Name That Party: Once Story About ‘Centrist’ Wu Goes National, AP Stops Tagging Him As a Dem
Oregon residents and news followers nationwide can be forgiven for shaking their heads over the Associated Press's latest item on the misadventures of Congressman David Wu. All of a sudden he's apparently not a Democrat — well, at least he's not identified as such by the wire service's Jonathan J. Cooper. Wu has gained a degree of infamy over his erratic behavior (to be described shortly for those unfamiliar with the story) leading up to his reelection in 2010. What's odd about Cooper's failure to tag Wu as a Democrat in his latest report is that he and the AP have done so in several previous dispatches: A February 19 unbylined report (“Report: Congressman urged to get psychiatric help”) again identifies Wu as a Democrat in its first paragraph. His February 23 item (“Newspapers, GOP call for congressman to resign”) identified Wu as a Democrat twice, including once in its first paragraph, and later when it described his district as a “Democratic stronghold.” A brief February 24 item on Wu (“Newspaper, GOP call for Wu to resign”) named his party in the second paragraph. The theory here is that now that Wu's woes have become a more prominent national story, the AP has decided that the party identification of Wu should came to a halt, lest readers get their minds polluted with the craaaaazy idea that politicians in various forms of trouble in recent years have been largely if not mostly from the Democratic Party. Logically (if there is such a thing at AP) it should have worked the opposite way, as national readers are less likely to already know that Wu is a Dem, and would be interested in knowing. Here are several paragraphs from Cooper's Sunday evening report : An Oregon congressman whose erratic behavior has recently prompted calls for his resignation said Sunday that some of his actions could be attributed to a reaction to a mental health drug.
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on February 27, 2011. Filed under Politics.
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Name That Party: Once Story About ‘Centrist’ Wu Goes National, AP Stops Tagging Him As a Dem
Oregon residents and news followers nationwide can be forgiven for shaking their heads over the Associated Press's latest item on the misadventures of Congressman David Wu. All of a sudden he's apparently not a Democrat — well, at least he's not identified as such by the wire service's Jonathan J. Cooper. Wu has gained a degree of infamy over his erratic behavior (to be described shortly for those unfamiliar with the story) leading up to his reelection in 2010. What's odd about Cooper's failure to tag Wu as a Democrat in his latest report is that he and the AP have done so in several previous dispatches: A February 19 unbylined report (“Report: Congressman urged to get psychiatric help”) again identifies Wu as a Democrat in its first paragraph. His February 23 item (“Newspapers, GOP call for congressman to resign”) identified Wu as a Democrat twice, including once in its first paragraph, and later when it described his district as a “Democratic stronghold.” A brief February 24 item on Wu (“Newspaper, GOP call for Wu to resign”) named his party in the second paragraph. The theory here is that now that Wu's woes have become a more prominent national story, the AP has decided that the party identification of Wu should came to a halt, lest readers get their minds polluted with the craaaaazy idea that politicians in various forms of trouble in recent years have been largely if not mostly from the Democratic Party. Logically (if there is such a thing at AP) it should have worked the opposite way, as national readers are less likely to already know that Wu is a Dem, and would be interested in knowing. Here are several paragraphs from Cooper's Sunday evening report : An Oregon congressman whose erratic behavior has recently prompted calls for his resignation said Sunday that some of his actions could be attributed to a reaction to a mental health drug.
Posted by
on February 27, 2011. Filed under News, Politics.
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Name That Party: Once Story About ‘Centrist’ Wu Goes National, AP Stops Tagging Him As a Dem
Oregon residents and news followers nationwide can be forgiven for shaking their heads over the Associated Press's latest item on the misadventures of Congressman David Wu. All of a sudden he's apparently not a Democrat — well, at least he's not identified as such by the wire service's Jonathan J. Cooper. Wu has gained a degree of infamy over his erratic behavior (to be described shortly for those unfamiliar with the story) leading up to his reelection in 2010. What's odd about Cooper's failure to tag Wu as a Democrat in his latest report is that he and the AP have done so in several previous dispatches: A February 19 unbylined report (“Report: Congressman urged to get psychiatric help”) again identifies Wu as a Democrat in its first paragraph. His February 23 item (“Newspapers, GOP call for congressman to resign”) identified Wu as a Democrat twice, including once in its first paragraph, and later when it described his district as a “Democratic stronghold.” A brief February 24 item on Wu (“Newspaper, GOP call for Wu to resign”) named his party in the second paragraph. The theory here is that now that Wu's woes have become a more prominent national story, the AP has decided that the party identification of Wu should came to a halt, lest readers get their minds polluted with the craaaaazy idea that politicians in various forms of trouble in recent years have been largely if not mostly from the Democratic Party. Logically (if there is such a thing at AP) it should have worked the opposite way, as national readers are less likely to already know that Wu is a Dem, and would be interested in knowing. Here are several paragraphs from Cooper's Sunday evening report : An Oregon congressman whose erratic behavior has recently prompted calls for his resignation said Sunday that some of his actions could be attributed to a reaction to a mental health drug.
