Media Ignore Democratic Corruption

Human Events, Jan 30, 2006 by Bartlett, Bruce

One of the things that drives Republicans crazy is the media's enormous double-standard in how they cover various scandals. While day after day we read on the front pages about how awful it is that a Republican congressman played golf with some lobbyist, cases of actual criminality by Democrats are buried on the back pages.

For example, on January 12, the New York Times ran yet another article on page one linking Rep. Tom DeLay (R.-Tex.) and convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, along with two columns about Abramoff on the inside pages. There was absolutely nothing new in any of these articles.

That same day there was real news about a former aide to Rep. William Jefferson (D.La.), who pleaded guilty the day before to bribing the congressman. The aide. Brett Pfeffer, said that his former boss had demanded a stake in Pfeffer's business in return for his support and that Jefferson had insisted that two of his relatives be put on Pfeffer's payroll.

Apparently, the FBI has been investigating Jefferson for some time. It has raided his home and wired conversations with him in a sting operation.

Stories Buried

So how did the Times handle this hot news? It appeared on page 28. Moreover, the Times couldn't even be bothered to have one of its own reporters look into the case, and instead ran Associated Press wire copy.

Also on January 12, on page five of the second section, the Times reported that a state assemblyman who had formerly headed the Brooklyn Democratic Party was sentenced to jail for receiving illegal contributions.

On January 23, the Times reported on page 12 that former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell is on trial for receiving payoffs of $ 150,000 from companies doing business with the city, as well as $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and other gratuities. Nowhere in the article was Campbell's political affiliation mentioned. I had to do an Internet search to discover that he is a Democrat.

Since Watergate, a key media template has been that the GOP is the party of corruption. Thus, every wrongdoing of any Republican tends to get page one treatment, while Democratic corruption is treated as routine and buried on the back pages.

Yet any objective study of comparative party corruption would have to conclude that Democrats are far more likely to be caught engaging in it than Republicans. For example, a review of misconduct cases in the House of Representatives since Watergate shows many more cases involving Democrats than Republicans.

Skeptics can go to the website of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. Click on "historical documents," and go to a publication called "Historical Summary of Conduct cases in the House of Representatives." The document was last updated on Nov. 9, 2004, and lists every ethics case since 1798, when Rep. Roger Griswold of Connecticut attacked Rep. Matthew Lyon of Vermont with a "stout cane," and Lyon responded with a pair of fireplace tongs.

By my count, there have been 70 different House members who have been investigated for serious offenses over the last 30 years, many involving actual criminality and jail time. Of these, only 15 involved Republicans, while 55 involved Democrats.

I have no doubt that any poll of the American people asking which party had more frequently been the subject of House ethics investigations would show an overwhelming majority naming the Republicans. The reason is that the liberal media harp on Republican misdeeds monotonously because to them the subject never gets boring. By contrast, Democratic wrongdoing tends to be treated in a perfunctory manner, with no follow-up.

Another explanation for the disparate treatment may be that Democratic corruption is so commonplace that it really isn't "news." Democrats should consider that possibility before campaigning against Republican corruption.

Mr. Bartleit is a nationally syndicated columnist.