Ethics charges against veteran Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel led the Times Friday morning: "A House Panel Will Try Rangel On Ethics Cases [1]," a story by Eric Lipton and David Kocieniewski.
A House investigative panel has found "substantial reason to believe" that Representative Charles B. Rangel violated a range of ethics rules, dealing a serious blow to Mr. Rangel, a Harlem Democrat, in the twilight of his political career.
Rangel was identified as a "Harlem Democrat" in paragraph one, a formulation which will surely lead the sensitive anchors at MSNBC to accuse the Times of being "racially tinged [2]"....or maybe not.
The Times has been mostly good on the travails of the veteran Democrat Rangel, a local politician, breaking many of the stories [3] that led to these serious charges. Although this front-page headline over a June 7 story by Michael Barbaro hasn't aged well: "The End for Rangel Appears Greatly Exaggerated." Barbaro argued that despite Rangel's ethical woes, he was in "a surprisingly strong position just months after predictions of his demise." Hold the phone.
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