shh!.....they were all democrats.....quiet
POSTED BY: Jongsstraw
UPDATED: Friday, September 24, 2010 20:02
VIEWED: 3155
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Eight Dems Arrested in Bell, CA 'Corruption on Steroids' - Not a Single Mention of Party Affiliation From Media
By Lachlan Markay
Tue, 09/21/2010 - 15:19 ET
"Today, eight city council members were arrested in Bell, California for what Los Angeles County District Attorney labeled "corruption on steroids." Thus far, every major news outlet that has reported on the story has omitted the fact that all eight individuals arrested are Democrats.
These glaring omissions come only weeks after NewsBusters reported that of the 351 stories on the then-brewing controversy, 350 had omitted party affiliations, and one had mentioned they were Democrats only in apologizing for not doing so sooner.
ABC, CBS, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press, Bloomberg, USA Today, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and the San Francisco Chronicle all reported on the arrests today without mentioning party affiliations.
One commenter at CNN's online story got it spot on: "I notice there is no mention of the party affiliation of the accused. I can find no mention of it in any story on the internet. This must mean they were all Democrats."
Give the man a cigar.
Together, the eight city officials "misappropriated" $5.5 million in municipal funds. Robert Rizzo, the chief culprit, was arrested on 53 counts of various brands of corruption.
Before the scandal came to light, Rizzo had been making roughly $1.5 million per year, even though the per capita income in Bell is roughly half the national average.
Pedro Carillo, Bell's interim city manager, released a statement on the arrests today:
Given the sheer volume of charges levied against former Bell Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo and former Assistant CAO Angela Spaccia by the district attorney, it is clear that Rizzo and Spaccia were at the root of the cancer that has afflicted the City of Bell. Also, it is a sad day for Bell that four current and two former members of the council also have been arrested. I am prepared to double down our efforts to continue to restore order, establish good government reforms, and to ensure that Bell is providing needed services to its residents.
Despite arrests in one of the most massive cases of municipal corruption in recent memory, no media outlet could bring itself to mention the officials' party affiliations, a fact that has been widely reported since the scandal entered the national spotlight."
Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/lachlan-markay/2010/09/21/eight-dems-arre
sted-bell-ca-corruption-steroids-not-single-mention-p#ixzz10Nld9f00
So why did the media, in 350 stories, FAIL to mention they're all DEMOCRATS? Isn't that odd?
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The following is not an accusation, but merely a question.
What is the relevance of their political affiliation? Is political affiliation always, or ever, relevant when someone is accused of a crime?
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Quote:
Originally posted by mincingbeast:
The following is not an accusation, but merely a question.
What is the relevance of their political affiliation? Is political affiliation always, or ever, relevant when someone is accused of a crime?
POLITICAL affiliation might be considered relevant by some, considering they're all POLITICIANS! I wonder though if they had been Republicans, if the media would have also not mentioned that little fact.
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I wasn't suggesting it was irrelevant. I would agree that their political affiliation matters, inasmuch as they are politicians charged with corruption. This wouldn't be the case if they were just politicians charged with soliciting sex in a public bathroom...oh never mind.
As a Californian, and a Democrat, I would also grant you that in California "corrupt politician" is synonymous with "democrat" while "incompetent politician" generally means Republican. Hence, there was probably little doubt in anyone's mind that the assholes in Bell were democrats...
You wouldn't be suggesting that democrats are more likely that republicans to be corrupt; just that the media was squeamish about turning this into a Democratic scandal, as opposed to a local matter?
Sort of like the way they often leave out the race of suspect, right?
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Quote:
Originally posted by mincingbeast:
The following is not an accusation, but merely a question.
What is the relevance of their political affiliation? Is political affiliation always, or ever, relevant when someone is accused of a crime?
Ask yourself that question, next time a Republican is accused of anything.
You'll see the (R) next to their name, or spoken of so much, you'll probably think their folks named them "Republican" at birth.
Yet across the board, when a mayor gets busted for smoking crack in a hotel room w/ a hooker, or a congressman has 90 K $ stuffed into his freezer at home, look for which party they're a member. If there's no party affiliation in the story, you can rest assured, they're a Democrat.
Think I'm making this stuff up ?
Quote:
Former Rep. William Jefferson was sentenced Friday to serve 13 years in prison for what the lead prosecutor described as "the most extensive and pervasive pattern of corruption in the history of Congress."
While the sentence by federal Judge T.S. Ellis III fell well short of the 27 to 33 years recommended by the government, it is by the far the stiffest jail term ever imposed on a member or former member of Congress for crimes committed while in office.
Jefferson, 62, was found guilty Aug. 6 on 11 charges, including soliciting bribes, depriving citizens of honest service, money laundering and using his office as a racketeering enterprise.
He was acquitted of five other charges in a case that famously featured the revelation that he had hidden $90,000 in the freezer of his home, marked bills from the FBI that prosecutors said was going to be used as a bribe.
Jefferson stood stoically as the sentence was read, his head cocked slightly to the left, showing no obvious emotion.
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/11/william_jefferson_sente
nced_ye.html
"The modern definition of 'racist' is someone who is winning an argument with a liberal."
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Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
Ask yourself that question, next time a Republican is accused of anything.
You'll see the (R) next to their name, or spoken of so much, you'll probably think their folks named them "Republican" at birth.
Bull. Shit.
http://wizbangblue.com/2009/06/24/fox-news-lies-and-calls-republican-g
ov-sanford-a-democrat.php
They've been caught out at it, what, five times and more since ?
So don't go shovelling that shit to people who know better, punk.
-Frem
I do not serve the Blind God.
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Jong,
Perhaps you are unaware that city council positions in California are not partisan positions, meaning that party affiliation plays no part in campaigning or in actually governing, so party affiliation is entirely irrelevant in this case. This is quite different from legislative positions at either the state or federal level, where party affiliation is always involved. But since you seem to be hung up on it, let me inform you that the mayor of the city of Vernon, (an industrial town close to Bell with a budget around $30 million but only 90 handpicked residents) was recently convicted of corruption - convicted, not accused - and he is a Republican. And there are rumors (unproven, but many of them) that council of the City of Industry - another town comprised almost entirely of businesses and with a very small population - is corrupt as can be, and they're all Republicans too.
As best I can tell, neither party has a lock on either corruption or decent behavior. Though I have to confess that the scumbags in Bell have taken the practice to a new and astonishing level. It looks like they didn't do anything that wasn't corrupt.
perfessergee
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You say there was not a single mention of it in "the media" - or rather, you post up an article claiming that.
So is the writer not a journalist, or not in the media, or is she lying? I mean, the fact that you posted her article says that it was indeed mentioned IN THE MEDIA.
AURaptor's Greatest Hits:
Friday, May 28, 2010 - 20:32 To AnthonyT:
Go fuck yourself.
On this matter, make no mistake. I want you to go fuck yourself long and hard, as well as anyone who agrees with you. I got no use for you.
Friday, May 28, 2010 - 18:26 To President Obama:
Mr. President, you're a god damn, mother fucking liar.
Fuck you, you cock sucking community activist piece of shit.
... go fuck yourself, Mr. President.
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Quote:
You'll see the (R) next to their name, or spoken of so much, you'll probably think their folks named them "Republican" at birth.
Unless it's on FauxNews, where it will be shown onscreen as a "(D)" instead of an "(R)".
Think I'm making this stuff up?
AURaptor's Greatest Hits:
Friday, May 28, 2010 - 20:32 To AnthonyT:
Go fuck yourself.
On this matter, make no mistake. I want you to go fuck yourself long and hard, as well as anyone who agrees with you. I got no use for you.
Friday, May 28, 2010 - 18:26 To President Obama:
Mr. President, you're a god damn, mother fucking liar.
Fuck you, you cock sucking community activist piece of shit.
... go fuck yourself, Mr. President.
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Kwicko,
1. I posted an article from a website.
2. Then I asked a couple of very simple questions.
Instead of deflecting, just deal directly with the issue raised.
The main question of interest was....why didn't ABC, CBS, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press, Bloomberg, USA Today, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and the San Francisco Chronicle report the "full" truth to the public including party affiliation for these elected city officials?
Do you have a reasonably rational answer for that question?
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