Andre Banks

Rep. Jefferson Indicted, Fox Footage Shows…Conyers?!

The news is out: Black Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson has been indicted today on 16 counts of public corruption for decades of bribery and shady business dealings in Africa. With an attorney general under serious fire for his own misdeeds, the dramatic indictment isn’t without your typical Washington icky-ness. I mean, who in that town is really fit to judge ethics? Nonetheless, it’s looking BAD for Jefferson.

From RawStory:

The public corruption charges that were contained in the 95 page indictment against Jefferson, including conspiracy, solicitation of bribes, wire fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, money laundering, obstruction of justice, and RICO violations. Jefferson could face up to 255 years in prison if convicted of all the charges and receiving the maximum penalty, and be forced to turn over slightly less than $400,000 in bribes he received as he allegedly worked to broker a business deal between a Kentucky-based telecommunciations firm and a Nigerian company.

With the egregious, international and generally dastardly nature of the accusations, one would think the story sufficient for a sexy news story. But Fox “News” upped the ante by implicating not one, but two Black Congressmen in an act of subtle trickery that is shocking, if not unfamiliar. Check out this video from Talking Points Memo where Fox reports the JEFFERSON indictment story using footage of…..JOHN CONYERS, chair of the House Judiciary Committee and one of the senior members of the Democratic delegation. What the…?!? TPM thinks they couldn’t tell two Black men apart… I’m taking the position that a)The EPA should make Fox News illegal because it is a brain contaminating agent that significantly impairs good judgment and b) this was SO not an accident:

Posted at 8:29 AM, Jun 05, 2007 in Media Analysis | Politics | Permalink | View Comments