October 11th 2008
Media Bias #84
AP: Meeting With Christians Unethical
In one of the more far-fetched tales of media bias this election season, AP is trumpeting a mega-story today - one dredged up by the army of investigative journalists it’s sent to Alaska (care to guess how many they’ve sent to Delaware?) - that claims Sarah Palin can’t write off expenses if she visits constituents who are Christian.
AP took care to tag the story with a Wasilla dateline, even though much of the story has to do with other locales; the better to tag Palin with.
WASILLA, Alaska (AP) - The camera closes in on Sarah Palin speaking to young missionaries, vowing from the pulpit to do her part to implement God’s will from the governor’s office.
What she didn’t tell worshippers gathered at the Wasilla Assembly of God church in her hometown was that her appearance that day came courtesy of Alaskan taxpayers, who picked up the $639.50 tab for her airplane tickets and per diem fees.
An Associated Press review of the Republican vice presidential candidate’s record as mayor and governor reveals her use of elected office to promote religious causes, sometimes at taxpayer expense and in ways that blur the line between church and state.
Promoting religious causes is defined by AP as meeting with Christians and talking Christian-lingo with them. Kind of like Joe Biden talking like he’s a coal miner when he’s campaigning in Ohio, or Hillary’s cloying attempts to talk black. Here’s Palin blurring the line between church and state:
“As I’m doing my job, let’s strike this deal. Your job is going be to be out there, reaching the people—(the) hurting people—throughout Alaska,” she told students graduating from the church’s Masters Commission [missionary] program. “We can work together to make sure God’s will be done here.”
AP (which stands for Anti-Palin nowadays) got a list of 25 “faith based” events Palin attended and filed expense reports for. It did not request a similar list from Obama or Biden, and made no attempt to compare the various candidates’ procedures for reimbursement when they attend, as they all frequently do, religious events in a country that is, to AP’s chagrin, unabashedly Christian.
Media Bias 2008 covers pro-Obama media bias. Items are listed from most recent to oldest; the numbering reflects this and is not a ranking. Send Media Bias 2008 examples via “comments”‘ below, or to email2laer [@] yahoo [dot] com.
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