-By Warner Todd Huston
Yes, it’s another episode of “Name That Party,” where our contestant is a criminal Democrat in the news that somehow, mysteriously finds the Old Media conveniently forgetting to mention that he is, indeed, a Democrat. This time it’s former Starr County, Texas Sheriff Reymundo Guerra who was handed a five-year sentence for drug trafficking this week. Guerra is the second Starr County Sheriff in a row to go to jail for corruption.
The Old Media dutifully reported this conviction, to be sure. It was reported that Guerra was up on harsher charges, how he had those reduced, it was also reported what criminal drug cartel figures from Mexico he was involved with and that Guerra was sorry for what he’d done.
Only one tiny, little part of the story was left out. Guerra was a Democrat official in a Texas county that has been controlled by Democrats for about 100 years. I guess the fact that a Democrat Law Official turned into a drug dealer isn’t news? Of course, if it should have been a Republican Sheriff turned drug dealer, why the Old Media would have led with that news.
As is always the case in these name-that-party stories, the AP had a short story on Guerra without mentioning he’s a Democrat. It made no stronger effort to set the record straight in its longer story, either.
Continue reading “
Democrat Sheriff Gets 5 Yrs, Media Ignores Party”
And now another episode of Name That Party where the news customer reads a story and tries his darndest to discern from what party a scandal plagued politician hails. We have many times said that one of the main rules of the Name That Party parlor game is that if the Old Media is talking about a troubled Democrat, often times the pol’s party is either not mentioned at all or is buried way down in the story. On the other hand, if it is a troubled Republican, why the party affiliation often leads the story if it isn’t right in the headline itself. Today we have a pair of stories that proves this axiom well.
Manny Aragon was one of New Mexico’s most powerful law makers and power brokers. A former Senate president, Aragon was this week convicted and given a 67 month sentence for lining his pockets and that of his co-conspiritors with millions in fraudulently billed state contracting money.
Our first case is that of Alabama Sen. E.B. McClain and his pal the very in-trouble Reverend Samuel Pettagrue, both convicted after only a scant 8 hours of deliberation by a jury of their peers. It was guilty on all 48 counts for the pair in a Birmingham court because “Pettagrue accepted nearly $760,000 in state grant money obtained by McClain to run a nonprofit foundation and then gave McClain more than $300,000 in kickbacks.”