Just the facts please

By Creature

This, from yesterday's Situation Room, is why the media needs a good hard kick in the ass. The story being reported is the conviction of David Safavian on four of five charges of lying and obstructing justice in connection with the Abramoff scandal. The story should have stayed focused on Safavian (a former Bush administration official) and Abramoff, but no, in order to stay "balanced" Ed Henry, reporting, not commenting, for CNN, had to drag the democrats into the story.

HENRY: The guilty verdict on four felony counts will undoubtedly give Democrats more fodder in their election-year claim that there's a Republican culture of corruption that extends from the White House all the way to Capitol Hill.

But that Democratic case could be undermined a bit by the fact that there have been some high-profile Democrats caught up in ethics cases of their own, most notably Democratic Congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana, who has denied wrongdoing, but allegedly kept $90,000 in bribes in his freezer here in Washington -- Wolf.

So, a story about Safavian convictions ends with a hit on the democrats. Henry should have ended his report with the facts, not with politics and spin.

(Cross-posted at State of the Day.)