Hundreds of Democratic Reporters Bury Lead in Troopergate

We're all going to have to hear a lot about this report about Sarah Palin, and the media beating its supposed finding that she was “abusing her authority” into the ground.

Here's why. According to the New York Times, “Minutes after the report was released, the Obama campaign sent an Associated Press article in an e-mail message to reporters, with the subject line, “Palin ‘unlawfully abused her authority.’ ” It contained no other comment.”

But the almost universal lead in media stories about "abusing her power" wasn't the only significant finding, nor the only possible lead. For instance, I would have used this one: “Panel finds that Governor Palin’s firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and lawful authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads.” That’s not spin. It comes directly from the report.

If you don’t hear anything else except yelling back and forth about this on the slug-out cable shows over the next few days, keep this statement from the report in mind. It is the second sentence in the two-sentence finding that says Palin abused her power:

“In spite of that, Governor Palin’s firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and lawful authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads.” p. 8.