The Biased Coverage Of Elections

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

When it comes to political king-making, I’m batting a big, fat zero.

My first choices this year withdrew from the races for governor, senator, and attorney general. It has become a foregone conclusion that we’ll see Eliot Spitzer elected governor, Senator Clinton re-elected, and Andrew Cuomo as the next attorney general. Because New Yorkers have a reputation for ignoring scandalous facts and incompetence and sticking to the party line, one can’t argue with that prediction. The only hope for the GOP is that grassroots Republicans get out of their easy chairs and vote en masse. How likely is that to happen?

Randy Daniels would have made an innovative, inspiring governor, one who thinks outside the box. Edward Cox would have given New York a senator that actually knows New York and could deliver the best for us. Dan Donovan is that rarest of all prosecutors: incorruptible, with no baggage, and a very decent human being. Unfortunately, the GOP in Albany couldn’t care less about anything other than making deals with the Democrats to maintain power, and so they give minimum support to credible candidates.

The Republican National Committee has written off New York and the feisty GOP candidates for these important seats, John Faso, John Spencer, and Jeanine Pirro, are battling tremendous odds aided by the bias of journalists who refuse to air the peccadilloes of their Democrat opponents.

Right now, they are focusing on the private life saga of Mrs.Pirro and portraying her as a woebegone candidate. Whatever one may think of Mrs. Pirro, digging into her troubled marriage should be off-limits. If it isn’t, then at least balance that with gossip about Mr. Cuomo’s failed marriage to Kerry Kennedy. The decent thing to do, of course, would be to report on the qualifications of the candidate. This would require an in-depth look at Mr. Cuomo’s record at what is regarded as one of the most corrupt government agencies, the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

While Mr. Cuomo was in charge of HUD, $59 million mysteriously disappeared in an audit that was never fully accounted for. In August, a New York-based investigative reporter, Lucy Komisar, wrote a scathing examination of Mr. Cuomo’s record at HUD. It appeared on her Web site, thekomisarscoop.com, but was it in the New York Times? No.

Shouldn’t someone in charge of enforcing the laws of the state have extensive prosecutorial experience in that area? Mrs. Pirro certainly has, and that should be what she is critiqued on, not her spousal battles. Mrs. Clinton certainly was absolved of her husband’s disgrace while in public office, and rightly so. However, not much was made of the first lady’s shady history with the Rose Law Firm or her magically transforming a $1,000 investment in cattle futures into $100,000 in a little over a year.

This lack of balanced investigative reporting is not just a New York phenomenon, but rather indicative of routine journalistic bias. Consider the hoopla about Rep. Mark Foley, who rightly resigned after his disgraceful correspondence with a former male page was disclosed. There are already calls for an FBI investigation, although Mr. Foley’s behavior, while unsavory, may very well be found to be legal. Meanwhile, Rep. Barney Frank, a Democrat of Massachusetts, has been in office since 1981 and is currently running unopposed despite going through a scandal few Republicans could survive. The openly gay congressman refused to leave in 1990 after it was discovered that his household employee, Steve Gobie, was a male prostitute operating an illegal gay escort service from Mr. Frank’s home. Mr. Frank also used his congressional influence to fix 33 of Gobie’s parking tickets. Mr. Foley obviously belongs to the wrong political party.

Rep. John Murtha has served 16 terms in Congress even though he was an unindicted co-conspirator in Abscam, the biggest corruption scandal to ever stain Congress. Although Mr. Murtha denied ever accepting money, an FBI videotape that can be seen at youdontknowjack.org shows Mr. Murtha at the scene of highly questionable negotiations with an undercover agent. You can be the judge, but let’s face it: This video surely would have been making the rounds on CNN if Mr. Murtha was a Republican.

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” the 19th-century historian Lord Acton said, and truer words were never spoken to describe our political stage. I fault ordinary citizens for abdicating their responsibility to elect worthy nominees instead of just the most high-profile candidates. I mean, how on earth could the citizens of Massachusetts forget Chappaquiddick, much less Gobie? Here in New York, the name Tawana Brawley is notorious, yet in 1987 the Reverend Al Sharpton received 32% of the vote in a Democratic primary for mayor.

Republican and Conservative candidates deserve medals of valor for even attempting to get the public’s attention.

The least we can do is listen.


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