Journalistic Sins Of Omission Or Commission? Smells Like Tea Spirit
One of the eternal truths of today’s journalism is that its awfully easy to get oppo handed to you and run with it.
But the real difficulty — and value — is in taking that oppo, reading it critically, and finding the things which a skeptical person might want to question. Conveniently omitted facts, long-standing ties to lobbying or other client interests involved, or donor conflict of interest questions when it comes from an elected official.
The I.F. Stone maxim of "all governments lie" can be amended in this context to "all political operatives have an agenda, for which they are paid handsomely by monied interests who get something out of it."
Let’s take the following example from a NYTimes article yesterday:
The web site TaxDayTeaParty.com listed its sponsors, which ranged from FreedomWorks, founded by former House Majority Leader, Dick Armey (R-Texas), Top Conservatives on Twitter, to RNC Radio.com, to the book from Senator Jim Demint of South Carolina, “Saving Freedom,” giving his “firsthand account of the unsettling socialist shift.”
Note that the reporter has done some investigation on the root sponsorship of the TaxDayTeaParty,com website, including the involvement of FreedomWorks and Dick Armey. So there was some digging on some level there.
But then, within a couple of paragraphs, there is this:
“Our main goal as far as a national organization — although that’s a tough term to use since we wish we were organized better than we were — is just to facilitate an environment where a new movement would be born,” Eric Odom, the administrator of TaxDayTeaParty.com, said in a brief interview on Wednesday morning. “We’re confident that we’ll see taxpayer coalitions at the local level starting tomorrow.”
Mr. Odom sounds like a contractor who was just hired to webmaster the site, doesn’t he? And perhaps someone who has had a bit of media training so that his responses come out succinct and with talking points firmly rooted.
But is that all he is? Hell no — just read through Jane’s Tea Party timeline and see how many places he crops up:
Within hours, a site called officialchicagoteaparty.com went up, with the domain name registered to Eric Odom. At the time he was working for a group called the Sam Adams Alliance, a 501 c(3) non-profit that legally can’t engage in political activity. Its chairman, Eric O’Keeffe, is on the board of the Club for Growth. He’s since been taken off the website, but it’s cached here.
Odom is one of the organizers of the Tax Day Tea Party group, and Matt Stoller accused him of astroturfing during the Drill Drill Drill campaign….
It’s important contextual information regarding Mr. Odom’s role. Especially given his past work as a GOP "new media" organizer, right?
Why does this feel like deja vu on oppo wurlitzer planting techniques?
Let’s not ever forget how much of their "data" came from their bffs, Barbara Comstock and Tim Griffin (of US Attorney scandal fame) at the RNC oppo-research department:
In the film we see RNC glee as AP accepts their oppo research on a Gore misstatement during the first debate . During their months of filming BBC producers also observed producers for NBC’s Tim Russert among others calling to enquire if the team had any new material. This was apparently normal trading on both sides.
When I say that I take everything I read with a big grain of salt as I contemplate who may have planted it and why, there are historical reasons for it. Is it too much to ask for just a little critical thinking now and then?
Nice writing Christy. Good Morning.
I’d say you do more critical thinking and organizing thoughts in every single one of your posts than these knuckleheads do for a major campaign.
How much planning does it take to figure out which permits are needed for a Walk In The Park?
So, not surprised. And, well, I guess it works out better for us when they don’t know what they are doing. I remember when the Reps knew where all their keys were.