« W.F.W. | Main | Wipe and Load »
July 19, 2004
Bias? What Bias?
Speaking of wiped and loaded. Many people say the press is biased to the left. Perhaps, perhaps not. In Hawaii, we have at least two Republican run media sources. One is the morning newspaper and the other is the Fox affiliate [gasp!] TV station.
How do I know this? Well, this weekend a Republican state representative "approached a plainclothes police officer outside a Kapiolani Park restroom and groped his crotch, police said."
[Name of the person omitted] "(R, Olowalu-Kapalua) was arrested for fourth-degree sexual assault, a misdemeanor offense, for an incident which allegedly took place at 11:15 p.m." The incident took place in a public restroom in a public park where people have complained to the police of unwanted homosexual advances by individuals in the area.
First, be clear that even though the representative has said he "plans to take full responsibility" for the incident, he has not been convicted of anything. But the fact he was arrested for this kind of conduct is newsworthy. This kind of thing does not happen every day. In fact, I cannot think of any legislator being arrested for this kind of thing. Ever.
So, you would think this would make all the local newspapers and TV stations.
You would be wrong. As far as I could see, the Republican TV station never reported the incident during its newscast the next day. On the other hand, I think the other two TV stations led their newscasts with the story.
The Republican newspaper buried the story four sections deep and then used the word Democrat in the bold-type subheading and the first paragraph before naming the representative as a Republican in the second paragraph (one would assume the editors were trying to confuse people into thinking the representative was a Democrat?). The unbiased newspaper had the story on the front page above the fold.
Perhaps in other areas of the US there is a left bias but here in olde Hawai'i, the right wing is strong and doesn't see any reason to report anything that might reflect badly on their party. Even if it's true.
As for me, as a Democrat, I don't care if the man is a homosexual or bisexual or totally abstinent. What he does in this private life is his own business (as long as he doesn't harm anyone else). The main question is does he represent the people of his district? I will leave it up to the good people of Maui to decide that question in the coming elections but how would they know how to decide if the media never report such things?
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.seto.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/dkseto/mt-diary/mt-tb.cgi/550