Posted by
Amanda Carpenter on Sunday, October 21, 2007 11:14:36 PM
Less than 24 hours after Republican
Bobby Jindal was elected governor of Louisiana, the New York Times published a piece that intoned Jindal was somehow guilty of terrible things, without detailing any such thing.
Here's the piece.Reporter Adam Nissiter quoted Sanjay Puri, chairman of the U.S.-India Political Action Committee saying: "The fact that he' s [Jindal] of Indian ancestry is a subject of jubiliation....
but there's a very shallow appreciation of who he really is. Once you scratch the surface, it's really unpleasant."
What exactly are those unpleasant things?
The article doesn't tell you. It suggests that Jindal it "out of touch" with traditional Indians, may have not talked about Hurricane Katrina enough in his campaign, believes in God too much or went after the "Bubba-vote" too hard.
Nevertheless, Nissiter ends his story with a political forecast of doom and gloom.
Nissiter writes: "Mr. Jindal’s biggest test comes now. Failure to lift Louisiana
would be obvious. He said he arrived in Baton Rouge intent on “cleaning
up the corruption” and determined to “show the voters and the entire
country that we are serious about changing our reputation. Legislators in Huey Long’s state Capitol are sensitive to such suggestions, however.
Mr. Jindal’s honeymoon could be short."
Welcome to the Governorship, Mr. Jindal.
Update:
A close friend of mine sent this email to the reporter:
Dear Mr. Nossiter,
Your coverage of the Jindal election is exhibit A in liberal media
bias. You clearly cannot accept the very positive news that a minority
conservative can win by large margins statewide in the South. It's an
amazing outcome, yet your piece is grindingly negative in tone and
reveals little about Jindal other than his resume and your feeling that
he will fail as Governor. I read your earlier published version of the
story today which even managed to reference "David Duke" voters as part
of Jindal's base of support. Equally pernicious is the negative quote
from the Indian community-- a negative quote despite the fact that the
Indian community is overwhelmingly and understandably excited at his
election. And snide bits of opinion such as "whatever national
prosperity has accrued in recent decades" reveal your overall bias.
You further failed to note the huge margins by which Jindal won his
Congressional seat and the context of winning 54 percent in this open
primary. This story less about Jindal and more about your own
obsession with race and your inability to get past your own political
views to report objectively about this election.