The Idea Mag - Issue 22 - October 23rd, 2005 - Front Page

AbsoluteOpinion

Delay Photography

“Whooopeee! Tom Delay's mugshots are going to be taken this week.”
-- Dembloggers.com

You could just feel the anticipation; You could see them sitting on the edges of their seats with baited breath and a gleeful smirk. This was the week; the democrats were going to get it. The prize was within their reach. They could just feel it. However, it was just not to be. We were supposed to get a photo that would take the campaign add tour, demoralizing and dethroning Republican reelection bids in 2006, but instead we got, what looked more like a portrait from photo day in DC, rather than an chilling mug shot from and eeeevil Republican. Bummer.

This attitude I would expect from the Dem bloggers and the wacko fringe groups like Moveon.org and others. It’s all part of politics. What I was not expecting was the reaction of the news media. I heard questions all day like, “Why is the picture in color?” “Where are those incriminating numbers that he’s supposed to hold up?”and “Why is he smiling?”

It culminated with this AP headline, “Delay Smile May Foil Democrat Campaign Adds.” “A photo of DeLay grinning from ear to ear doesn't pack quite the punch in a Democratic attack ad as one that looks more like the mugshot of, say, actor Hugh Grant.” Doesn’t anyone else see a problem here?

Here we have a man facing his day in court. He is charged with conspiracy and money-laundering and, in addition to that, he’s currently facing a judge who has recently (in the past 12 months) contributed to an organization who would like nothing better that to see Mr. Delay go down. (moveon.org – currently selling t-shirts with Delay’s mug shot photo on them) We are supposed to be figuring whether this man is guilty of some serious accusations, and all the media can talk about is how good (or how not bad) his mug shot is, quietly suggesting that things weren’t supposed to turn out that way?? Believe me, I understand the feeling of the Democrats; I understand the frustration of being powerless to make the changes that you think need to be made; and I understand the desire to take out those frustrations on a “poster boy”. That much I get.

What I don’t get is our media’s fascination and salivation to see someone in anyway connected to Bush to “go down”. Thus the fascination that you will see in this coming week with the grand jury investigating the Plame case. The desire to see an indictment come down on Karl Rove and/or Scooter Libby is just about undeniable. The media is convinced that someone somewhere in the administration or someone somehow connected to it, is guilty of something sometime. It’s like bees to honey.

With that in mind, I have a few questions for my dear friends in the media. What ever happened to justice? What happened to “innocent until proven guilty?” What happened to the drive for truth? I know it is difficult in our 24-7 cable news, information hungry society that we live in. It’s much easier to report a juicy story with shady facts that to say that you just don’t know. That being said, doesn’t the media owe it to the American public to take the time to get the story right rather than jumping on the bandwagon of every juicy allegation? Or am I just expecting too much?