Tuesday, April 01, 2014

Has CNN Covered The Leland Yee Story Yet?

I haven't seen such story yet, and I just searched for his name on their site.  If you don't know who he is, let me fill you in:
California State senator (and, until last week, candidate for secretary of state) Leland Yee was well-known as an anti-gun activist. Then, last week, he was indicted for, yes, conspiring to smuggle guns and rocket launchers between mobsters and terrorists in exchange for massive bribes. Some highlights, as excerpted by San Francisco Magazine.

Yee told an FBI agent that, in exchange for $2 million in cash, he'd fill a shopping list of weapons, which he took personal responsibility for delivering, according to the indictment. He also allegedly "masterminded" a complex scheme bring illegal weapons into the country, agreeing to "facilitate" a meeting with an illegal arms dealer to arrange for the weapons to be imported via Newark, N.J. In arranging all of this, the indictment said, Yee relied on connections with Filipino terrorist groups who could supply "heavy" weapons, including the Muslim terrorists of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Yee allegedly noted that the Muslim terrorists had no reservations about kidnapping, extortion and murder.

This all sounds like news. You've got charges of huge bribes, rampant hypocrisy, illegal weapons and even a connection with foreign terrorists — and from a leading politician in an important state.

But — and here's the part Hollywood would miss — outside of local media like San Francisco magazine, the coverage was surprisingly muted.The New York Times buried the story as a one-paragraph Associated Press report on page A21, with the bland dog-bites-man headline, "California: State Senator Accused of Corruption." This even though Yee was suspended, along with two others, from the California state senate in light of the indictment.
Pretty big news, right?  Why do you think CNN wouldn't cover this while they do cover "note to tardy boss gets him fired"?  I think we already know the answer.
CNN, home (also until last week) of Piers Morgan, whom Yee had praised for his anti-gun activism, didn't report the story at all. When prodded by viewers, the network snarked that it doesn't do state senators. Which is odd, because searching the name of my own state senator, Stacey Campfield, turns up a page of results, involving criticisms of him for saying something "extreme". Meanwhile, CNN found time to bash Wisconsin state senator and supporter of Gov. Scott Walker, Randy Hopper over marital problems.

But there's a difference. They're Republicans. When Republicans do things that embarrass their party, the national media are happy to take note, even if they're mere state senators. But when Democrats like Yee get busted for actual felonies, and pretty dramatic ones at that, the press suddenly isn't interested.
Some might call that "media bias".

4 comments:

maxutils said...

I've done this on FB already, but I'd like to encourage this here: Leleand Yee will remain on the ballot, because it's too late to remove him. So ....I'm sure there are plenty of Democrats who will mark 'D' without having any knowledge of this situation ... so ...let's help them look more stupid. Vote for Yee. He won't win, and if he does, he won't be able to serve anyway. But it will be a much more delightfully ironic vote total...

maxutils said...

As for media bias ... yes. The left leaning stations are definitively leaning towards corruption rather than guns and hypocrisy ... FOX, is not. To me, this is the most offensive case of government fraud in my lifetime. In fairness, though ... Stewart hammered him on the Daily Show last night. Say what you want about Stewart being an ultra liberal ... which he is ... but he took a good dig last night, and he embarrassed Sebelius without pity.

Auntie Ann said...

For some reason this reminds me of this:

Has the Large Hadron Collider Destroyed the World Yet?

I think it's for the sheer inevitability and predictability.

maxutils said...

I'm paraphrasing from a Yee quote, and Stewart's commentary ...but it went something like this: Yee: they haven't told us very much, but from what little we've heard, it looks refutable. Stewart: So ... out of all the s*** we did, they've only found out this much ....More or less. I'm sure you can find the clip.