Today "Disappears" Bloomberg: Record Victory Doesn't Jive with "Clean Sweep" Theme

November 9th, 2005 7:29 AM

Imagine that a Democrat had been elected mayor of the nation's largest city, a place where Republicans enjoyed an overwhelming registration edge.  Picture too the Dem winning in record-breaking fashion.  Do you think the Today show might have mentioned it the next morning?

So do I.  Yet, incredibly, Katie & Co. this morning never once mentioned the historic triumph of Mike Bloomberg in the very New York City from which their show is broadcast.

Bloomberg not only won re-election, but his 20-point margin was the largest ever by a Republican candidate in NYC, larger even than that of Rudy Giuliani at the height of his popularity, and this in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 5:1.

So totally did Today "disappear" Bloomberg that you might expect those famous Argentinian mothers of the 'desaparecidos'  to be marching in his name today in the Plaza de Mayo.

And just why did Today wipe Mayor Mike from the news in style worthy of Stalinist revisionists in the basements of the Kremlin scrubbing Khruschev from the history books?

The answer is obvious.  His victory didn't fit with Today's theme of the day, trumpeted in the show's opening graphic.  The show proclaimed yesterday's results to be a "Clean Sweep" for the Democrats, and no record-breaking Republican victory in the country's largest city was going to spoil the message.

The "clean sweep" was, in predictable turn, used to bash Bush.  Asked the screen graphic: "Did GOP Suffer Bush Backlash?"  The Today's show answer was a resounding 'yes', as political commentators Charlie Cook and Prof. Mark Rozell were brought in to somberly opine to such effect.

One last gauge of NBC's determination to suppress any positive news for Republicans: while blacking out Bloomberg, Today found time to mention a public smoking referendum in Washington State.