I am not here to defend the subject of this AP piece, who by all accounts appears to be a sexually perverted serial adulterer.  I am here to note, however, that his party affiliation is in the title of the article, and is also the second word of the piece.  Additionally, a few paragraphs down, we are informed that

 Duvall, a father of two, received a 100 percent rating from Capitol Resource Institute, a conservative advocacy group, for his votes on legislation considered pro-family during the 2007-08 legislative session.

I am sure that there is some other way that the author of this piece could have gone out of their way to prominently identify Duvall as a Republican, but I’m missing what it might be.  I just want to take this opportunity to point out what I consider to be an interesting factoid about the Associated Press.

Remember Kwame Kilpatrick?  To review the bidding, Kilpatrick (a Democrat mayor of one of America’s most prominent cities) was implicated in the coverup of the murder of a stripper whose services he allegedly frequented, much to the consternation of his wife.  Kilpatrick was ultimately arrested and indicted with eight federal felonies and resigned from office in total disgrace as part of a plea bargain with prosecutors.  Did we mention that text messages obtained from the city also clearly indicated that Kilpatrick was a serial philanderer?  And also that Kilpatrick was dragged to jail for violating the terms of his bond? 

You might have guessed that these stories would be of some interest to the Associated Press, and you’d be correct! You’d be less correct if you assumed that the Associated Press showed the same vigor for disclosing Kilpatrick’s Democratic Party violation.  In fact, the AP repeatedly and continuously refused to identify Kilpatrick as a Democrat whatsoever.  Of course, the phenomenon is hardly a new one and the AP was hardly alone in refusing to identify Kilpatrick’s party affiliation.  However, they were the first ones I saw to jump on this story, and the first words out of their mouth were the Party ID of the scandal’s perpetrator.

As for the merits of the story; I suppose I should repent of my cynicism that I am no longer shocked or surprised to find politicians (who tend to be charismatic and have magnetic personalities) who can’t resist the temptations that seem to come with the trappings of power.  It is, sadly, something that happens all too often in our fallen world.  However, my observations are not nearly as cynical as those of a news media who has decided it’s only news when a Republican is doing it.