The Grey Lady Goes Abroad

The New York Times ran a story yesterday about the ill-gotten gains from federally-funded earmarks of Rep. Allan B. Mollohan ( -W.Va.). Yes, they didn't mention his party affiliation until well into the story. He is also the senior Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, as well as a member of the House Appropriations committee, how convenient.

As Dennis Byrne notes in the RCP blog, perhaps the Times thought we wouldn't notice, that we would just look at the pictures and conclude he was a Republican.

What astounds me is that the Times ran the story at all. Perhaps they were embarassed into it by the Wall St. Journal running it the day before. But more likely the Times thought most of their usual readers wouldn't notice, just flipping through the paper on a Saturday, reinforcing their smug notions of the hinterland beyond New York.

The Times has done some consistently good, honest reporting on Belarus and China, for example.

Perhaps they thought West Virginia was a foreign country.