Michael Barone: Where's Politico's Coverage of Wendy Davis?

In Tuesday’s Washington Examiner, Michael Barone rips into Politico’s glaring lack of coverage of the bio exaggeration scandal that threatens to derail the Texas gubernatorial campaign of Democrat rising star Wendy Davis. It is important to note that while Politico is a left-wing news outlet, it does disguise itself as objective:

There has been lots of coverage in Politico on the charges against New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie and members of his staff. About Texas Democratic state Senator and governor candidate Wendy Davis, not so much. In case you missed it, the Dallas Morning News published a story by reporter Wayne Slater on Saturday that pointed out discrepancies between the stories Davis has told about her past and the facts.

[I]f there’s a legitimate reason to scrutinize Chris Christie’s record — because he might be a successful presidential candidate — there’s also a legitimate reason to scrutinize Wendy Davis’. So what does Politico offer us? Only one story since Slater’s Jan. 18 Morning News story, headlined “Wendy Davis hits back at questions about bio,” a story which includes nothing about how she left her second husband the day after he paid off her law school loans and agreed that he have custody of her daughter. … Politico also links to a timeline of Davis’s life that leaves out some of the inconvenient facts.

This is a pretty weak offering from a publication that aspires to present a definitive account of American politics.

Since the publication of Barone’s piece, Politico has posted one more Davis article — a defense of the Democrat.

Compared to NBC’s political director Chuck Todd, Politico looks like a right-wing propaganda machine. On his hour-long MSNBC political program “The Daily Rundown,” Todd has not touched the story even once.

This is the media giving up all pretense of objectivity to circle their collective wagons to protect someone they invested so much into promoting as a superstar.

There are reports that the powers-that-be at Politico resent having their publication branded as left-wing, but it is their dismissing and downplaying of stories like this that have earned them the moniker.

 

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC