A simple style-book dictate stating that all politicians will have their party noted upon first mention, in the first paragraph, would largely cure the Guess That Party! syndrome...

So, why does the media not simply make a simple bright-line common-sense rule about this?

Because they don't want to. They want to continue omitting party affiliation in Democratic scandals and hyping it in Republican scandals. Without a simple rule, they can claim their choices are based on either "nuance" or "news judgment" or simple negligence. If they had such a rule, they'd have to apply it evenly, and they simply don't want to do that.

Posted by: Old Grouch in The Press at 21:36:32 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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