More Double Standards on Death Threats Against Congressmen
After harping on unsubstantiated reports of racial epithets hurled at black congressmen during protests against Obama-care, no reporter for the Times bothered to cover in print an actual arrest made in the case of an actual death threat against Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the No. 2 Republican in the House. (The paper made do with an Associated Press brief.)
Yet David Herszenhorn filed a 10-paragraph story Wednesday on news that an arrest was made in regard to death threats against a prominent Democratic senator, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington: "Threats to Kill Senator Lead to Arrest." (The print version is slightly condensed from the online version.)
Herszenhorn, who last week was throwing around false accusations of racism at the Tea Party protests on Capitol Hill, took care to note Murray's prominence and reminded readers of the previous weeks threats that had targeted "mostly Democrats."
Federal agents on Tuesday arrested and charged a man with threatening to kill Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, because he was angry about her vote in favor of the major health care legislation.
According to a criminal complaint, the man, Charles A. Wilson, 64, of Selah, Wash., made a series of threatening phone calls to Senator Murray's Seattle office between March 22 - the day after Congress approved the health care law - and April 4, including a recorded message in which he said, "I want to kill you."
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Ms. Murray, the No. 4 Democrat in the Senate, is the highest-ranking woman in the majority leadership. In the days after passage of the legislation, a several lawmakers, mostly Democrats, reported receiving threats and also some incidents of vandalism at their offices.
