The Des Moines media outlets love it — absolutely love it — when someone prominent (especially when he or she is an outspoken conservative or Republican) gets in trouble with the law. When their own get in trouble, not so much. In fact, recently history shows just about all of them will bury the story, if they can.
The latest example is the arrest of Des Moines Register sports writer Tommy Birch on a charge of solicitation of prostitution during a Polk County Sheriff’s Department/Mid-Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force prostitution sting on Tuesday night. While they didn’t completely sweep it under the rug, they did wait until the final sentence (and wrote only one sentence about it) of the article to inform the public a member of their staff had been charged.
The Register, however, wrote four paragraphs — nearly a third of the entire article — about a Des Moines-area businessman who had been critical of President Obama back in 2010 who also was arrested. The report also included three more paragraphs, including a quote from the mayor, regarding a Dallas Center city councilor who had been arrested in the sting.
Most Iowans know Tommy Birch from his coverage of Iowa State football, Iowa Cubs baseball, and Iowa Wild hockey. Very few, even among the most politically active in Iowa, know who Terry Gibson or David Greenspon are.
Well, The .Gif Shop staff had something to say about that.
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The Des Moines Register’s editors, upon hearing the Polk County Sheriff’s Department conducted a prostitution sting — knowing it likely resulted in the arrest of someone important — originally be like …
And when they found out someone who had been highly critical of President Obama was, in fact, among those arrested, the Register’s editors be like …
But then, they found out one of their most high-profile reporters was among those arrested, and suddenly they be like …
So when it was time to report on the sting operation, knowing the rest of the media would see their own reporter was among those arrested, the Register be like …
But when it came to reporting on their reporter’s arrest, they be like …
In defense of their not highly publicizing Tommy Birch’s arrest, the Register’s editors probably be like …
But, what they probably were saying to Birch, behind hermetically sealed doors, be more like …
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