A Special Kind of "Guilt by Association" -- Associated Press Style

The two vice presidential candidates and their spouses released their tax returns, both on Fridays, three weeks apart.

What does the Associated Press do? When the Palins released their tax returns on a Friday, the AP led with a story of how releasing them on Friday was the time people do it if they have embarrassing things that will be exposed. But the AP never mentioned that when the Bidens released their tax returns on a Friday. Despite this lead, the AP did not have any concrete embarrassing information in the Palins returns to report. No matter. Just throwing in the line about embarrassing Fridays already could create a negative impression on the candidate.

By leading with discussing Friday as a time for "embarrassing" info to be released, one is left with the impression that the Palins had embarrassing info. Again, the AP casts a negative pall around one candidate but is silent about the other.

That Fridays are used by the government some times to release embarrassing information may be a fact.
That the Palins released their tax return information on Friday is a fact.
To say that because sometimes Fridays are used that way, therefore the Palins must have been doing so for that reason is a logic fallacy.

Because all that is needed is to ramp up negative feelings about a candidate to manipulate voter opinion, the Associated Press writer just threw in the Fridays=embarrassing info for Palin, but was silent about Biden.

Src:

"When Todd and Sarah Palin released their 2006 and 2007 tax returns Friday, the Associated Press reported, "The McCain-Palin campaign had said the tax returns would be released Monday, but it suddenly put them out Friday afternoon — a time long used by government to reveal embarrassing news because few people watch TV or read newspapers Friday evening and Saturday."

But the AP never said why the Palins' tax returns were embarrassing. A later dispatch noted the Palins owe the IRS some interest but that's all.

What's more, when Joe and Jill Biden released their tax returns three Fridays earlier, the AP said nothing about Friday being the release date for embarrassing information" -- Brit Hume, Special Report, October 7, 2008