Using Google’s advanced search and the key words “Todd, Akin, Rape,” I stopped counting after finding 50 separate Politico stories covering or touching on Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin’s stupid comments about rape, between the day the story broke, August 19, 2012, and August 26, 2012.
Using the same advanced search and the key words “Wendy Davis,” I found only four stories about Texas gubernatorial candidate and Democrat rising star Wendy Davis this week — the week it was discovered she fabricated a personal narrative about being a teenage single mother and working her way through Harvard Law.
The flood of stories Politico unleashed last year about Todd Akin literally pecked Akin himself to death, the Republican Party brand as a whole, and most specifically Mitt Romney, who at the time was running for president against Barack Obama.
Even though Romney and the GOP immediately condemned Akin’s comments and called on him to withdraw from the race, these numbers prove that Politico (along with the rest of the media) used Akin to swarm Romney, throw him off message, paint him as a sexist, and re-elect Barack Obama.
The stories released by Politico this week about Wendy Davis were hardly damaging to Davis and don’t go near a Democrat Party that has invested so much in her not-so-true story. One story is about Davis “hitting back” at those questioning her bio; another is a defense of Davis courtesy of a Republican lawmaker in Texas. The third is a critical op-ed; the fourth is a quiz about how well you know Davis.
A stupid, mangled comment versus lying.
It is always important to note that while Politico is a left-wing news outlet designed to protect Democrats and destroy Republicans, it does disguise itself as objective.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC