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 [1] 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 [2]." (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 [3], 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."
....
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.