Mainstream media far more interested in Tom Brady's balls than Hillary Clinton's ethics violations

(NaturalNews) Are you a fan of American football? Did you watch Super Bowl XLIX (49) between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots?

If you're even a passing NFL fan, you already know of the controversy surrounding the Patriots' footballs that were allegedly purposefully under-inflated before the Patriots' American Football Conference (AFC) Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts, a game in which the Patriots won commandingly.

You already know that, for instance, the now-famed Wells Report found that, "more likely than not," nearly a dozen Patriots footballs examined at halftime during the Colts game measured under the acceptable inflation range for NFL game balls.

And you may also be aware that Patriots future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady "more likely than not" knew that the balls were under-inflated and that, in fact, he may have even directed the balls to be under-inflated.

And you may know that video evidence of pre-game activity showed the most likely ball-deflating suspect, Jim McNally, the Officials Locker Room attendant for the Patriots, was seen taking two bags of game balls into a restroom directly off the field after they had been customarily tested for proper inflation by the game officials, remaining in the restroom for 1 minute, 40 seconds.

You may even know additional minute details, including Brady's refusal to provide league investigators with requested texts and emails, head coach Bill Belichick's and team owner Robert Kraft's lack of knowledge of what was going on, and that the Colts notified NFL officials before their game with the Patriots that they suspected ball deflation was taking place.

Ever heard of Hillary Clinton and a potential ethics violation?

Non-football fans likely don't know the intimate details of "Deflategate," but tens of millions of Americans have nonetheless heard something about it. After all, football is a huge deal in American culture, sports and otherwise.

But do you know that the U.S. State Department -- the Obama State Department -- has flatly refused to review whether or not former Secretary of State and current Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton violated ethics rules for not disclosing foreign donors -- from countries she dealt with as the nation's top diplomat -- to the Clinton Family Foundation, as she promised?

There has been lots of mainstream media coverage of Deflategate; even legendary news cycle influencer Matt Drudge at the Drudge Report has given the Deflategate story wide access.

Reports about a politicized State Department's decision not to pursue action against what appears to be a rather obvious violation of ethics rules -- an agreement that Clinton herself signed in 2008 -- have gotten far less play and exposure. Because, after all, political corruption and breaches of the public's trust are so droll and mundane.

Yet, it is important to hold accountable a person who wants to be the next president of the United States, lest the country's entire governing system devolve into one more akin to a third-world banana republic.

When football players make foreign policy decisions, then sports coverage will be more important

As Reuters reported:

Clinton, now the Democratic front-runner in the 2016 presidential election, had promised the federal government that the Clinton Foundation and its associated charities would name all donors annually while she was the nation's top diplomat.

She also promised that the charities would let the State Department's ethics office review beforehand any proposed new foreign governments donations.

In March, the charities confirmed to Reuters for the first time that they had not complied with those pledges for most of Clinton's four years at the State Department.

"The State Department has not and does not intend to initiate a formal review or to make a retroactive judgment about items that were not submitted during Secretary Clinton's tenure," spokesman Jeff Rathke said, in a decision that could have only come from the Oval Office.

Shouldn't political corruption be just a little more important than the machinations and corruption within a professional sport? At least until NFL team owners and players begin making decisions about foreign policy and national security.

Sources:

http://news.yahoo.com

http://www.nfl.com

http://www.cbsnews.com