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Debbie Wasserman Schultz Scandal Highlights Media’s Double Standard

Debbie Wasserman Schultz Scandal Highlights Media’s Double Standard

Blackout and spin.

Former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz is at the center of a scandal involving her former IT staffer.

We covered the scandal in recent posts:

But you’d never know there was a scandal by the amount of time the mainstream media spends talking about it. Tim Graham reports at News Busters:

Major Newspapers Ignore or Downplay Imran Awan-Wasserman Schultz Scandal

It’s not just the TV networks that are ignoring or downplaying the Imran Awan-Debbie Wasserman Schultz scandal. The nation’s newspapers are barely getting their feet wet. A quick Nexis search shows The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have yet to report it, while The Washington Post and USA Today just reported smaller stories in Thursday’s papers. The Post offered 429 words on page B-3, and USA Today reported just 323 words on page B-6. At least that was the back page of the B-section and included a photo of Wasserman Schultz.

Still, both headlines avoided the D-word. The USA Today headline was “IT Worker for Congresswoman Arrested.” The Washington Post headline was “House staffer charged with equity-loan fraud.” As Tom Blumer noted, the AP covered this story. One headline was especially galling: “Florida lawmaker fires IT staffer; Anti-Muslim bigotry is cause of client’s arrest, lawyer says.”

Does anyone doubt this story would be getting much more aggressive coverage if Wasserman Schultz was a Republican, or a member of the Trump administration?

When anyone in the media does cover the story, the spin applied to the story is epic.

Holmes Lybrand reports at the Daily Caller:

Media Ditches Substance Of Wasserman Schultz FBI Boondoggle To Focus On Conspiracy Theories

The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group reporter Luke Rosiak, who has covered this story extensively since it first appeared in February, broke the news Sunday that “FBI agents seized smashed computer hard drives from the home of Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s information technology (IT) administrator, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation.”

The NYT and BuzzFeed fail to mention this and many other key facts in recent articles, and Snopes obfuscates the story by rating a claim from a no-name blog as false, requiring the reader to dig through the fact check to find the truth…

A NYT article Friday dedicates the vast majority of its space to casting doubt on stories surrounding Awan by using his lawyer, Christopher Gowen, as a reputable defense for Awan. Not only does the NYT ignore Gowen’s deep ties to Clinton, which TheDCNF has reported in detail, but the article also attempts to cast doubt by citing theories from a no-name conspiracy theorist who supports Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (though NYT calls him a “right winger”).

Meanwhile, members of congress have made it clear that they’re very interested in talking to Wasserman Schultz and getting an opportunity to ask a few questions.

Adam Kredo writes at the Washington Free Beacon:

Congress Seeks Wasserman Schultz Testimony in IT Scandal Investigation

Congressional leaders are interested in conducting their own independent investigation into a growing scandal surrounding IT staffers working for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.), who are accused of stealing sensitive computer equipment from House lawmakers’ offices.

One of these IT staffers, Imran Awan, was arrested this week when trying to travel to Pakistan and charged with bank fraud after a months-long investigation that found he wired nearly $300,000 to that country. Several other staffers tied to Awan are the focus of an investigation into claims they stole sensitive equipment and illegally penetrated the House IT network.

Leading members of the House Judiciary Committee and Government Oversight Committee told the Washington Free Beacon that the appropriate congressional bodies should launch an investigation into the illicit IT activity, which could include asking for testimony from Wasserman Schultz on the situation.

This was a perfect opportunity for the media to prove they’re not as biased as people think.

They blew it.

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Comments

Most important, it demonstrates the criminal justice system double standard. (who gives a crap about the ‘media’) anymore?)

btw – you know these IT guys were extorting schultz.
The big thing now is: what did they have on her?

Same with obama extorting boehner.

    Wrathchilde in reply to TheFineReport.com. | July 30, 2017 at 8:40 am

    What did they have on her?

    Everything.

    Almost everything Jar-jar Wasserman-Shultz did would be coordinated through Email, of which her IT staff would have full access.

