Guess which word is missing from a 1,500-word Charlotte Observer story about the arrest of the mayor on federal corruption charges? Here’s the beginning:
Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon was arrested Wednesday on public corruption charges after a four-year investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte announced.
Cannon was charged with theft and bribery after an FBI sting operation, said Anne Tompkins, U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. …
Authorities said Cannon took bribes from undercover FBI agents five times – the most recent on Feb. 21 when he took $20,000 in cash in the mayor’s office – and a trip to Las Vegas.
Tompkins said Cannon also accepted from the undercover agents more than $48,000 in cash, airline tickets, a hotel room and use of a luxury apartment in exchange for “the use of his official position,” Tompkins said.
Cannon is the longest-serving elected official in Charlotte, having joined the Charlotte City Council in 1993. He is the region’s highest-ranking official to be charged in a corruption case since former N.C. House speaker Jim Black of Matthews was convicted in 2007.
Hint: it’s a word that applies to both Cannon and Black.
Give up? It’s “Democrat.”
That’s the first thing a political reporter learns: put party affiliation in.
It should be automatic.
Somehow it’s missing in the opening quotes — and the rest of the story, so far as we could see.
I wonder why. I just hope it gets corrected soon.
Even the loons at NC Policy Watch managed to properly identify him as a Democrat. Though I suspect they think him a Right Deviationist no matter what party he belongs to.