Prosecutors were unfair to drag Mayor Steve Benjamin through the mud, Big Media says!

The media feels like prosecutors in the Jonathan Pinson trial were unfairly picking on Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin.

Pinson was convicted on 29 felony counts, a week ago. He also took a trip with Benjamin to Florida, paid for by a wealthy developer. There was testimony in the federal trial that Benjamin partied with strippers, was paid-out of a housing deal, marketed influence and failed to report the $7,000-to-$8,000 trip to the state's ethics commission.

But was it fair to drag Benjamin's name through the mud?

The State, Columbia's big corporate newspaper, laments in an unsigned editorial Thursday: 

“It remains a mystery why prosecutors went out of their way to feature Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin so prominently in the public corruption trial of Jonathan Pinson,”

The State accuses federal persecutors of “almost” appearing to put Benjamin on trial.

The State admits Benjamin's actions may have been “unsavory” but argues Benjamin “never was charged with a crime and prosecutors never presented any evidence that suggested he had done anything illegal.

The worst thing Benjamin did., according to The State. is not disclosing the trip to Florida.

Benjamin said he does not have to disclose it.

But The State said if Benjamin wants to make everything hunky-dory, disclosing the trip to the ethics commission will do that.

And The State figures Benjamin's lone egregious offense of non-compliance with ethics “should serve as a wake-up call. The State scolds Benjamin to “be careful to review the nature of their trips..... to determine whether they are business-related or connected to their official duties.”

The State even gets in a promotion for a Strong-Mayor system, that the voters just rejected. The State said if Benjamin were full-time, as he wants, he would have to report the trip, no questions, and there would not be this cloud over him.

The State also implies that this unknowing oversight by Benjamin serve as “a wake-up call.”

The State does not note that Benjamin was involved in a horrific vehicle accident in 2010, just hours after his first election party. That should have been Benjamin's WAKE-UP CALL for ethical behavior, if he had not learned accountability by then.

But The State is hoping persecution of the otherwise innocent mayor snaps him into shape, and by clearing up this silly ethics disclosure mix-up will show that Benjamin finally gets it.

This running interference by if The State asks another question, too.  Will the newspaper have to disclose this editorial to the ethics commission as a campaign contribution.