    Not to mention that the rest of that family had been employed by many other of the dem leadership and cadre in IT positions, and had full access to their info as well.

    This was a full penetration operation.

    I’m not sure Boehner needed to be extorted.
    You see, the Chamber of Commerce and other donors have an agenda that doesn’t align with voters’ agenda. Guess which one the GOPe listens to.

this is just a local crime story…

😎

“This was a perfect opportunity for the media to prove they’re not as biased as people think.

They blew it.”

This really should be the first part of your article, not the last – the MSM is only ever going to regain credibility by attacking Ds (or at least *some* Ds) with the same fervor they’re going after Rs with.

I think there is broad support across most “swing” voters for an active media keeping our politicians in check – but that’s only if they’re keeping *all* politicians in check, not just the ones they don’t like.

The funny part is you can literally tell the MSM exactly how to win back their credibility, but they’re constitutionally incapable of taking the advice – even though with restored credibility they could still tilt the playing field against Rs and in favor of Ds (just a little more subtly).

    Tom Servo in reply to jhkrischel. | July 29, 2017 at 10:37 pm

    The MSM is not going to “regain their credibility” – they are not even going to try. They don’t care what you think anymore, they only care about their ideology.

    The best guess I have for the future is that the current MSM outlets are going to fade, and fade, and fade a bit more each year, but still preach to the choir, while new web-based outlets (and other things that I’m certainly not smart enough to forsee) take their place.

    The MSM is not dying; the MSM is dead. They are not going to make any comeback, ever.

      TX-rifraph in reply to Tom Servo. | July 30, 2017 at 6:37 am

      I agree. The MSM IS doing the job they are being paid to do.

      “Propaganda must not investigate the truth objectively and, in so far as it is favourable to the other side, present it according to the theoretical rules of justice; yet it must present only that aspect of the truth which is favourable to its own side.” — Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf

    Matt_SE in reply to jhkrischel. | July 30, 2017 at 12:22 pm

    You are correct, they CANNOT tell the truth (even if they hypothetically wanted to) because the truth would be devastating to their side. They have no other choice but to lie, no matter how transparently absurd it becomes.

    In a sense, they are analogous to “Baghdad Bob:” a man who couldn’t admit the truth even when American tanks were rolling up the street right behind him because Saddam would kill him otherwise.

    The democrat media will never gain its credibility. Perhaps with another generation, but not for 20 years.

    Russian Today (the news arm of the Russian government) has done a good job of making itself a viable news outlet for enough ignorant Americans – and leftist cultists – after the unintentional comedy of Pravada faded from memory, so why not the democrat media?

    The job on our part is to keep alive the truth of the scam, until our dying day.

This is squarely on the GOPe watch.
Congress needs to hold hearings.

    Congressional hearings never result in punishment because they have no authority to punish. What’s the good of embarrassing people who are incapable of embarrassment?

    This should cut out the middle men and go to the people who have authority to prosecute and imprison.

This was a perfect opportunity for the media to prove they’re not as biased as people think.

I don’t think it occurs to them that they’re biased in any way. Therefore, they have nothing to prove.

They’re solidly in “always wrong, but never in doubt” territory.

inspectorudy | July 29, 2017 at 11:43 pm

This is not surprising in the least. It is disappointing but expected. Folks, there has been a cultural shift in our country since obama was in office. The new norm is for the younger people to think that everyone should be allowed to do whatever they want as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. They think Communism/socialism are equal to capitalism. They see nothing wrong with allowing transgender people serving in the military even though it is well known about the psychological problems they have and the fragile nature of their lives. They think that America is just a name on products and they have learned nothing of the founding fathers except that they were all evil men who owned slaves. This is because of the school system and media, mainly Hollywood. I am not sure we will ever get back the country that we all remember because the generations of today will not fight to defend it. The msm is one of the canaries in the coal mine concerning integrity and the desire for truth by that generation and we can see that it is dead. By this latest show of ignoring this new story that all but exonerates Trump, the msm is saying if it doesn’t fit their narrative then they won’t report it. Where do we go from here? Is the foundation of our nation gone?

