In Story on Town Hall Meeting About Shutdown, WaPo Reporter Buries Complaint About Dems in Very Last Paragraph
In his 20-paragraph April 8 article* on a congressional townhall hosted by liberal Democrat Jim Moran (D-Va.), reporter Ben Pershing buried in the very last paragraph the complaint of at least one attendee about the failure of Democrats to approve the 2011 budget last year when they controlled both houses of Congress: Even before finishing his opening remarks, Moran was sharply interrupted by members of the audience. One asked why Democrats hadn’t completed a spending bill for 2011 last year, when they still controlled both chambers of Congress. Moran didn’t answer but said he wasn’t there to “argue or defend any of this.” Moran's district is a very safe Democratic seat, so it is instructive that this was the very first question Moran was posed in last night's townhall meeting. Pershing's bias-by-burial follows the media template of shutdown coverage as the media fail to criticize Democrats for setting the stage for a shutdown by failing to do such a basic task as approving the government's 2011 budget last year when they controlled both houses of Congress. *the online article had two additional paragraphs that followed: Two attendees asked whether furloughed federal workers would qualify for unemployment benefits. Moran said the answer wasn’t clear yet — it depends on how long a shutdown lasts.
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on April 8, 2011. Filed under