Well, well, well. The NYTimes has finally, finally seen fit to print a story on the Democrats’ credit report fraud scandal. The story appears on p. 20 in the print edition and online here. Here’s the fair and balanced lead:

National Republicans, who face an uphill battle in their efforts to capture the open United States Senate seat in heavily Democratic Maryland next year, are trying to exploit potential legal problems that Democrats are now suddenly facing in that race.

The article fails to mention former DSCC research director Katie Barge’s previous employment by the left-wing opposition research outfit, Media Matters.

The article fails to mention exactly how Barge and underling Lauren Weiner obtained Lt. Gov. Michael Steele’s credit report–by abusing his Social Security number in order to obtain the report under false premises.

The article fails to mention that Barge and Weiner’s employer, Sen. Charles Schumer, has ironically fashioned himself a champion of privacy and defender against identity theft. See this Newsday article for the angle the Times refused to print.

And the article fails to mention who’s picking up the tab for Barge and Weiner’s legal bills.

The Times. Always more informative for what it leaves out than for what it puts in.

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Matthew Hoy weighs in:

the article is really a case study on spin — how to provide all the facts, but mislead and obsfucate in order to protect their ideological friends. The story is written as a horse race piece and not a hard news crime/scandal piece. You don’t find out that there is a criminal investigation until the seventh graf. Talk about burying the lede. Frankly, if a first year journalism student turned this into me they’d probably get a D.

Read the whole dissection.

Clay Waters at Newsbusters has a similar verdict: “The piece is at best dutiful, with little juice, from the dull and uninformative headline (”Democrats Are on Defensive In Maryland Senate Race”) on down.”

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Related: Jay Rosen on the fall of the Times.

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Chuckaquiddick: Look who’s paying the tab
NY Times “looks into” Chuckaquiddick
Chuckaquiddick: Where’s the MSM?
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