Name That Party

As He Gets 10-Year Sentence, Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's Party Affiliation Disappears or Is Downplayed
By Tom Blumer | July 9, 2014 | 2:29 PM EDT

Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was sentenced to 10 years in prison today on fraud, bribery and related charges. In a January 2006 appearance on PBS's Tavis Smiley Show, Nagin, who in many several previous news reports had been described as a Republican who became a Democrat once he sought political office, told Smiley that he "never was a Republican" and he has been a "life-long Democrat."

As would be expected, several media outlets are failing to report Nagin's declared status as a "life-long Democrat." A particularly egregious example is at USA Today (saved here for future reference, fair use and discussion purposes, and in case USAT makes revisions; HT longtime NB commenter Gary Hall; bolds are mine):

Google and Bing Name That (Wrong) Party of Twice-Convicted Former Providence Mayor Again Running For Office
By Tom Blumer | June 26, 2014 | 12:32 PM EDT

News reports indicate that Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci, who was Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island from 1975 to 1984 and 1991 to 2002, is again running to be mayor of the Ocean State's capital city. The opening sentence at the Associated Press's Thursday morning story calls him a "twice-convicted felon who led Providence as mayor for 21 years," who is going "to run as an independent."

Local web news outlet GoLocalProv reports that "Cianci has filed papers Wednesday declaring his candidacy for Mayor of Providence - as an Independent." Cianci's Wikipedia entry indicates that he was a Republican from 1974 until December of 1982, and has been an independent for the past three decades. All of this makes it mystifying how a Google search on the former two-time mayor's name, as seen after the jump, could tag him as a Republican:

Reuters Avoids Political ID of Dem Mayor Accused of Taking Bribes From a Strip Club
By Scott Whitlock | June 3, 2014 | 3:50 PM EDT

[UPDATE 16:00: Two and a half hours after posting, Reuters updated and used the word "Democrat."] According to Reuters, the ex-mayor of North Carolina's largest city admitted on Tuesday that he accepted bribes totaling at least $50,000 "in exchange for using his official positions to help people seeking to do business in the city." Yet the article by journalist Emily Harris avoided identifying Patrick Cannon as a Democrat. 

Harris instead used generic terms for Cannon, referring to him as the "the former Charlotte mayor." Cannon is also accused of "taking bribes from the owner of an adult entertainment club and using his influence to help the business stay open despite being in the path of the city's new light-rail line." In contrast, Fox and Friends anchor Steve Doocy highlighted the former mayor's political party, noting, "The Democrat faces a maximum of 20 years in prison." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

WashPost Removes ‘Democrat’ Label From AP Blurb On Ray Nagin
By Paul Bremmer | May 28, 2014 | 2:08 PM EDT

On Wednesday, the Washington Post ran a news brief on page A3 about disgraced former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, but the paper conveniently forgot to mention that Nagin is a Democrat. The blurb began, “A federal judge says that former New Orleans mayor C. Ray Nagin will have to pay the government more than $501,000 as a result of his conviction on bribery and other charges.”

The brief went on to mention Nagin’s 20-count conviction in February that included bribery, fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy. However, the former mayor’s party ID was nowhere to be found.

No Press Story IDs Sentenced Former Bell, Calif. City Manager as a Democrat
By Tom Blumer | April 16, 2014 | 2:06 PM EDT

In September 2010, Lachlan Markay at NewsBusters put up a post entitled "Eight Dems Arrested in Bell, CA 'Corruption on Steroids' - Not a Single Mention of Party Affiliation From Media."

Almost four years later (!), reviews of search engine results and specific news stories on the sentencing of Robert Rizzo, the community's former city manager, are again returning no mentions of the fact that Rizzo is a Democrat.

NYT Takes 'Gun' Out of AP's Original 'Gun, Corruption Charges' Leland Yee Headline
By Tom Blumer | March 29, 2014 | 9:03 AM EDT

It's no secret that the folks who run the New York Times are big fans of gun control. It turns out that they also favor controlling the use of the word "gun" in headlines about Democrats.

