Congressman Gowdy turned down a judicial appointment
Upon news that Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) would not be running for another term, POLITICO's Congressional reporter Rachel Bade had this scoop:
This is quite a detail that convinces me Gowdy is really done with politics at any level. It looks like he's genuinely interested in going back to practice law as an attorney.
I do admit, I'm really disappointed if he turned down a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals appointment. America really could have used him on that court.
Why are Democratic governors unpopular?
You'll never see that as a headline, of course, but it's worth asking after the Morning Consult released its latest polling on the popularity of US governors.
The top ten most-popular state leaders are all Republicans.
Republicans control 33 of the country’s 50 governorships, and 13 of the state leaders running this year to keep their jobs hail from the GOP, including first-term Republicans in reliably blue states: Charlie Baker of Massachusetts (69 percent approval), Larry Hogan of Maryland (66 percent) and Phil Scott of Vermont (63 percent).
North Carolina Democratic Governor Roy Cooper ranks 31st.
This is what I call "Journalisming"
This is a tweet that one of the most influential political reporters in our state sent out yesterday:
Colin Campbell is the reporter for the News & Observer. And in his snarky mockery we see a perfect example of why the media is seen as overtly biased actor in the political arena, rather than a simple observer.
This is ironic given the N&O's announcement that it would be trying to rebuild the publication's credibility.
[M]ost Americans say the media perform these roles poorly. More Americans have a negative (43 percent) than a positive (33 percent) view of the news media, while 23 percent are neutral.
So how can the media rebuild that trust? At a conference last week sponsored by The Washington Post, journalists April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks and Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard said greater respect by journalists for people on both sides of the political spectrum could help rebuild public’s trust.
I assume GOP members of the State House share a press shop operation and/or personnel to promote their messaging. Looking at the way Colin ridicules their effort - can you blame them? I wouldn't trust this guy to fairly report my message.
What's more... for the past month, Democratic candidates and party leaders have been spamming the #NCpol hashtag on Twitter with tweets about how excited they are to announce their candidacy. All of these tweets are using a template - much like the GOP used. It's part of the Democrats' effort to regain the majority in the General Assembly.
Somehow, the eagle-eyed observer failed to notice this.
He didn't find it worth his time to screengrab the messages, nor worthy of ridicule.
Bias is most often found in what a reporter does not find newsworthy.
A "Constitutional Crisis" in PA
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered the state legislature to redraw districts after Democrats sued. Republican legislative leaders said, "No. The court has no constitutional authority to order this." Link