Congressman Etheridge, 'Information Management' and the Washington Post

Yes, we here at Big Journalism know there’s an infinite number of “what-if-the-shoe-were-on-the-other-foot” stories when it comes to the MSM. Any story that can redound to a conservative’s discredit will be hyped to the skies:

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Anything that puts a Democrat in a bad light — especially if it’s even remotely a judgment call — will be buried:

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So it’s no surprise that the Washington Post — the cheerleader for the hometown team, congressional Democrats — basically buried the disgraceful behavior of Rep. Bob Etheridge. From NRO’s Jim Geraghty:

The Washington Post, the newspaper than mentioned “Macaca” in approximately 100 articles, op-eds, editorials about the 2006 Virginia Senate race between George Allen and Jim Webb, watches the video of Rep. Bob Etheridge, North Carolina Democrat, physically assaulting a questioner and concludes it warrants three paragraphs on page C3, in the Reliable Source gossip column.

The opening sentence? “So what really happened when Rep. Bob Etheridge ran into a couple of self-described ‘students’ on the streets of D.C. last week?”

Well, sure: after all, a congressman of no particular party assaulting an interlocutor on a public street happens every day in Washington, whereas a disfavored Republican Senate candidate, whose defeat is a thing devoutly to be wished, merely utter a nonsense word like “macaca” to set the pack baying.

David Weigel, who used the term “hug” in his initial report on the altercation and has been receiving furious e-mails since, is cited; the Post should have let him write an actual print story on this. In this news nugget, there is little or no description beyond ‘grabbing the wrist’ of one of the young men.

This is not even bias anymore; this is information management, designed to ensure those who pick up the print version of the Post never encounter what the blogosphere is buzzing about.

And the MSM wonders why it’s going out of business…