Reporter Quickly Succumbs To Gannettization

A couple of weeks ago I bemoaned the fact that the AP's Tom LoBianco had gone over to the dark side by accepting a job as a State House reporter for the Gannett-owned Indianapolis Star, which has bastardized legitimized investigative reporting in this state and across this country and replaced it by slobbering milquetoast journalism designed to dumb down the American public as much as possible. It happened much more quickly than even I anticipated if LoBianco's first reporting is any indication.

Last week, the Journal-Gazette's Niki Kelly seized on passages in a new book by a former Mitch Daniels' PR flack unknown to even many political insiders relating how Daniels had used his Aiming Higher PAC as a springboard for his presidential ambitions in a way that raised some legal questions and walked a tight ethical line in using the governor's officials residence to conduct political fundraisers. LoBianco's first news story at the Star tackles this same book, but in the typically pro-Daniels' posture that clouds all reporting at the newspaper. "But his flirtation with the idea gave an already popular Republican extensive national exposure without any of the crippling scrutiny that comes from a White House run," LoBianco writes.

LoBianco pats Daniels on the back for one of "the many incisive political calls" he made in describing his flirtation with running for president and at the same time avoiding the scrutiny that befalls other presidential contenders. Apparently, LoBianco is unaware of the tremendous amount of digging the national media was doing in Indiana on Daniels' questionable and tawdry ways largely ignored by the State House media for many years before abruptly dropping out of the race, which likely influenced that decision. The book's relatively unknown author, Don Cogman, is referred to as a "PR honcho." At least LoBianco acknowledged the role Daniels' divorce and reconciliation with wife Cheri played in the decision, the details of which he acknowledges had "long [been] kept under wraps in Indiana." The details of his big-time drug-dealing operation at Princeton still remain largely unreported, along with his serial ethical lapses as a public official. It's really sad to see yet another good investigative reporter go to waste working for Gannett.