WaPo Blogger Accuses 'Conservative Media Machine' of Not Jumping on Liberal Dead Cat Story

January 25th, 2012 8:32 AM

Washington Post blogger, Erik Wemple, has accused certain media outlets of declining to report on a potentially big political scandal that recently broke. Obviously Wemple must be referring to the arrest last week of Zachary Edwards, the former Obama staffer and member of a prominent Democrat campaign consulting firm who was accused of attempting to steal the identity of the Republican Secretary of State of Iowa in an attempt to falsely smear him. Neither Wemple's Washington Post nor any of the other major media outlets with the exception of the Des Moines Register which attempted to place a positive spin on the story (Political consultants quickly fire arrested man) reported on the political details of this arrest.

Oops! Wrong scandal. What Wemple was referring to was a dead cat found in the yard of a Democrat congressional campaign manager in Arkansas with the word "LIBERAL" neatly painted (airbrushed?) on it. And here is Wemple hopping atop his moral high horse to make his accusation:

 

Yet the nation’s conservative media machine hasn’t yet jumped on it, according to Google News. FoxNews.com, for instance, just posted a wire piece on it, about a day after the story broke.

GASP! You mean FoxNews.com waited ONE WHOLE DAY before reporting on it? Oh, the outrage. Here is more of Wemple digging into this "political" dead cat story while conveniently ignoring the Iowa political scandal :

...try pumping “liberal dead cat arkansas” into Google News. Those search terms fetch a chilling and apparently partisan story from Russellville, Ark. The skinny is this: Jacob Burris, the campaign manager for Arkansas Democratic congressional candidate Ken Aden, found his family’s cat slain in front of his house, the word “liberal” painted on its dead body.

The extended version, as Burris relates it to me, has more sickening detail. On Sunday morning at about 8:30, the 31-year-old Burris loaded three of his kids into his van for a trip to the gas station. When they returned, Burris’s 5-year-old boy got out and went around to the other side of the vehicle to help unbuckle the other kids, who are nearly 2 and 3 years old. On his way to assisting with the arrival, the 5-year-old spotted something. ”Dad, think the cat’s dead,” said the youngster to Burris.

The child wondered what the letters on the cat meant. Burris tried to explain them away. “It could be tire tracks,” the father said. Once the kids were inside, Burris moved the cat with a shovel into a wooded area behind the house. That night, he called the police, and the events were on their way into the country’s news stream, to Burris’s dismay.

And now his accusation about some outlets sitting on the story. Not the Zachary Edwards arrest in Iowa of course since that is much too chock full of actual facts but the liberal dead cat story in which the perpetrator (and motive) is still unknown:

Many local Arkansas outlets have picked up the story, as have the Huffington Post, CBS News, and Gawker, among other broader platforms.

Yet the nation’s conservative media machine hasn’t yet jumped on it, according to Google News. FoxNews.com, for instance, just posted a wire piece on it, about a day after the story broke.

So tell me Mr. Wemple, just how many of those media outlets, including your own Washington Post, have yet to report on the very REAL political scandal in Iowa? When you find that answer, please send us a telegram.