KC Star waters down story to protect GOP

[proud2BlibKansan]

Star Runs Voter Fraud Story After FiredUp! Baiting, But Waters It Down to Protect GOP
Submitted by Howard Beale on Fri, 05/04/2007 - 1:25pm.

We wrote yesterday about the outrageousness of the Kansas City Star's failure to run a McClatchy story that provided rich detail about the key role of Missouri in national Republican efforts to swing elections through the widespread and false claims of "voter fraud."

After being called on the carpet for ignoring the piece, the Star finally ran the story in today's paper --but not before making significant changes to the story's original form. Those changes serve mainly to soften the story's blow to prominent Missouri Republicans whom the Star apparently feels it must tiptoe carefully around.

A side-by-side glance at the two stories reveals subtle but meaningful contrast in their respective textures...

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From the McClatchy original (emphasis added):

Bush administration officials deny those claims. But they've gotten traction in recent weeks because three of the U.S. attorneys ousted by the Justice Department charge that they lost their jobs because they failed to prove Republican allegations of voter fraud. They say their inquiries found little evidence to support the claims.

Few have endorsed the strategy of pursuing allegations of voter fraud with more enthusiasm than White House political guru Karl Rove. And nowhere has the plan been more apparent than in Missouri.

Before last fall's election...

Put that next to the Star's version:

The Bush administration denies those claims. But they’ve gotten traction recently because three of the U.S. attorneys ousted by the Justice Department say they lost their jobs because they failed to prove voter fraud allegations.

Before last fall's election...

http://www.firedupmissouri.com/star_butchers_voter_fraud_story

[Metta]

1. Thank you for bringing this here. Truth is the first casualty.

First, they came for the truth.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Yes, thanks for the reminder!

[Mabus]

3. Ackkkk!

:grr: That's bullshit.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. The Star is far too kind to the repukes in Jeff City

really pissed me off.

[Nikki Stone1]

5. Is their readership base mostly GOP? I assume their advertising base is. NT

,,,

[Mabus]

6. The KC Star's readership base is real mixed bag

much like the KC area itself. The Star is one of those large papers that is sold all over but especially NE Kansas and NW Missouri. I mean, we read it on a fairly regular basis and we live down the road from KC in liberal Lawrence. My brother, who is living with us for a while longer, buys it primarily for the sports.

[Straight Shooter]

7. I would guess most people who read such stories also read the Editorial page.

Fire off a letter to the editor and address the issue just as you've addressed it here.

The failure to include "They say their inquiries found little evidence to support the claims" is suspicious, but I'm also guessing they will counter that they don't have enough space to print the full story.

Does the person who wrote the Star article have a track record of GOP favoritism? There's a good place to start. Find some past articles and point out their bias.

Seems to me as far as the Kansas City Star is concerned, the "Show Me State" has become the "Don't Show Me State."