AP sent out a story 10/14 about Rep. John Murtha’s Wash Post column in which he objects to his and other Dems’ being called “Defeatocrats” by Republicans because they want to pull out of Iraq.
Rep. John Murtha, a decorated Marine veteran who favors withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, wrote an essay for Sunday's Washington Post blasting Republicans for referring to him and other Iraq war opponents as "Defeatocrats."
Why not? He’s in the news for his anti-war statements. But would it be fair to cite his Abscam history here too? To do so would ruin or at least hurt the story, and drama's the thing. So say it this way without Abscam. But there’s supposed to be a public-trust factor here: fairness and accuracy and the like. And Abscam is in the news too. Consider this from Wash Times on Oct. 5:
Rep. John P. Murtha's Republican challenger has accused him of negotiating a $50,000 bribe and of trying to cover it up for 26 years.
A recently released FBI video recorded in 1980 shows the Pennsylvania Democrat talking with an FBI agent posing as a representative to an Arab sheik who offers Mr. Murtha $50,000 in cash in exchange for private immigration legislation.
"When you see the video, there was every intent of taking the bribe," said Diana Irey, a Washington County, Pa., commissioner who is running to unseat Mr. Murtha. "For 26 years, John Murtha has been living a lie."
This story is nowhere to be found in Chi Trib or any other newspaper in the EBSCO database, which I found compliments of the Oak Park Public Library, where I hold a card. Why not found? At best because it did not seem significant to any editor, while Murtha's battling the White House -- that's news? -- does. At worst? Skip it.
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