The Media FINALLY Label Spitzer ... Oh Wait

[Guest No Media Bias NOOOO]

From the ridiculous to the absurd

 

March 13, 2008

 

Those of us who have been participating in the Eliot Spitzer Media Waiting Game -- halting our respitory activity in anticipation of the Jurassic Press actually ascribing Party affiliation to the recently resigned Big Apple Governor -- can finally breathe easy.

The Agence-France Presse and Yahoo! have teamed up to finally do what's right.

 

Only they do it so VERY wrong.

 

Behold the headline:

 

Eliot Spitzer ® holds a news conference in New York City with his wife Silda by his side

 

This bit of Press horrendousness, after the serial Spitzer dis-affliation leading up to it, leads to one of but two possible conclusions.

 

Either the Media have become excruciatingly bad at their job, or they have become excruciatingly bad at hiding their bias.

 

Or both. The choice, Gentle Readers, is yours.

 

 

[Guest Guest]

Reuters: The Ginger Rogers of Syndicated NewsMarch 14, 2008 - 12:16 ET

 

 

This is past a bit ridiculous, is it not?

Agence France-Presse (AFP) yesterday disseminated to its client list a headline and photograph caption labeling sex scandalized and self-ousted New York Governor Eliot Spitzer an ®, when he is in fact a (D) -- emocrat.

 

They then responded -- to correspondence on the subject of their error and the error itself -- rather meekly.

 

AFP having only corrected their copy -- leaving myriad errors strewn throughout the print and web worlds -- left wide open the possibility that others would follow their poor suit.

 

And indeed someone has.

 

Perhaps the folks at Reuters are avid AFP readers. For they have today -- following AFP's lead -- labeled Spitzer as an ®.

 

The conspiracy theory that exists of the media gathering together in one large clutch to plot their bias is not at all true.

 

It is not that the many members of the media are of one mind -- it is that they are of many tiny like-minds.

 

 

[Guest Guest]

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer ( R ) stands next to his wife Silda Wall Spitzer as he announces his resignation at his office in New York March 12, 2008. Spitzer faced pressure to quit since it was reported earlier in the week that he was caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a prostitute at a Washington hotel last month. REUTERS/Brendan McDermidReuters Didn't Mislabel Spitzer -- He Was Just Standing "on the Right"

 

There was recently a brief flurry of a few incorrect labels of [former] NY Governor Eliot Spitzer -- noting him as a Republican. Perhaps the most inventive excuse for that mistake comes from Reuters via Newsbusters reader Doug M. Doug had sent an e-mail inquiring as to why Spitzer was mislabeled in this story. Here's the response from Reuters' Vincent Baldino:

 

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you but I wanted to look into

this. Our online photo editor just got back to me and confirmed that the ® means that he is the person on the right side of the photo. It has nothing to do with democrat or republican.

 

 

Take a look at the picture and corresponding caption again. Being that only Spitzer and his wife are in the photo, why is it even necessary to indicate that the former governor is "on the right"? Doesn't "wife" denote "female?" Where else could Eliot Spitzer possibly be but on the right? In addition, wouldn't "(at right)" be the common method of indicating direction in a photograph?

 

You be the judge on whether Reuters' excuse holds any water.

 

 

[Guest Guest]

There is clearly a media bias. AOL recently had a piece on sex scandals involving politicians. They identified the party of every republican, but only mentioned the democrat label on slide 9 of 12.