When Triangle voters go the polls Tuesday to vote for Wake school board, Cary town council and the Raleigh and Durham city councils, the elections will be nonpartisan. So why does The N&O sometimes give the party affiliation of the candidates? Some readers have complained that The N&O was inappropriately injecting partisan politics.
Van Denton, metro editor, said the paper was only giving information that some readers want. “People want the information,” he said. “Why would we want to make people look things up? Some people would rather vote for a Democrat than a Republican and vice versa. You can ignore (the party affiliation) if you want.” Comment below on whether you think The N&O should include party affiliation in nonpartisan contests.
For information on the races, the candidates and polling, see our election Fact Finder here.
Our friends on the left and right scour our news pages, looking for examples of partisan bias, trying to validate their view that we are against them and for their opponents. The most recent dust-up was when an article about former Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps, who served a three-year prison term for extortion, mail fraud and other charges, did not mention she was a Democrat. To some of our readers, this “proved” bias. You have to suspend logic to come to that conclusion, as The N&O did the reporting that led to Phipps’ conviction, and has published dozens of stories mentioning she was a Democrat. But I’ll play along. Let’s say omitting party affiliation proves bias. As one of our frequent critics wrote: “The usual practice in N&O stories of Republican malefactors is to mention their party affiliation in the first or second sentence.”
Is this true? Not if you’ve read our stories on Republicans Sam Currin (former state party chairman pled guilty to three charges, including conspiracy to launder money), former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley (sent sexually suggestive e-mails to pages), former U.S. Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (pled guilty to corruption charges) and former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay (charged with money laundering). These stories in The N&O on these gentlemen didn’t say they were Republicans: Currin (May 19 and 20, 2006, and April 13, 2007); Foley (Jan. 23, Feb. 4, March 29, 2007); Cunningham (May 13, 2006, June 5, 2006, Sept. 21, 2006, Oct. 7, 2006, Oct. 18, 2006); DeLay (Feb. 14, 2006, March 30, 2006, Aug. 3, 2006, Oct. 20, 2006, March 25, 2007). I can’t link to most of these stories but if you subscribe to The N&O you can find them in our electronic archives.
Should the article on Phipps have said she was a Democrat? Yes. Should these articles on Republicans have said they were Republicans? Yes on the more substantial stories; not necessarily on the briefs that logged in minor news developments. What does it all prove? That we should not assume readers know political affiliation. That we shouldn’t be careless. That wire stories often move without relevant information and we should add that information. Biased? Only if you think it’s possible for us to be biased in favor (or against) each party.
