Monday, March 10, 2008

More Punditry Peeves   [Mark Hemingway]

As a sidebar to an article at ABC news about Elliot Spitzer, they've helpfully put together this slideshow of 13 politicians involved in famous sex scandals.(Collect them all!) Anyway, it's rather interesting that of the 7 Republicans on the list, all of them save one are identified by ABC as Republicans. Of the six Democrats on the list, only one is identified by party affiliation.

UPDATE: Several readers write in to note the conspicuous absence of Mel Reynolds on that list. One reader in particular did one better, and noted the network has a history ignoring Reynolds' crimes:

Congressman Mel Reynolds, the Democrat convicted of 12 charges, including sex with 16-year-old Beverly Heard and asking her to take pornographic photographs of a 15-year old, was indicted on August 21, 1994. ABC, the current scourge of congressional teen-sex scandals, reported nothing – until Reynolds was convicted a year later, on August 23, 1995. In fact, on May 13, 1994, ABC featured Reynolds in a "Person of the Week" speaking out in favor of two Chicago ladies fighting child molesters:

Peter Jennings: " Their local congressman is certainly on their side. He also wants to make child molesting a federal offense."

Rep. Mel Reynolds (D), Illinois: "These ladies really illustrate how being active in your community can really make a difference."

Jennings: " If the law is to change, it will need the support of many more state legislators, which means more mothers will have to get involved."

03/10 10:19 PMShare