Detroit – In May, 2009, a lawyer representing Perella Weinberg came forward with evidence that the Obama administration threatened his client with political retribution if they did not buckle to the White House’s legally dubious plan to bypass secured bondholders and hand a majority interest in Chrysler to the UAW. Other firms confirmed the hardball tactics. Cliff Asness, a managing partner at AQR Capital Management, observed that “the President’s attempted diktat takes money from bondholders and gives it to a labor union that delivers money and votes for him. . . . Shaking down lenders for the benefit of political donors is recycled corruption and abuse of power.”
Yet outside of this blog, Business Insider, and a few talk radio stations, the establishment media ignored the story.
Fast forward to coverage of Gov. Chris Christie’s alleged political thuggery which dominated the national news Thursday from New York networks to Detroit’s airwaves. Bridgegate is deservedly news, but the further scandal is that Chryslergate and IRSgate and Benghazigate –which represent much more serious abuse of power and dereliction of duty – are swept under the rug. A Democratic president intimidating investors to benefit political allies is a serious allegation that deserves press attention, yet it was given the cold shoulder by a partisan media culture that feared its political implications — just as the same media reveled in the Christie allegation because of its political implications.
The double standard illustrates the free pass too often granted Democratic corruption. Media bias is more omission than commission. And it is largely partisan, not ideological.
What liberal would ignore the gutting of teacher and firefighter Chrysler pension investments because a politician wanted to favor special interest cronies?