Another example of anti-Fletcher media bias

Today's Lexington Herald-Leader contains a lengthy story on the status of a legal defense fund set up by Gov. Fletcher's supporters to help ease the personal financial burden laid upon him by Attorney General Greg Stumbo's reckless prosecution in the state hiring investigation.

It can be said, of course, that the whole story is designed as yet another volley fired against Fletcher by a hostile media outlet as the governor faces not only a tough re-election challenge from the Democrats, but a display of disloyalty from within his own party in the form of two primary challengers, Assistant Attorney General Billy Harper and Assistant Attorney General Anne Northup. That becomes evident when you see that the first quote in the story comes from Lt. Gov. and Assistant Attorney General Steve Pence.

But if one ever needed proof of just how biased the state's largest press outlets have been against Fletcher and his administration, one need look only at a phrase commonly used by the media and repeated again in this story.

"Fletcher did not pardon himself but agreed to a plea deal with Stumbo last August that ended the investigation."

BZZT. Wrong. This was NOT a plea deal!. Yet the press continues to throw that phrase around because as used, it does damage to Fletcher.

Fletcher pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges levied against him by the grand jury composed primarily of merit employees and Democrats. He never wavered from his assertions of innocence and never changed his plea.

A plea deal occurs when a defendant pleads guilty, usually to a reduced charge, and accepts a lighter sentence than would have been levied at trial. This is usually done because the defendant agrees to testify against someone else, or because the evidence looks pretty convincing and the perp doesn't want to risk what might happen at trial.

While Fletcher may have agreed to -- and signed off -- on the language in a court document, this was no plea deal. This was a dismissal of the charges with prejudice by the prosecutor Most likely this happened for two reasons: Stumbo needed the investigation over with to comply with an Ethics Commission ruling and further his political ambitions (he's on a gubernatorial slate now, isn't he?) and because he realized the actual evidence against the governor was very weak and would deteriorate even further since the Kentucky Supreme Court had ruled that the governor could not be tried until he was out of office.

Yet the press continues to improperly refer to this as a plea deal. It was nothing of the sort. What it was instead was Stumbo folding his tent and going home, to contemplate his gubernatorial ambitions. The only deal was Fletcher signing off on the language used in the dismissal order.

Of course we don't expect pointing out this error to do any good. The anti-Fletcher liberal press will continue to use its power to work against the Republican governor, but at least they will know that someone's out there keeping an eye on their accuracy.