This has been going on for decades. I have noticed articles about criminality and corruption in government going back at least to the 1980s in which “Republican” would be featured in the headline, but “Democrat” would be relegated to a paragraph below the fold, if mentioned at all. I remember one article in which the politician’s affiliation was not noted, but his opponent in the last election cycle was named. Only by knowing that his opponent was a Republican could the reader have inferred that the politician/criminal was a Democrat.

Look for the democrat media to change its democrat stripes like a zebra – never gonna happen. Itsa wasteof to even discuss. The left is out to destroy the nation, not ‘report’ on it.

FrankNatoli | July 30, 2017 at 6:49 am

“Scandals” are Democrat tools to “justify” removing elected Republicans from power.
It doesn’t work the other way around.

    The only reason it doesn’t is the GOPe.

    We won’t have a government loyal to our Constitution until every GOPe rat is booted from office.

    We can help thin the democrat voter herd, by controlling illegal immigration, taking back our schoolws and educating the public.

Fasten your seat belts. I predict that over the next 6 months to year we are going to see this and other revelations concerning the Democrats and all they did during the Obama administration that is going to shake the pillars of our democracy. We are going to discover things we never thought possible by our elected leaders and they will make Watergate look trivial in comparison. Stefan Molyneux does a pretty good job providing an up to date overview of the Shultz-Awan scandal on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKzzyOsvajc&t=0s

    kenoshamarge in reply to Cleetus. | July 30, 2017 at 8:53 am

    Will the shadow government allow these facts about the criminals in government to come out? The “intelligence” agencies have all ready decided that they are not on the side of the people but on the side of the left.

    We are being destroyed from within. The media is just one part of the path to destruction. Remember, millions of citizens still get their “news” from the liars.

    The good news is that earthquakes involving democrats won’t shake anything: except their voter base.

    THAT WAS A GREAT VIDEO – EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH IT.

    The facts giving rise to the scandal with Schultz, the DNC and Congress have been going on since 2005!!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKzzyOsvajc&t=0s

    EIGHTY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS HAD THE BAD GUYS ON THEIR PAYROLL!

    Btw: does this tie into the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich?…

I think the writer is confused, they didn’t blow it.

They are part of it!

“WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND”
Is that not so, Debbie, Felonia(van Pantsuit) , Billy-Boy, Podesta da Molesta, Soetoro, et al??

I think the immediate future for our Dem friends is kinda bleak.
This story will balloon, to very unkind (to the Dems) proportions.

Articles that highlight unequal treatment between Democrats and Republicans are based on a appeal to a social consensus that no longer exists.
Quit whining about how we’re treated unfairly by the press and start coming up with strategies to FORCE them to cover the story, like bringing it up whenever one is interviewed by MSM for other reasons.

Practice guerilla tactics. Coopt the other side’s infrastructure.

    inspectorudy in reply to Matt_SE. | July 30, 2017 at 4:22 pm

    As evil as it is, I recommend that the Right start a “Dirty Tricks” campaign on all journalists and their associates. They have no qualms about doing it to those on the right so why not equal time? Or better yet, get the Do-nothing-Congress to pass a law that allows an easier pathway to sue the msm for knowingly publishing fraudulent information or information that has not had minimal research done on its veracity.

Like the Lois Lerner/IRS scandal, the New York Times will put off reporting on DWS and her thieving IT staff for as long as they possibly can.
I hope and pray the FBI will be able to see this case through and make some arrests. The Dems will do everything they can to obstruct this investigation.

Why would anyone expect anything else ? NBC did not have even ONE story on the Fast and Furious Scandal until Eric Holder was held in contempt by Congress. More recently, the passage of HR Res 446 and the subsequent letter sent to the DOJ regarding a second Special Council has been completely unreported by the liberal controlled MSM. This is the main reason the MSM is so apoplectic about Trump’s use of TWITTER and why Trump should keep Tweeting away..