When the news about former Illinois Governor George Ryan's conviction on 18 charges including racketeering, mail fraud, tax charges and perjury broke on Monday, I strained to remember whether he was a Republican or a Democrat. The only memory I had of the man was the fact that he had commuted the death penalty sentences of all of the state's death row inmates just prior to leaving office. I watched his stunning speech that day and cheered for him as a man of true conscience for taking such a bold step. Thus are the extremes in politicians: an act of bravery and acts of corruption rolled up into one man.
It appears that I wasn't alone in wondering about Ryan's political affiliation. And, as Media Matters has now exposed, anyone else trying to figure out which party he belonged to by checking out the resulting press coverage would still have been left clueless because so many media outlets refused to report the fact that he was a Republican.
Interesting.
Maybe they just assume that "corruption" is now synonymous with "Republican".
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