Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested by FBI agents Tuesday morning on federal corruption charges, officials said.It also figures that curiously left out of the report is the fact that he's a Democrat. Funny how that works.
His chief of staff John Harris was also charged, the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed in a statement.
Blagojevich, 51, and Harris, 46, both of Chicago, were each charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery.
UPDATE:
According to Bruce in the comments, the MSNBC story now includes Blagojevich's political affiliation. Gee, it wasn't that hard to include. Meanwhile, here's a timeline into the Blagojevich investigation. It remains to be seen whether Obama gets dragged into this mess directly. Right now, there's no indication that Obama is involved, but the number of people involved or who have already rolled on Blagojevich is staggering:
he investigation’s been active for three years and his cronies have been rolling over on him for months, culminating in a former aide named John Wyma having somehow cooperated with the feds to obtain recordings of Blagojevich yakking about graft. (The Tribune, which broke the news, won’t say if he wore a wire.) Another top crony was convicted six months ago of mail fraud, among other things, but his sentencing was postponed from October to January amid rumors that he was singing to the U.S. Attorney about the Chicago machine in hopes of a better deal. You might have heard of him.That last person? Tony Rezko.
Stay tuned. Chicago politics is in play, and it's guaranteed to get messy.
UPDATE:
That's not the Fitzmas that the left was looking for. Patrick Fitzgerald, who had headed up the investigation into who leaked Valerie Plame's name to the media, is the prosecutor involved and he's knocked over a hornet's nest here.
UPDATE:
The Chicago Tribune (currently seeking bankruptcy protection) also omits Blagojevich's political affiliation. Well, when you miss the small details, things happen. Like bankruptcy.
UPDATE:
Mere Rhetoric also plays name that party!
UPDATE:
Whoa nelly. Thanks to Michelle Malkin, Powerline, and Instapundit for the links. Much appreciated.
For those new to A Blog For All, name that party is a regular feature here, given the media's propensity to omit that detail in their reporting or to mysteriously insert and remove party affiliations from release version to version. It's no wonder so many people got questions wrong about who really controls Congress and other political questions these days. The media has done an awful job of informing their customers of basic news. It's no wonder that the bottom line at so many media outlets is suffering.
It doesn't take a whole lot of effort to include the political affiliations. In fact, it's an extra three keystrokes (D) would do it. It should be part of the mandatory style guides at the AP and other news outlets. Familiarity should not be an excuse either - local papers often get their reports picked up by national outlets and if the affiliations are omitted at the first level, that error is carried forward.
Is it so hard for the media to be consistent on how it reports political scandals? When Republicans get caught, that political affiliation is often included in the headline, while Democrats often get their affiliation buried deep in the article, if they're mentioned at all.
The media makes a big deal about claiming to be objective, but consistency would be a starting place on objective reporting, and I've repeatedly found inconsistencies on how such corruption is reported across the board.
UPDATE:
CNN now leads their lede on their front page mentioning Blagojevich's Democratic party ties. Good for them.
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