On Thursday, Rachel Maddow called out the seriously flawed national media coverage of Rick Perry's two-count felony indictment. The segment features Dallas Morning News reporter Wayne Slater, whose reporting on the indictment, Maddow points out, is part of the Texas media coverage that is getting it right. Maddow and other trusted sources outside the state are beginning to pick up on the baffling disconnect between fact-based Texas and spin-induced national reporting on Perry's indictment: "Start reading Texas papers on this. The coverage is like reading it from Mars when you compare stuff that’s being written in Washington."
"The national media—including the beltway media, the conservative media, and much of the liberal media as well—has settled on common wisdom now that the indictment really isn’t that big of a deal for Rick Perry…
But you know what, in Texas, the grand jury that indicted him is pushing back on that now, pushing back on it hard, saying they took their responsibilities seriously, that these indictments indicate a serious and solid case against the governor.
Texas papers, like the Dallas Morning News, are editorializing: “Hey, not so fast. This case is for real, it deserves a real hearing.”
The same paper, which is incidentally the largest paper in the state, this week published a tough story about how two other Texas district attorneys were arrested and convicted on DWI incidents while they were in office as DAs and Rick Perry was in office as Governor. But when those DAs had DWIs, Governor Perry said nothing. That’s important because it raises questions about why the Governor did get so upset..."
Check out more fact-based Texas reporting on Perry's indictment:
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Why the Conventional Wisdom in the Rick Perry Indictment Story Might Be Incomplete
Wayne Slater, 8.20.14
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Grand Jurors Deny Politics Played Role in Perry Indictment
Brian Rosenthal and Patrick Svitek, 8.19.14
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What the Pundits Don’t Get About the Rick Perry Indictment
Forrest Wilder, 8.18.14
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Perry Case Built with Staffers, Lawmakers
Peggy Fikac, 8.17.14
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Five Things to Know About Perry Indictment
Jay Root, 8.16.14
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