The answer to the thread title question, is NO !
uber....please understand that John Solomon, author of your OP article is not a news reporter. He is a partisan, "hit man", formerly working for the AP, and recently hired by the Washington Post to bring "balance" to news coverage dominated by real events of the day. Virtually all national political scandals, since 2001, that have resulted in indictments have been exclusively involving republicans. The OP article, and John Solomon, are an attempt to "balance", the facts notwithstanding....
Quote:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...012601571.html
Accurate, but Not the Whole Story
By Deborah Howell
Sunday, January 28, 2007; Page B06
Accurate stories can be misleading. Two recent Page 1 stories -- one on the Fairfax County libraries and the other on the sale of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards's Georgetown house -- brought complaints that there was less there than met the reader's eye.
The Edwards story, by John Solomon and Lois Romano, was controversial even in the Post newsroom and was attacked by Edwards, his staff, liberal-leaning blogs and about 50 readers.....
......I kept waiting to read about the connection between the Klaassens and Edwards that would make this sale unseemly; it wasn't there. Edwards spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said Edwards "has never met or spoken with them; nor have they contributed to his campaign."
The story was interesting, but it was more of an item for the Reliable Source or In the Loop -- and not worth Page 1. It seemed like a "gotcha" without the gotcha.
The story also lacked needed financial context. It noted that Edwards bought the house for $3.8 million in 2002 and sold it last month for $5.2 million after it was on and off the market for 18 months.
But the story didn't pin down that the house, in the 3300 block of P Street, had at least $1 million in renovations, said several sources. The asking price originally was $6.5 million and had been lowered twice, according to Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, the region's multiple listing service.....
|
Link to recent Solomon, "news" article that WaPo Ombudswoman Howell, described above:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...011802077.html
Link to first page of comments about Solomon's "John Edwards hit piece", referred to above:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp...R2007011802077
Quote:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/008656.php
(June 06, 2006 -- 11:51 AM EDT)
Remember last week we reported extensively on AP reporter John Solomon's reporting on Sen. Harry Reid. Well, apparently, that's exactly the sort of excellence the editors at the AP are shooting for.
Here's the text of an internal email sent out to AP staff announcing the award Solomon got for the pieces in question ...
.....AP Director of Media Relations confirmed to TPMmuckraker's Paul Kiel that the email "was sent to all AP staff as part of AP's weekly recognition of staff reporters."
Speaks for itself.
|
Link to more than 20 comments and examples of JOhn Solomon's baseless, "gotcha" "journalism":
http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/20...php&frame=true
....and at the bottom of the WaPo web page which displays the OP article, was this reaction:
(I can't think of a better one, off the cuff. If you disagree, tell us where the critic has the facts wrong, and tell us how democrats, in the current playing field that was controlled by republicans exclusively since 2001, and in the house since 1996, can raise money in a climate that is still dominated by republican corporate executives and the lobbyists who they finance, if they don't, for the time being, at least....closely follow legal republican practices?)
Quote:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp...R2007022301978
There are a number of huge problems regarding this article. Other than Melanie Sloan from CREW saying that this is unseemly but fully predictable in light of the need for both parties to raise money there are no quotes of anyone having a problem with this. The reason is simple. As long as there is no such thing as public financing of elections, this type of activity will always happen. Where is the news here? There is none. Raising money through access to policitians is how our system operates, so why any feigned outrage? The Republican culture of corruption dealt with trading legislation for specific personal favors and bribes. The K street project was slimey but not illegal. There is no evidence that the dems are doing anything evenly closely remote to those activities. If Birnbaum and Solomon were honest the tone of the article would have been more of a piece advocating public financing of elections and not a gotcha piece. <b>But the tone of the article, especially the repeated references to the tribes that Abramoff conned is pathetic. Just because the jerk screwed them out of their money doesnt mean those tribes do not have the right to participate in the access the system the way it is currently setup. Bringing up their association without any evidence that anything is out of the ordinary dooms this article to becoming another waste of newsprint.</b> Gives us news and logical analysis, not innuendo and implied accusations with no basis in fact. Pathetic.
By joe_potosky | Feb 24, 2007 1:01:26 PM
|