A Bush Administration probe into its own tactics when it was trying to pass its prescription drug bill concluded
1) that John Scully, then head of Medicare, did keep the lid on accurate estimates of the bill's cost. leaving the Congress to vote on bad numbers, and
2) that this was not criminal.
Today's New York Times led with point number one.
The AP led with point number 2.
The Albuquerque Journal's headline writer, working off the lead (point number 2, remember), wrote:
"Drug Benefit Probe Clears Bush Administration"
Whoa! I would not object to that lead if it said who the probers were. Something like "Administration Drug Bill Probe Clears Administration."
This way, however, an unsuspecting reader might believe...well, that an independent investigation reached that conclusion.
But there is another problem. Do you believe, with the headline writer, that "clears" is synonymous with "broke no laws?"
I don't. Though I do sympathize with the headline writer; writing them is hard.
Incidentally, the Journal AP story includes, lower down, the fact that the (non-partisan) Congressional Research Service concluded otherwise, arguing that Scully probably did violate the law.
(Hey, it's all academic now. The White House successfully misled conservative Republicans, got the bill and Scully - he's pulling down big bucks as a lobbyist.)
But our subject was the sins of the liberal media, wasn't it? I am sure those lefty pinkos are distorting the news. Unfortunately, all I can find are (many) instances of journalistic incompetence and not a few...sorry to say this...of rightist bias.