Name That Party, Special Gray Lady Edition
As spotted by Stacy McCain:
San Diego’s former mayor, Maureen O’Connor, is a liberal Democrat. But now that she’s been charged in a massive scandal — she stole more than $2 million from a charity established by her late husband, in order to fund a decade-long gambling binge – the New York Times somehow can’t bring itself to mention her partisan affiliation.
The local San Diego Union-Tribune can’t bring itself to mention O’Connor’s party either, but as Kate of Small Dead Animals spots, the paper is willing to opine that “Her career as a civic leader was impressive.”
Even more so were her losses:
Prosecutors said O’Connor had $1 billion in gambling winnings between 2000 and 2009 — her preferred game was video poker — but her losses during the same period exceeded that amount. Iredale said she had a net gambling loss of $13 million.
Prosecutors described her current financial condition as “destitute.” At one time, her fortune was $40 million to $50 million, Iredale said.
Just a reminder, for those who didn’t grow up on the east coast, that the spectacular gambling addiction-fueled career implosion of former Philadelphia Eagles owner Leonard Tose should be considered a warning, and not a how-to guide.
We obviously need to register, ban, and confiscate all high capacity loading assualt video poker game machines, especially scary looking ones with bayonet lugs or ones containing transfat and styrofoam.
Either that, or just sell them off to Al Jazeera. We could throw in a few Spitfire jets to sweeten the pot…
Given Jack-In-The Box is how O’Connor got her gambling pot started in the first place, and the company’s attempts in recent years to be snarky-hip in their advertising, perhaps they can really go cutting edge by doing a commercial that replaces Jack’s head at the drive-through ordering spot with a slot machine. And all the items on the menu now start at $10,000, with double-or-nothing on soda refills.
(As for the “contrast and compare” aspect to the story, consider the “yes, but” treatment Maureen’s getting here, in not mentioning her political party and — in case we do find out/remember she’s a Democrat — at the same time trying to make us empathize with her gambling problems, with the treatment in the big media Bill Bennett’s Las Vegas gambling adventures got. His betting and his party affiliation were all over the place, despite the fact that Bennett was gambling with his own money, while O’Connor was spending other people’s cash and squandering it at a massively higher burn rate.)