<p>Word choice can be a subtle but effective way in which the media colorfully editorialize on the news, skewing the perceptions of readers in one direction or another. Take Washington Post's Philip Rucker, who did masterful job in skewing his 19-paragaph-long page A4 story <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/05/AR200911... target="_blank">"Activists bring 'tea party' to Capitol Hill"</a> in favor of ObamaCare proponents while smearing conservatives in a negative light. </p><p>Rucker's labeling bias was a thread woven through the entire piece, starting with the lead paragraph (emphasis mine):</p><blockquote>
Philip Rucker
By Ken Shepherd | November 4, 2009 | 4:35 PM EST
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/04/AR200911... target="_blank"><img src="http://media.eyeblast.org/newsbusters/static/2009/11/2009-11-04-WaPo-GOP... vspace="3" width="299" align="right" border="0" height="137" hspace="3" /></a>This afternoon, the Washington Post's Web site offers readers two looks at how the Democrats and the GOP will proceed following the 2009 elections, but, surprise, surprise, the paper only forsees internecine squabbles for the GOP.</p><p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/04/AR200911... target="_blank">"Republicans revel in wins but ideological fissures loom,"</a> the headline to Washington Post staffer Philip Rucker and Perry Bacon's news piece filed at 2:30 p.m. EST today. On the other side of the coin, the Post offered an "analysis" piece from Dan Balz published shortly after 10 a.m. today that posits that the "<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/03/AR200911... target="_blank">Contests serve as warning to Democrats: It's not 2008 anymore."</a></p><p>Even before delving into the content of the articles, it's clear by the labeling that the Post sees the GOP's pending "ideological fissures" as a matter of objective news reporting, while the Democratic postmortem is a matter of informed "analysis," not hard news.</p><p>For their part, Rucker and Bacon aimed, like others in the mainstream media -- click <a href="/blogs/clay-waters/2009/11/04/nyt-gop-ripping-itself-apart-year-elections-dont-matter-unless-dems-win" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="/blogs/scott-whitlock/2009/11/04/abc-s-stephanopoulos-spins-ny-23-big-loss-sarah-palin-hits-gop-civil" target="_blank">here</a>, and <a href="/blogs/carolyn-plocher/2009/11/04/cbs-nbc-go-palin-bashing-gop-lowest-point-history" target="_blank">here</a> -- to gin up an ominous narrative for the GOP party-wide from the New York 23rd congressional district saga:</p><blockquote>
![http://media.eyeblast.org/newsbusters/static/2009/11/2009-11-04-WaPo-GOP...](http://media.eyeblast.org/newsbusters/static/2009/11/2009-11-04-WaPo-GOP.jpg"){kind=link}
By Ken Shepherd | September 11, 2009 | 11:36 AM EDT
Noting how the Palmetto State "has a history of rowdy politics" and that Rep. Joe Wilson (R) has made himself "the latest in a legendary line of South Carolina politicians who appeared to revel in renegade behavior," the Washington Post's Philip Rucker and Ann Gerhart turned to South Carolina Democratic operatives Don and Carol Fowler to smear Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) in their September 11 front-pager entitled "The Gentlemen From South Carolina."
Rucker and Gerhart turned to the husband-wife couple -- he was a Clinton era DNC chairman and she is the current South Carolina state Democratic chairwoman -- to practically tag-team in slamming Wilson. Rucker and Gerhart also acknowledged some Palmetto Democrats' brushes with political infamy before cuing up Don Fowler to quip that he thinks "it is something in the water."
Yet nowhere in their story did Rucker and Gerhart note Don Fowler's gaffe from August 2008, when, on a flight from the Democratic Convention, he made an inappropriate joke involving hurricane victims in New Orleans (video embedded above at right):
By Ken Shepherd | January 2, 2009 | 5:29 PM EST
Since when does Jeff Spicoli write for the Washington Post?
Filing his January 2 Style section front-pager, "Hawaii's Still Waters Run Deep for the President-elect," staffer Philip Rucker made clear all he needs in life are some cool waves and a tasty Obama buzz:
HONOLULU -- In his two weeks in Hawaii, Barack Obama has oozed island cool: the black shades and khaki shorts, the breezy sandaled saunter that suggested he had not a care in the world. Who said anything about the presidency?
He strolled shirtless near the beach, enjoyed a shave ice and a local seaweed-wrapped delicacy called Spam musubi. One day, the president-elect flashed the friendly "shaka" sign, shaking his pinky and thumb in a local surfing gesture.
By Matthew Balan | December 30, 2008 | 9:29 PM EST
On Tuesday morning’s Today show, NBC substitute anchor Lester Holt and correspondent Savannah Guthrie all but expressed regret over President-Elect Barack Obama having to make an “adjustment” -- not being able to “just pick up and go anytime he wants” due to “not just Secret Service, but a traveling corps of journalists now follows his every move, even in Hawaii.” Guthrie reported on the “signs Obama is growing a bit frustrated with all the attention.” The on-screen graphic accompanying her report inflated this apparent frustration on the part of future chief executive: “Man in a Bubble: Obama Chafes at Constant Scrutiny.”
Holt introduced Guthrie’s report with a lament over Obama’s seeming predicament: “He may not be president yet, but Barack Obama is getting an early taste of what life as leader of the free world is really like -- a lack of freedom, and an entourage documenting his every move.” Guthrie then began her report along a similar line: “Obama came here to Hawaii to get away from it all -- get one last vacation in before becoming president. But even here, he can’t just pick up and go anytime he wants, and that’s been quite an adjustment for the president-elect.”
By Ken Shepherd | July 24, 2007 | 12:39 PM EDT
He's a "burly man" with "rhetorical punch" from Catholic, blue collar roots in Baltimore who trekked a "remarkable rise" to become "one of Maryland's most powerful public officials." But today former state senator Thomas Bromwell (D-Md.) finds himself facing a judge and entering a guilty plea in a federal racketeering case that's been years in the marking.