We’ve previously noted the Media Research Center’s enthusiasm for playing “Name That Party” with the media even when it violates those same rules. The MRC’s Clay Waters reminds us just how anal they are about this.
In a June 1 TimesWatch post, Waters complained a New York Times story on Mark Kirk making a false claim about his military record identified Kirk as a Republican in the first paragraph, while a story on Richard Blumenthal’s false claims about his military record didn’t identify him as a Democrat until — horrors! — the third paragraph.
Those bastards!
Waters is curiously silent, however, about a couple other crucial differences between the two stories. The Kirk story is only 12 paragraphs long and was buried on page A14, while the Blumenthal story is a whopping 50 paragraphs long and appeared at the top of the front page.
But to Waters, size and placement of an article is apparently a less reliable indicator of bias than how far up in the article a person’s political party appears.