News media which once bashed "convicted" Alaska U.S. Senator Stevens, now ignore his exoneration

When former U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, the longest serving Republican in U.S. history, was indicted last year, then convicted in federal court a mere seven days before last November's general election, on charges of failing to disclose gifts from an Alaska friend and oilfield executive, the Erie Times-News, scores of other newspapers, editorialists and pundits penned tens of thousands of disparaging words condemning Stevens and gloating over the political demise of one of the most powerful figures in beltway politics in recent decades.

Stevens narrowly lost his reelection bid last November by a mere 3,000 votes out of more than 290,000 cast. Nearly half Alaska's voters believed he was innocent and voted to reelect him notwithstanding his conviction. His narrow defeat was irrefutably attributable to the taint of his conviction.

But last week, when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder issued his stunning announcement that he would ask the judge who presided over Stevens's trial to reverse the conviction and dismiss the charges with extreme prejudice (meaning the Justice Dept. could not refile them),nor seek a new trial due to gross prosecutorial misconduct, and withholding vital exculpatory evidence, the silence from Sen. Stevens's news media and other captious critics has been deafening.

The prosecutorial team which engineered Stevens's false conviction, professional bureaucrats appointed under an earlier Democrat administration, has been removed from the case by Holder and is under internal investigation. Two of the three team leaders are Democrats who contributed to Barack Obama's presidential csampaign.

Other than the obligatory story reporting the attorney general's shocking announcement,the Erie Times-News and countless other newspapers, editorialists and pundits have ignored Steven's exoneration.

Simple civil courtesy demands apologies from those media who mercillessly bashed Stevens for gratuitously defaming an innocent person falsely convicted.