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Article On John Edwards Never Once Mentions ‘Democrat,’ But attacks Republicans Five Times

-By Warner Todd Huston

Curiously, the same Atlantic article that rightfully points out that the Old Media was “late to report” on Democrat candidate for President John Edwards’ extramarital affairs an corruption makes its own strange omission from the storyline by somehow forgetting to mention even one time that Edwards was, indeed, a Democrat. Yet five times the piece mentions “Republicans” in order to lead the reader to question motives and cast aspersions on the Grand Old Party.

This one can be chalked up to one of our favorite games, the “name that party” game, where one can read an entire story about a troubled or criminal politician without once being told that the subject is a Democrat.

In his piece headlined, “Why the John Edwards Trial is a Bigger Deal Than You Think,” for The Atlantic, blogger Hampton Dellinger goes into detail about Edwards’ prosecution and tries to tell us what it is all so unusual about the situation.

But it is strange that Edwards is never fully identified as a former candidate for the Democrat nomination for President. On the other hand, Dellinger spares no effort to name Republicans in order, perhaps, to provide mitigation for Edwards.

While Dellinger never uses the word “Democrat,” he goes for the throat of any Republican he can connect to the Edwards case, even if tangentially.

First off, Dellinger smacks around Sheldon Adelson and Foster Friess for spending “tens of millions” in the 2012 Republican presidential primary due to the left’s most hated Supreme Court decision, Citizens United. Then he spends a dense paragraph scoffing at “Republican U.S. Attorney General” George Holding who Dellinger says is trying to make a personal political career out of his involvement with the Edwards case.

I suppose one might imagine that everyone knows who John Edwards is, but making such an assumption violates good writing for one thing, especially when a large portion of the article is used to cast aspersions on the opposing party.

Further, with all the swipes at Republicans and the subsequent lack of the word Democrat appearing anywhere at all, one might think that in the little bio of Dellinger posted on the page The Atlantic might have felt obliged to let its readers know that Hampton Dellinger is himself a former Democrat candidate, he a failed candidate for North Carolina Lt. Governor. Were readers to be made aware of this they might understand why Republicans come under special scrutiny in a story about a Democrat’s indictment and trial.

As Doug Ross quips, “There really are two Americas: the Democrat-media elites who think they are our betters, and the rest of us.”
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.

For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.