Mayor of Trenton, NJ, arrested on corruption charges; media play 'spot the Democrat'

Brett T. | 10:25 PM on September 10, 2012

Tony Mack, mayor of Trenton, N.J., was was arrested Monday on corruption charges following an investigation into an attempted sale of city-owned property for much less than its assessed value. Authorities also accused Mack of accepting more than $119,000 in bribes. Also charged in the FBI sting operation were Mack’s brother, Ralphiel, and business associate Joseph A. Giorgianni.

Breitbart.com noted that CNN’s story on the arrest mentioned Mack’s Democratic party affiliation in paragraph 18 of a 19-paragraph story.

CNN Identifies Arrested NJ Mayor as Democrat on 18th Paragraph: Tony Mack (pictured above), the Democratic mayor… http://t.co/QIPo19di

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) September 11, 2012

A Reuters story on the arrest mentions Mack’s party affiliation in the 22nd and final paragraph. A 31-paragraph piece written for the Times of Trenton contains no reference to Mack’s party, nor do articles published by the New York Daily News and the Los Angeles Times. Twitter users were happy to fill in the blanks.

https://twitter.com/Hardline_Stance/status/245331895959834625

He's a Democrat. #FYI RT @njdotcom: FBI arrests Trenton Mayor Tony Mack on corruption charges. http://t.co/PCNZJVVC #breakingnews #p2

— olliander (@ollieblog) September 10, 2012

"@TomHall: #Trenton #NJ Mayor Tony #Mack interesting: LA Times never mentions he's a Democrat. If he was a Rep. that would have been lead…

— Steve Mona (@nkslider) September 10, 2012