No surprise here...

.

No surprise here…
It was reported in some newspapers, but not the Staunton NewsLeader which is another “No surprise”, that gun charges have been dropped against Senator Webb’s aide, Phillip Thompson.
Now it is no big surprise that the Senators aide did beat the charge for it is obvious that the “Capitol Hill Elite” do not have to answer to the same laws as you and me.
http://wtop.com/?nid=116&sid=1098412

If one of us had been stopped in a Federal building in the District of Columbia with a fully loaded handgun and two full spare ammunition magazines it’s pretty darn sure we wouldn’t be taking a Summer break with the rest of the Democratic gang… Just get stopped within the District with a loaded handgun that’s registered and accompanied with a neighboring states Concealed Weapons Permit, and your still looking at doing time in the Big House…

An interesting aspect of this story is how it was treated by the media. At first junior Senator Webb jumped out of the gate claiming he was a strong supporter of his 2nd amendment rights, which may not have been to popular with upper Dem management, but then backed away and said he did not give Thompson the gun as claimed by Thompson. Webb stated that he carries heat for protection but never stated, or was asked by the media, if he carried his loaded handgun within the District. He also would not confirm that the weapon Thompson claims he gave him was actually his handgun and danced around the issue that the media did not push hard at all.

Imagine if the Junior Senator had an (R) behind his name instead of the (D) he has? Would the media have followed up on the story more aggressively instead of letting it slip away like it has?
My local paper here in the valley, The Staunton NewsLeader, chose to ignore the story\issue altogether. Numerous other local papers here in the area provided the AP stories as well as their “Stories” about the incident. Once again the majority of information available to the public on a story like this was found on the internet, blogs, and links to reporting done by newspapers who still report the stories no matter how it portrays the “Progressive” ones…

RightsideVA did a post on this “Selective” coverage back when the incident first happened and showed how many of the local as well as national newspapers found “Newsworthiness” in this incident. http://rightsideva.blogspot.com/2007/03/confirm-deny-ignore.html#comments

One of the editors of the NewsLeader responded with the following post to my statements:
“The News Leader has completely switched its focus to local/state and community news. We run only one page of national/world news in our print edition now since folks can get their glut of national/world news in so many other places it's no longer our franchise”

While other newspapers reported the incident the NewsLeader failed to even mention it on the “one page of national/world news in our print edition”.

It also seems to reason that with Webb being the Junior Senator representing the Citizens of Virginia, this would make it a story that fits into the “focus to local/state and community news” section of the new format over at the NewsLeader…

Yup.
No surprise here at all…