CovOps
 Location : Ether-Sphere
Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator
Humor : Über Serious
 |  Subject: Amazing how all those Beto O’Rourke puff profiles ignored his drunken car crash  Sat Sep 01, 2018 6:38 pm | |
| It’s a mystery how all those plush Beto O’Rourke profiles either ignored or glossed over the Democratic Senate candidate’s 1998 drunk driving accident, including the parts where police said he crashed his car into oncoming traffic and then tried to flee the scene of the crime.
A real headscratcher!
Newsrooms have produced plenty of glowing profiles on Sen. Ted Cruz’s, R-Texas, Senate challenger. National media have regaled readers with details about O’Rourke's likes, dislikes, political philosophies, his charm, his viral pull, his hopes, dreams, and ambitions.
These same profiles uniformly omit the damning details from a 1998 police report that says O’Rourke drunkenly slammed his vehicle into a truck, flipping himself over the median and into oncoming traffic, and that he tried to flee the scene of the accident. For those details, we have the [url=https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/Houston Chronicle]Houston Chronicle[/url] to thank.
O’Rouke did not deny the allegations Friday. Rather, he reiterated that he’s sorry for drunk driving.
The fact that readers are only now learning about the contents of the 1998 DWI report, especially after they’ve been inundated with all this glowing pro-O’Rourke slop, is an embarrassment to the industry.
The New York Times, for example, published a puff piece on Feb. 19 titled, “ The Lone Star Long Shot.”
With all its pull and resources, the paper managed to report only that “Mr. O’Rourke has been arrested twice, once for a college prank, a second time, in 1998, for what he called the ‘unforgivably’ bad decision to drive after ‘having too much to drink.’ Both charges were dismissed.” The fact that he actually crashed his car and wasn't just pulled over didn't merit a mention.
Next, there’s Time magazine, which published a 1,650-plus-word profile in May titled, “ Beto O’Rourke Is on a Long, Hard Road.” There’s not a single mention of the DWI charges.
Though Town & Country’s July 26 profile, titled “ Why So Many People Are Betting on Beto O'Rourke,” mentions the 1998 incident, it does so only in passing and as part of an aside about campaign attacks. It mentions nothing more about the charges, except that “O’Rourke was not convicted.” Where the profile is light on the details of the 1998 arrest, it’s heavy on the attempts to characterize O’Rourke as “Kennedyesque.” That descriptor works better than the author likely intended — of course, they didn't specify which Kennedy.
Then, there’s Esquire, which published a profile on Aug. 23 titled, “ Who Is Beto O’Rourke? Meet The Man Democrats Hope Is The Next Obama.” The article calls the Senate candidate “articulate, charming and already a worldwide viral hit,” and asks “is this the man who could save the world from Trump?” It’s 1,261 words long. No mention of the drunk driving.
Lastly, there’s BuzzFeed News’ mega-profile titled, “ Beto O’Rourke Could Be The Democrat Texas Has Been Waiting For.” The profile is 8,172 words long. Again, no mention of the 1998 incident.
Thanks to these profiles, we know O’Rourke is bilingual. We know he likes to drive. We know he used to play in a punk rock band.
What readers don’t learn from these stupid, glossy profiles is that police reported, “O’Rourke was driving drunk at what a witness called ‘a high rate of speed’ in a 75 mph zone,” and that he “lost control and hit a truck, sending his car careening across the center median into oncoming lanes.”
Readers also don’t know that police reported eyewitnesses claimed, “O’Rourke had tried to drive away from the scene,” or that O’Rourke, whose father was a judge at the time, somehow got off after blowing a 0.136 and a 0.134 on his breathalyzer tests.
But hey, at least we know O’Rourke practices his Spanish every day!
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/amazing-how-all-those-beto-orourke-puff-profiles-missed-glossed-over-his-drunken-car-crash
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