Bob Woodruff et al. just reported this on ABCNews.com:
John Edwards Indicted By Federal Grand Jury for Conspiracy and False Statements
By BOB WOODRUFF (@bobwoodruff) , MICHAEL MURRAY, PIERRE THOMAS (@PierreTABC) and JASON RYAN
June 3, 2011
A federal grand jury in Raleigh, N.C., today handed down a six-count indictment against former Sen. John Edwards for allegedly using more than $900,000 in campaign funds to hide his mistress during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Edwards faces a maximum penalty of five years in jail for each charge, if convicted. Each offense also carries a fine of $250,000.
The charges, following a two-year investigation, include conspiracy, illegal campaign contributions and making false statements. Edwards is expected to be arraigned on the charges this afternoon. Read the full indictment.
“John Edwards will tell the court he is innocent of all charges, and will plead not guilty. He did not break the law and will mount a vigorous defense,” Gregory Craig, lead counsel to John Edwards, said in a statement.
The prosecutors claim Edwards engaged in a conspiracy to protect his “public image as a devoted family man.” It alleges that Edwards was a direct participant, if not the architect, of a plot to solicit huge sums of money from two key political donors to cover up an affair that could have literally blown up his 2008 presidential bid.
The case is built on the notion that political donors would not be doing this out of the goodness of their heart, that this was an outrageous attempt to circumvent campaign finance law to keep Edwards viable as a presidential candidate. ...
Pretty serious. But I noticed something interesting about the article having read it in its entirety:
Number of paragraphs: 24.
Number of words: 947.
Number of instances Edwards’ party ID is mentioned: ZERO.
Think that if the indicted was a Republican, Woodruff and friends wouldn’t have told us?
Lest one think this it’s wrong to make a generalization from a single article, ABC News’ story about Edwards from yesterday (also by Woodruff, et al.) also fails to mention his party affiliation.
Remember disgraced Senator John Ensign (R-NV)? When he resigned last month due to a sex scandal, here's a snip from a May 13 report at ABC News:
If you play accompanying video, it takes anchorette Robin Roberts only 6 seconds before saying “Republican” for the first time. Jake Tapper picks up the report at 0:21 seconds. Merely 2 seconds and 9 words in, Tapper utters “Republican.” Here, exactly is how Tapper began this objective news story:
Just a few days ago, Senator John Ensign, Nevada Republican, brought his Senate career to its sad and pathetic end.
Now here's a similar snip from today about Edwards:
Notice anything missing?
In the video on the same page, Robin Roberts and George Stephanopolous talk for 41 seconds about the Edwards indictment, without one single utterance of “Democrat.” Then, they go to Woodruff reporting from D.C. In the 2.5+ minutes of Woodruff’s report, not once is “Democrat” said. At the 3:00-mark, the report goes back to Stephanopolous, who brings on legal analyst Dan Abrams. Again, for a minute and 45 seconds, Edwards party ID is not mentioned.
And in this Special Report from earlier today, again with Stephanopolous and Abrams, zero mention of the word Democrat in all of its 2+ minutes:
Now, just to triple check, I watched ABC News’s report on John Ensign from May 12. While his party affiliation is indeed missing from the web page, anchor Bob Weir starts his news story,
Ten days ago, Nevada Republican John Ensign ...
So, to recap:
In neither an almost 1,000-word printed report, nor on the relevant web page, nor in a 4:45-minute televised story on John Edwards, is “Democrat” mentioned even once.
But three weeks ago, John Ensign’s “Republican” affiliation was mentioned sometimes in print and always on TV.
Coincidence? I report. You decide.
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