As a newsman of 40 years, I have often noticed parallels in the news cycle. One big story often seems to have a common denominator with another big story. What's remarkable to me is when the media judge the two stories with completely different standards.

Take, for example, the NFL's findings that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady probably had some knowledge of possibly purposefully deflated footballs, perhaps to give him an unfair advantage in a key playoff game that led him to the Super Bowl.

When it was revealed that Brady had destroyed a cellphone the league wanted to see, nearly all the media pundits — led by those in New York — concluded, without reservation, that the Boston team and its superstar player had cheated.

Meanwhile, a Democratic presidential candidate and former secretary of state stands accused of deliberately destroying emails she sent and received in the line of duty that were illegally and inappropriately sent and received in the first place. She stands accused of sending and receiving classified messages on an unauthorized and insecure private account. And these emails could shed public light on her scandalous behavior in regard to the deaths of U.S. personnel, including an ambassador, in the Benghazi, Libya, terrorist attack, as well as her unethical conduct in using her office to raise money for her family's private foundation.

The comparisons in the media between Brady and Hillary Clinton are starting to drive me crazy.

Take Maureen Dowd of The New York Times, for example. She wrote last weekend: "A pattern of cutting corners, a patina of entitlement and inevitability, has led to this. Destroying digital messages and thwarting official investigations while acting all innocent about wiping out sensitive material. Avoiding reporters after giving disingenuous explanations at uncomfortable news conferences. Claiming egregious transgressions are a private matter and faux controversy while sending out high-power lawyers and spin doctors to deflect and minimize. Two controlling superstars with mutable hair and militant fans, married to two magnetic superstars who can make a gazillion an hour for flashing their faces and who have been known to stir up trouble. A pair of team captains craving a championship doing something surreptitious that they never needed to do to win. It turns out Tom Brady and Hillary Clinton have more in common than you would think."

First of all, it shouldn't be necessary to point out that Brady was not a public servant assigned the responsibility of protecting America's national security. He's a gifted athlete. Whether he had any knowledge of deflated footballs is of obvious interest to the public, but at the end of the day, no one died as a result.

Second, no one subpoenaed Brady's cellphone as Congress has rightly done with Clinton's emails.

Third, Brady is not seeking the presidency of the United States or any other government position. He simply seeks to keep playing football, though he has already been suspended for four games next season as a result of "suspicion" of cheating.

What has happened to Clinton in the meantime? Nothing. She hasn't been indicted. She hasn't been docked any pay for her misconduct. She will receive all her generous government benefits for the rest of her life, thanks to her abbreviated stint as secretary of state and her years as a U.S. senator from New York. Few in the media have called for her to quit her bid for president or even shown an inclination to investigate her behavior as thoroughly as Brady's has been probed.

Do I need to point out that what Clinton did was not during a game? She was involved in matters of life and death, besides matters of national security and, quite possibly, the use of her office to shake down contributors for her own private gain.

This is not so much a parallel as a stark contrast, not to mention an illustration of how twisted the moral compass of our establishment press is. If only the Washington press corps were watchdogs half as vigilant as the nation's sports press.

To find out more about Joseph Farah and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.