MSM: "Staunch Republican" Decides He Cannot Vote For GOP Any Longer; Alas, This GOP Diehard Donated 90% To Democrats Since 1994

Jennifer Hunter, columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, knows the sorts of stories her employees want. 1) War protesters are all very normal Middle-Americans with no history of previous political agitation and in fact are all patriotic grandmas who are lifelong Republicans, and 2) lifelong Republicans are forced by conscience to disown the GOP.

She offers up Story Type 2 here. So what if the guy's actually a very partisan, and generous, liberal? What's important is the metanarrative, the Greater Truth that the GOP sucks balls.

On July 16, Ms. Hunter wrote a column which began: "After watching the top five Democratic candidates for president speak before a trial lawyers' group Sunday, attorney Jim Ronca of Philadelphia, a staunch Republican, became certain of one thing: He is not going to vote for a Republican in the 2008 presidential election."

A suspicious reader checked out Mr. Ronca's political contributions. Mr. Ronca had made 14 since 1994 -- 12 to Democrats. The Democratic candidates received $7,000; the GOP candidates $750.

Mr. Ronca's contribution record was posted on several Web sites, whose readers flooded Ms. Hunter with demands for a correction.

If Ms. Hunter had fessed up, I wouldn't be writing about her. But she responded by attacking Web loggers for doing the research she should have done, and blaming her error on her editor.

She claimed the editor distorted her piece by elevating an insignificant (non-) fact to the headline. But, alas, that supposedly meaningless (non-) fact was contained in her lede.

Dumb editor! Thinking her lede sentence could possibly be important!

posted by Ace at 01:24 PM

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