Hiding Rep. Cynthia McKinney's Nutty Views

What is so controversial about Rep. Cynthia McKinney that would cause her to losea Democratic primary racein Georgia's Fourth Congressional District? You wouldn't get many clues from Brenda Goodman's Wednesday morning story, "Democratic Congresswoman Loses Runoff for Re-election in Georgia."



The Times ignores McKinney's history of Israel-bashing, her past support by Louis Farrakhan, and her conspiracy theory that Bush may have known about 9-11 in advance.



Goodman does briefly discuss the "encounter [McKinney] had in March with a Capitol Police officer."



The online version of the article mildly terms McKinney the "controversial incumbent congresswoman," but apparently even that was too hot for the Times' print edition, which takes out the word "controversial."


The hard copy also left out the embarrassing interludes included in the online version:


"At her campaign headquarters, Ms. McKinney began her concession speech by singing along to the song 'Dear Mr. President' by the pop artist Pink. 'I wanted you to hear this song, which says so much about why this election in Georgia was so important,' she said.


"'Not only do we want our country back, we want our party back,' she said in a speech that criticized President Bush, the news media and electronic voting machines. She concluded, 'I wish the new representative of the Fourth Congressional District well.'"


YouTube has a clip from CNN (hat tip Drudge) that includes McKinney's "singing" and her wacky claim, which the Times left out of both its online and print versions, that "electronic voting machines are a threat to our democracy. So let the word go out. We're not going to tolerate any more stolen elections."


Goodman's actual articleconcludes with two McKinney supporters who found her "forceful persona" (now there's a euphemism for the ages!) to be "appealing."