Let the Spin Begin: AP's Michael Blood Sets the MSM's Anti-Angle Template

Drudge Report readers woke up this morning to the news that GOP senatorial candidate Sharron Angle won the Republican primary last night in Nevada. Associated Press writer Michael R. Blood’s linked piece on Drudge represents the MSM’s template in its upcoming biased reporting against Angle, and other conservative GOP candidates. It’s all in the language.

Blood’s piece begins:

Nevada Republicans Tuesday picked tea party insurgent Sharron Angle to take on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid…

“Tea party insurgent.” Blood’s lede links a broad citizen movement with a word that connotes roadside bombs and civilian casualties. Angle is a…

…conservative renegade who wants to turn Washington on end.

Not just a “conservative,” but a “conservative renegade.” When John McCain was a “maverick” – a label first given him by the New York Times – he was the GOP favorite of much of the MSM. When Barack Obama promised to turn Washington end, he was a “transformational candidate.” Sharron Angle, though, is a “renegade.” The spin is in the chosen language.

While in the Legislature, Angle wanted inmates to enter a drug rehabilitation program devised by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, an idea she still defends.

Angle once promoted the drug rehab program noted above. Blood doesn’t say, though, that Angle worked for seven years as a tutor and community service supervisor for Nye County Juvenile Probation, with obvious first-hand knowledge of teen alcoholism. If, perchance, Hubbard’s program works, what’s the beef from Blood? Tea Party – insurgent – Angle – Scientology. Smear by implied association.

In a May 28 article, Blood wrote this:

Sharron Angle wants to wipe out Social Security, shutter the Education Department and return to the days almost a century ago when the federal income tax was unconstitutional…Angle also says cutting taxes isn’t sufficient. She wants to repeal the 16th Amendment, which created the federal income tax, a move that would make it impossible for the government to operate. Angle says the federal income tax — and the entire Internal Revenue Service code — could be replaced with a flat-tax-type system.

The government plans to collect about $935.8 billion in individual income taxes and about $156.7 billion in corporate income taxes, according to the Obama administration’s estimates for the current budget year, which ends on Sept. 30. The two taxes together make up about half of the total revenues the government estimates it will take.

So, Angle’s support for a flat tax – if we take Blood’s word for it – would translate into the federal government’s having no money to spend and the country regressing one hundred years. Do you get the idea that maybe Blood is anti-flat tax?

To substantiate his spin concerning Angle’s candidacy, Blood even cited one of her opponents in the primary election:

In an ominous warning for Republicans, a U.S. Senate candidate in Nevada said Thursday that the party’s chances of ousting Majority Leader Harry Reid are slipping away and his leading GOP rivals would be unlikely to beat him in November. “Republicans could very well snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the case of Harry Reid,” said banker John Chachas, one of 12 candidates seeking the GOP nomination in the June 8 primary. In an interview, Chachas said Reid is being underestimated and leading Republicans Sue Lowden, Sharron Angle and Danny Tarkanian each have “impediments” that give the senator an advantage, including questions about their ability to raise money nationally and “intellectual gravitas.” “I think none of the three that are there present a particularly formidable candidate to beat Reid,” Chachas told The Associated Press.”

This “ominous warning” comes from a candidate who yesterday received 6,925 votes, or 4% of the total GOP vote. Now there’s a credible and impartial source.

Blood’s piece is just the first round – albeit low-caliber – fired in what will be a focused effort by the MSM to link conservative candidates like Angle with the Tea Party movement using words like anger, insurgent, renegade, etc…and not in a positive way.

Let the MSM spin begin.