Our Fair and Balanced Media

Accompanying a story about House Democrats "seriously exploring the creation of an independent ethics arm to enforce new rules on travel, lobbying, gifts and other issues," is this image:


That contains two Democrats, one of whom is Joe Lieberman. The other is Marty Meehan, a Congressman from Massachusetts of whom I imagine even most politically-engaged liberals haven't heard, no less the average New York Times reader. Susan Collins, Christopher Shays, and John McCain are Republicans.

Collins, McCain, and Lieberman are some of the Senate backers of a public integrity office, but why are they're pictured, along with one Republican rep, instead of, say, Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the House Democrats, about whom this story was written, is rather baffling—especially considering how relevant their proposal is. Americans sent the Dems to D.C. in large part to clean up the corruption, and they're serious about doing it.

[Dems] said the prominence of corruption as a concern in the elections last month gave new impetus to such an idea.

…Mrs. Pelosi and other House Democratic leaders have grown more serious about the independent watchdog approach as a way to demonstrate their commitment to enforcement after a string of corruption scandals tied to the former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a major military contracting case and questions about pet projects included in legislation.

… Besides the bipartisan group, Democrats are expected to propose a ban on gifts and meals from lobbyists and organizations that employ them; a prohibition on lobbyists and their employers from planning, organizing, requesting, financing, arranging or participating in travel for members or staff; and a bar to the use of official or campaign money to pay for using corporate jets.

The emerging rules would also require the disclosure of earmarks, the special provisions in bills that lawmakers use to direct dollars to specific projects or favored causes. Lawmakers would also have to certify that any request for such spending is not in their personal financial interest.

Sort of right in the fucking ballpark of what Americans want at the moment, but of the five people in the above picture, only one of them is a House Democrat. (And one of them is the presumed GOP presidential nominee, who I'll bet isn't complaining with the free publicity of being attached to a story about House Democrats pursuing ethics reform. Yeesh.) Whether this is sloppiness, overt bias, or laziness doesn't matter, because it ends up disfavoring the Dems right at the top of a story which should, sans bias, wholly work in their favor. This is precisely the kind of thing that liberals tend to label as "no big deal" and that conservatives will scream and shout about for weeks on end, until the Times will never make such a stupid mistake again.

Which is why there are three Republicans in that picture and one House Democrat.