‘Name That Party’: AP Adds a Race Card to the Mix in Prince George’s Co. Md. Corruption Story
A couple of NewsBusters posts during the past week — one from yours truly and another courtesy of Ken Shepherd — have pointed to the press's reluctance to identify the Democratic Party affiliations of indicted Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson and his also-indicted wife Leslie, who is a County Council member. Today, the Associated Press's Brian Witte kept up the wire service's tradition of either not naming the party of an indicted Democrat or deferring that identification until very late in the report (in the apparent hope that subscribing outlets picking up the story won't use it). Jack Johnson's party affiliation was saved for the 19th paragraph; Witte never identified his wife's party affiliation. Witte further quoted a Republican who commented on the situation in Paragraph 10, and noted that said Republican “ran against Johnson in 2002″ in Paragraph 11, leaving it vague as to whether it was a primary or general election contest. Finally, Witte gave voice to people who believes that the Johnsons and ultimately other county officials are being targeted based on their African-American ethnicity — in county where two-thirds of its residents are African-American. Here are selected paragraphs from Witte's report : read more
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‘Name That Party’: AP Adds a Race Card to the Mix in Prince George’s Co. Md. Corruption Story
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on November 21, 2010. Filed under