That’s what some Republicans say about it’s reporting the money spent by the RNC under RNC Chairman Michael Steel, and the website’s reporting the “high concept” story about RNC money going to a bondage themed club.
This is further confirmation of the trend that I’ve noted in many posts in TMV over the past few years. Political parties now function where each side tries to look the other way if its side messes up, scream about “but under…” (fill in the name Clinton or Bush depending on your bias to excuse your side’s behavior), or play defense lawyer to insist that behavior that would arouse rage or disdain if it came from the other side is OK, not as bad as it looks, the product of a conspiracy, etc. if it reflects on their own.
The problem for some is: there are indeed some partisans out there on both sides who won’t play that game and say the Emperer has no clothes (or the Emperer is tied up). It’s heartening to see that not everyone considers news reporting and websites mere devices to advance one agenda and discredit the other side’s — that news perhaps is what you find and publish no matter who it hurts and that opinion might mean you don’t suspend your values and standards just because someone has a party letter that is the same as yours and you don’t want it to be bad for your party’s image.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.