etc.—they’re criminals just as much as the Dukestir. The difference, of course, is that they tooks at least a few steps to try and conceal their crimes.
But let’s take a look at AWOL George–he’s the ringleader of this band of crooks. Take a casual look at AWOL George’s life and what do you see? Each and every business he was associated with went belly up–yet, AWOL George came out of each failure with more money. As conservative columnist, Christopher Caldwell, famously wrote:
Dugger, have you any documented truths from the administration’s build-up to the Iraq invasion? WMDs? Mobile chemical labs? Mushroom clouds?
Cunningham done wrong, big time wrong, and deserves the glare of bad publicity etc. The man was a hero and threw it away. He gave the other side plenty of ammunition to make gross negative generalizations. The problem here is Cunningham.
Bravo Dugger. Likewise, I think there’s no excuse for that turkey in North Carolina. He deserves to go to prison for a very long time. He gives all Democrats a bad name and gives plenty of ammunition to the other side.
That having been said, there is no way that the two crimes are commensurate. The difference is not just federal vs. state, but in the very nature and magnitude of the crimes. Cunningham took 2.4 million in bribes from a corporation his committee helped award contracts to and used it to enrich himself personally. The NC jerk embezzled about 1/24 of that amount from the state and funnled it into his campaign. He’s a thief, no doubt about it, but at least he’s not a fucking whore like Cunningham. Whore? Cunningham’s a one-man bordello.
Like I said, I’m not excusing the NC guy. Lock him up and introduce him to “Shirley” say I. What I am doing is calling bullshit on the right-wing attempt to distract attention from Cunningham by bringing up this other case.
As for “culture of corruption”: sure, there are bad apples in every party, but in the last few years the Republicans have been suffering an epidemic of fruit rot. They get charged with far more crimes, and worse crimes, than democrats. Don’t believe it? Prove me wrong with specific examples from the last few years.
buma, What are you talking about? Justification for the war? Multiple reasons. Not sure I would have done it. Bush didn’t lie. reasons honorable, maybe wrong. Dugger
[...] n of fraudulent criminal behavior. No attempt at fake balance is going to change that. >> The Ultimate In Balance Stupidity
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