Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Will She Comment On This?

McBride considers herself the watchdog of the media, especially the local paper. She often criticizes them for what she feels to biased headlines and/or reporting.

We are waiting to see if she follows through with this regarding a story in this morning's edition of the MSJ. The headline of the article is Ziegler allegations a 'blip'. It goes on to say how Appeals Judge Ralph Adam Fine questions the need for punishment for Ziegler's unethical behavior while serving as a circuit court judge in Washington County.

However, later in the article, there is this:

But another member of the panel, Appeals Judge Charles P. Dykman, said he could not understand why Ziegler would not have stepped aside in the bank cases.

"If you're aware that your spouse has a certain occupation or involvement, how can it be that you still don't do a recusal?" he asked. "It's just sort of hard for me to figure that one out."

The judicial ethics code says a judge must withdraw from a case if his or her spouse is a director for a party to the case. The judge could stay on the case only if all sides
agreed to it.

An unbiased headline might read something like "Judges disagree on seriousness of Ziegler allegations". Or if one were to McBridize it, "Ziegler not fit to be a judge".

Whallah! will monitor to see if McBride catches the obvious media bias in this story. For another take on the Ziegler story, see our friends at Pundit Nation.

1 comment:

  1. It bears noting that "columnist" Patrick McIlheran played a role in writing headlines, and that the news desk at the paper is run by an Opus Dei member. As if though the right-wing bonafides of the Sentinel needed proving.

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