Character assassination by media

According to a column in the Pittsburgh Tribune “By 2-to-1 margin, Pennsylvanians with opinion say AG Kane should resign”

Yet not a single charge has been brought against Attorney General Kathleen Kane. She has had no opportunity to defend herself in a court of law.

Contrary to journalistic ethics which have often caused reporters to suffer prison rather to disclose a source, the Philadelphia Inquirer, spurred by Tom Corbett cronies, claims Kane was the source of information that came from a five year old grand testimony.

The charge not only allows Corbett appointees to get even, it gives the impression that the Inquirer, now a shadow of its once prestigious source due to lack of readership and ownership turmoil, is still a player in the game.

Both the columnist for the Tribune and the editorial board of LNP bought the Inquirer’s accusations without doing a jot of independent investigation. A true rush to judgment that, if they do not already regret, they may do so some day.

When one is the first woman and first Democrat elected Attorney General and has to deal with a group of embittered department holdovers who spent time on the government payroll passing adult pornography between themselves , there are a lot of long knives out.

Kane took a big career leap from assistant district attorney in Lycoming County to the AG position and certainly suffered initially from inexperience. The voters must have expected this. Among doing scores of right things, she may have made a mistake.

This reminds us of the Monica Lewinski scandal which led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. Once fully informed, the public rose to Clinton’s defense. He was eventually acquitted by a majority of the Senate, with Pennsylvania former and Republican senator Arlen Specter casting his vote in Clinton’s defense.

Why did the public refuse to treat Clinton’s indiscretion as reason for removal from office? Because the charges were deemed petty. His error was human. It had very little, if anything, to do with his effective service to the nation.

Even if Kane did leak some inconsequential information to the Inquirer with the hope they would conduct their own investigation of wrong doings, such an offense is also “petty” and has little if anything to do with her service to the state.

For more information, read Bill Keisling articles on the matter.

Below are excerpts and a link to the Tribune article:

PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE: Pennsylvania residents by a 2-to-1 margin say Attorney General Kathleen Kane, facing myriad legal problems, should resign, according to a Robert Morris University poll.

The statewide poll released Wednesday shows, however, that nearly half of those surveyed don’t know enough about Kane to take a position.

“Polls are merely a snapshot in time and must be viewed that way,” said Kane’s spokesman Chuck Ardo. “The attorney general believes that as events unfold, poll results will reflect more positively.”… (more)

Share

1 Comment

  1. LNP has a long history of character assassinations being done to anyone who stands in the way or challenges anything they want to do. LNP has a long history of besmirching the integrity of anyone who does not fall in line with their political thinking or their profit-driven agenda. LNP will leave no stone unturned when it comes to having things their way, yet they are terribly disappointing in providing the full story on major issues that effect taxpayer pocketbooks.

    If only we had a real newspaper that provided unbiased full coverage on issue that interest/effect all of Lancaster City/County residents, and not just a chosen few (like the power elite).

    Oh well, we can always hope that the winds of change someday blow down the ivory tower at 8 W. King Street.

    EDITOR: The failure of Penn Square Partners to join others last year in making concessions concerning the Convention Center did cast current management of LNP in a bad light. Although they are the limited partner in PSP, they could have made a contribution in their own name.

    Nevertheless, managers and editors of LNP today are not the same as when the Marriott Hotel / Convention Center project was under consideration. The same as we should not blame President Barrack Obama for President George W. Bush’s errors of the next president for Obama’s mistakes, we should cut some slack for current owner’s representatives and the editors.

Comments are closed.