Over at National Review's Campaign Spot yesterday, regarding the news of Democratic California Senator Leland Yee's arrest, Jim Geraghty noted: "The New York Times greeted that news with a one paragraph summary on page A21 Wednesday with the headline: 'California: State Senator Accused of Corruption.'" That A21 one-paragrapher is an AP item. According to a long AP report on Yee's arrest, Yee, a longtime gun control advocate himself, is charged with "six counts of depriving the public of honest services and one count of conspiracy to traffic in guns without a license." In addition to burying the story in its back pages, let's look at what the Times did to the AP's original headline:

ABC, CNN, MSNBC, PBS All Skip Political ID for 'Shocking' Corruption By Democrat Mayor
By Scott Whitlock | March 27, 2014 | 12:04 PM EDT

ABC, CNN, MSNBC and PBS on Wednesday and Thursday all covered the "shocking" corruption involving the Democratic mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina. Yet, while talking about the tens of thousands of dollars in bribes he sought, none of these networks identified Patrick Cannon's political party. Only a Fox News host referred to him as a Democrat. 

On ABC's Good Morning America, Amy Robach asserted, "Well, the mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina has resigned after being arrested during an FBI sting." On CNN's New Day, Christine Romans informed that undercover FBI agents "got the mayor to take almost $50,000 in bribes in exchange for favorable treatment by the city." In contrast, Fox News's Jamie Colby revealed, "There's another Democrat in trouble over accusations of corruption." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) Alleged to Have Shoved Estranged Wife; Daily Beast Omits Party ID
By Ken Shepherd | March 5, 2014 | 12:46 AM EST

Here's another entry for the "name that party" file. Ambulance-chasing lawyer cum melodramatically hyper-partisan Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson (Fla.) has been accused by his estranged wife of violently shoving her during a dispute.

The Orlando Sentinel has the story. The paper buried the party affiliation at the tail-end of the article, but they at least mentioned the "die quickly!" demagogue's party affiliation. The Daily Beast website picked up on the item for it's "Cheat Sheet" digest [screen capture follows page break], but omitted any party reference in its 75-word brief [excerpted in full below the page break]:

Maddow's Shabbiness in Selective Citing of Party ID Apparently Boundless
By Jack Coleman | February 14, 2014 | 9:27 PM EST

Can MSNBC's Rachel Maddow go a single day without descending into laughable hackdom?

Any previous doubts about this were erased by her show last night. Mere seconds after she was introduced by colleague Chris Hayes, and after Maddow offered a chirpy "happy snow day" to viewers (this during one of the most brutal winters in memory), Maddow began her show with this -- "The administration of Republican North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory has just been subpoenaed in conjunction with a federal criminal investigation." (Video after the jump)

Predictably, USA Today's Coverage of Nagin's Conviction Omits His Dem Party ID
By Tom Blumer | February 12, 2014 | 4:24 PM EST

Former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin was convicted on 20 of 21 counts of corruption and bribery today.

USA Today reporter Rick Jervis did a bit of a profile of Nagin in the course of reporting on the convictions. It included a recounting of his time at the city's helm during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But one thing his 2:39 p.m. report predictably did not include was Nagin's Democratic Party affiliation (bolds are mine):

Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's Democratic Party Affiliation Disappears at AP As Bribery Trial Begins
By Tom Blumer | February 3, 2014 | 5:40 PM EST

Though there were some exceptions (e.g., this one caught by Geoffrey Dickens at NewsBusters a few days ago), most press reports as the beginning of the trial of former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin tagged him as a Democrat.

Apparently, there's a quota on "D" references at the Associated Press. A lengthy AP story by Kevin McGaill carried at Time.com and AP's national site has no reference to Nagin's party affiliation. Nagin was part of the odd couple of Democrats (former Governor Kathleen Blance is the other) who failed to do what they needed to do to prepare New Orleans and the Bayou State for Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Excerpts from the longer Time story follow the jump (bolds identifying opportunites to identify Nagin's party affiliation are mine):

Don't Know the Party of a Politician Caught in a Scandal? He's Probably a Democrat
By Geoffrey Dickens | January 30, 2014 | 9:05 AM EST

Within the span of 40 seconds, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams reported on two politicians caught in scandals, one a Republican the other a Democrat, but he gave the party affiliation of only one of the troubled politicians. Can you guess which one?  

On the January 27 Nightly News, Williams reported that “Florida Republican Congressman Trey Radel has resigned effective tonight. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor cocaine possession.” In the very next news brief Williams announced: “A name from New Orleans’s recent past went on trial there today. Ray Nagin, mayor of the city during Katrina, in court on bribery charges.” Williams never noted Nagin was a Democrat. (video after the jump)