Former New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was indicted on Thursday on charges of "honest services mail fraud, honest services wire fraud and extortion" involving almost $4 million in alleged bribes and kickbacks
It took Larry Neumeister and Jennifer Peltz at the Associated Press nine paragraphs to tag Silver as a Democrat. It also seems likely, based on this unbylined shorter WGY/AP story time-stamped at 1 p.m., almost six hours before the time stamp on the two reporters' evening story, that the wire service kept Silver's party affiliation completely out of its early breaking news stories, i.e., the ones which would have quickly made it to the airwaves.
Here is that earlier story, where Silver's party affiliation is absent (presented in full because of its brevity, and for fair use and discussion purposes:
Now to the longer story by Neumeister and Peltz (bolds are mine):
EX-NY ASSEMBLY SPEAKER SHELDON SILVER INDICTED ON 3 CHARGES
Former New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was indicted Thursday on three charges after his arrest in a federal bribery case.
The indictment was returned in Manhattan federal court, where he appeared briefly last month when he was freed on bail just a day after sharing the stage with Gov. Andrew Cuomo during his State of the State address.
The indictment doesn't add to the charges against Silver when he was arrested, but it's a critical step that provides a legal roadmap for prosecutors' presentation of evidence at trial. Two conspiracy charges contained in a criminal complaint were not included in the indictment, though no explanation was offered.
... Silver's arrest came after he had led the Assembly for over 20 years, becoming one of the most powerful and savvy figures in New York state politics.
But prosecutors said there was a dark side to his reputation as a potent backroom operator who played a major role in state budgets and laws, controlling which lawmakers sat on which committees and what bills got a vote.
The government said he had collected nearly $4 million in bribes and kickbacks since 2002 and disguised the proceeds as legitimate income.
The Democrat has since resigned as speaker but has said he intends to keep his Assembly seat.
Silver's arrest rocked the state Capitol, even though state lawmakers' arrests have become ruefully common. Some 28 New York legislators have stepped down because of criminal or ethical issues in the past 15 years. Four others remain in office while they fight charges, including Silver.
The AP pair certainly had several earlier opportunities to tag Silver as a Democrat, and didn't use them.
"Ruefully" (adverb of "rueful," meaning "causing sorrow or pity; pitiable; deplorable") is an interesting word choice to describe the Empire State's seemingly systemic corruption.
It seems that if you're going to attach a negative word to all of this, you'd want to use one that doesn't seem to have the potential for being interpreted as sympathizing with the perpetrators. "Deplorable" would have worked much better, "outrageous" even better than that. A reporter wanting to be objective, a seemingly impossible dream these days, might have referred to a "long-term pattern" without trying to get colorful.
But then, an objective who-what-where-when-why-how pair of reporters wouldn't have waited nine paragraphs to tell readers the political party of an indicted Assembly Speaker in the nation's fourth-largest state.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
