Today is

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Gazette Professionals Clean Up Troha/Ryan

Man charged in slush fund case.......The title just couldn't get any more generic. One can only imagine the Gazette newsroom on red alert scrambling to smooth the edges on this latest newsflash. But in related reports about Troha donations from March 1st of this year, the Janesville Gazette was not shy about throwing out Gov. Doyle or the Dems to the sharks.

There are now at least three different versions of the most recent events involving Troha cohorts and their connections to Rep. Paul Ryan. The Gazette hardcopy article was quite different than either the Associated Press article written by Scott Bauer or the one written by John Diedrich of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Some of the differences were:
1. The Gazette put the donations total from Troha to Gov. Doyle at $200,000. The MJS wrote “over $100,000" and the AP said it was closer to $22,000.
2. Although technically correct, the Gazette reported no other co-conspirators were named or charged, while conveniently leaving out that Rep. Paul Ryan was named in the documents.
3. The Gazette asserted Gov. Doyle has refused to return any of the money, while the other articles correctly reported that Gov. Doyle intends to return any money he received illegally.
4. The Gazette and AP put donations to Paul Ryan at $58,000 while the MJS claimed over $100,000
5. The AP article omitted the Young, Oberstar, Ryan trucking connection completely while the Gazette did mention it, but attempted to wipe the slate clean by implying that since Ryan donated the money to the Kenosha Boys and Girls Scouts, no quid pro quo existed.

The Gazette did disclose that their hardcopy article was a combined effort of the Gazette Staff and the Associated Press. Unfortunately, the Gazette print copy is not online as of this posting.

Opinion: Ryan, along with the other two congressmen appear as the only ones whose actions were effected by the donations. However, nothing new will probably come against politicians from the latest allegations simply because there are too many on this train, including George W. Bush. But if no charges were never intended to be brought against the politicians, I can't help the thought that Paul Ryan, a republican, was intentionally mentioned in the documents possibly to help lift the aura of partisanship from within Biskupic's office.

No comments:

Post a Comment