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Why is it that if a married Democratic politician allegedly has an affair with a consenting adult,
albeit one many years younger, he's a moral degenerate, but if a Republican politician allegedly
solicits sex from 9- and 10-year-olds, it's perfectly all right?

Why is it that if the alleged paramour of a Democratic lawmaker disappears, he's automatically guilty
of murder, but if an intern for a Republican  lawmaker is found dead in his office, there's nothing to investigate?

We all know now about the Gary Condit-Chandra Levy story; how could we not, with Fox News and
Fox-wannabe CNN becoming the "All Gary Condit All the Time"  channels? Condit is forever linked with
former President Clinton in the minds  of hate-crazed Republicans everywhere as the "Democrat Degenerate Twins."

And yet Fox News, CNN, and their devoted viewers are strangely silent on the case in our own backyard,
involving Waterbury, Conn., Republican Mayor Joseph Giordano, who has been charged with soliciting
children as young as 9 and 10 for sex. Oh. He's a Republican, so it's either OK, or it would be a liberal
conspiracy to publicize the affair.

An even less-covered story involves the mysterious death of Lori Klausutis, an intern for Rep. Joe Scarborough,
R-Fla. Klausutis, 28 and a marathon runner, was found dead of blunt force trauma to the head in Scarborough's
office on July 20, not long after Scarborough announced his intention to step down, which occurred not long after
his divorce, one around which swirled various allegations of adultery. The medical examiner on the case (whose
license had been revoked in his former state, Missouri), ruled in the absence of any evidence or witnesses to
support his claim, that Klausutis had a previously undiagnosed heart ailment, had a dizzy spell, hit her head
on the desk, and died.

Don't you think that if Scarborough had the letter D after his name instead of R, the Fox News wolf pack
would have descended upon him like flies to horse manure? Don't you think that if Scarborough were a
Democrat, conservatives would be screaming "murder!"?

The issue is not whether either political party has an exclusive patent on degeneracy; the issue is that what
constitutes degeneracy seems to be defined in a rather odd way by right-wing owned media outlets such as
Fox News and right-wing wannabes like CNN.

The difference in the way the Clinton/Condit cases are being handled, and the way the Giordano/Scarborough
cases are being handled is proof positive that the "Great Liberal Media Conspiracy" much touted by the right
is in fact a myth, and indeed, the media now shows a decided rightward slant.

Fox News Channel's motto is "We Report, You Decide." But their practice is "We Report What We Decide."
Information is power, and the American people are being fed very selective information and believing it's true
because the messenger has the word news in its name.
 

Jill Cozzi