Leftists slant a story to favor Dems, part gazillion

If you were writing a story titled "Who are the wealthiest members of congress?" would you start the story by naming the second-wealthiest member?

If the top two were close, maybe.  But how about if the wealthiest member was worth six times more than the second-wealthiest.  Does it make any journalistic sense to name the much-less-wealthy member first?

If you're a writer for a leftist rag, it most certainly does make sense.  Here are the two opening 'grafs: 

Eric Cantor and Nancy Pelosi are once again the two wealthiest members of the House leadership, according to just released financial disclosure reports for all members.

Cantor saw his minimum personal wealth rise slightly to nearly $4.4 million in 2012, and Pelosi is worth at least $24.4 million, according to their annual reports.

If you're a "skimmer" reader--as research shows most people are--the placement of Cantor's name as the opening two words leads you to believe he's the wealthiest.  And not only that, in the second sentence the article again leads with the Republican's name, helpfully adding that Cantor's wealth rose in 2012, while no mention is made of how Pelosi's wealth may have changed.

 

I realize most people would consider this name-the-second-guy-first to be quite trivial, but it illustrates something that happens hundreds of times every day.  Because there is absolutely no logical reason to write the story that way.

Normally "news" stories lead with the biggest revelation.  But Politico didn't.  And it wasn't an accident.

All Democrat pubs do this ALL the time.  The only thing noteworthy here is that the technique was so obvious.

 

One imagines a very brief moment of internal debate where the "reporters" thought, "If we do the usual and shill for the Dems by putting the Republican first and the six-times-richer Democrat member (Pelosi) second, our covering for the Dems is gonna be obvious"--before the loyalist side said "So what?  First, none of the rubes are gonna notice; and second, what difference does it make if a few do?"

Just another small example of how Leftist editors and writers slant stories to make Dems look better.