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| Also listed in: Ohio Bloggers |
If you follow the media (or even the blogs) with respect to the presidential campaigns, you're probably aware that many have been obsessing over the fact that Hillary Clinton has not publicly released her tax returns. But did you know that the same media is completely ignoring John McCain's failure to do so?
Reporters aren't asking about when John McCain will release his taxes, and for what years. Worse, some are falsely giving him credit for having already done so.
Last week, ABC News chief investigative reporter Brian Ross told viewers "more than a year into the campaign, Senator Clinton, unlike Senators Obama and McCain, has still not released any of her tax returns.
But McCain hasn't released his tax returns. Nor has he given any "explanation" for the "delay" in doing so. Ross' report was more than a simple mistake, or false claim. It was a deeply revealing indication of ABC's complete lack of interest in McCain's finances.
Ross is ABC's "chief investigative reporter," yet he apparently has no interest at all in looking at McCain's tax returns. If he had any interest at all, he would know that they haven't been released. But Ross thinks they have been released -- meaning he has never tried to obtain or examine them.
If McCain were to release his tax returns, we might see, for example, additional details about the financial ties between McCain, his wife, and Charles Keating, a prime figure in the savings and loan scandals of the late 1980s.
On Friday, ABC News finally issued a correction:
From the March 21 broadcast of ABC's World News with Charles Gibson:
GIBSON: We have a correction to make: On Wednesday, in a story about the release of Hillary Clinton's White House schedule as first lady, we reported that she, unlike Senators Obama and McCain, has not released her tax returns. In fact, only Obama has released his tax returns. Both Senators Clinton and McCain say they will release theirs next month.
But the McCain surrogates in the media (also sometimes called "reporters") clearly give McCain a break every chance they get on this and other issues.
Here's The Washington Post from March 7, 2008 in their popular Fact Checker:
The Pinocchio Test
"Let me know whether you think that Hillary Clinton has been up front about her tax returns and other financial information. What about Barack Obama and John McCain? I am off for the first half of next week. When I return, I plan to start looking at the public disclosure records of all the candidates in more detail."
Of course, there has yet to be any follow-up story on McCain's non-release of his tax returns as yet.
Do you feel that the media is fair and even handed in their reporting of the Presidential race?
While the media is obsessing over Barack Obama's pastor and Hillary Clinton's tax returns, why does McCain get a free pass everytime?
