What You're Hearing, and What You Haven't Heard

November 28th, 2005 3:01 PM

The websites of many major media organizations (including USA Today, MSNBC, ABC News, and CNN) aren't wasting any time reporting the guilty plea by California Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a Republican who admitted taking $2.4 million in bribes. They all are placing his story high on their homepages. That alone isn't bias, as corruption by public officials should always be at the top of the news headlines.

However, I'm guessing that few who hear about Cunningham have ever heard of former U.S. Rep. Frank Ballance, a Democrat who as a North Carolina state senator used his official position to channel public funds into a private nonprofit that he operated. He received a four-year sentence in federal prison on Oct. 12 after admitting guilt to redirecting taxpayer dollars for his private use. He had resigned his congressional seat last year.

I'm guessing that in coming days we'll be hearing a lot from the MSM about Cunningham, as they advance their "Republicans = corruption" agenda. Amazing that they could totally ignore Ballance's conviction and get away with it -- the bloggers didn't even catch that one.