… And the Pulitzer Prize for Recycling Second-Hand Rumors From HuffPo …

Posted on | August 1, 2012 | 32 Comments

Mind you the Washington Post isn’t citing an unnamed source that has talked to them, they are reporting that someone else (Harry Reid) claims that an unnamed source said something.
I don’t claim to have been in this business all that many years, but I know enough that I can’t report hearsay.

Here’s the WaPo headline:

Harry Reid: Mitt Romney didn’t pay taxes for 10 years

The article is just Ed O’Keefe recycling the interview that Sam Stein and Ryan Grim of the Huffington Post did with Reid. Ed can’t be bothered to pick up the phone and ask Reid’s office how in the name of hell the Senate Majority Leader justifies this kind of reckless smear:

A month or so ago, he said, a person who had invested with Bain Capital called his office.
“Harry, he didn’t pay any taxes for 10 years,” Reid recounted the person as saying.
“He didn’t pay taxes for 10 years! Now, do I know that that’s true? Well, I’m not certain,” said Reid. “But obviously he can’t release those tax returns. How would it look?
“You guys have said his wealth is $250 million,” Reid went on. “Not a chance in the world. It’s a lot more than that. I mean, you do pretty well if you don’t pay taxes for 10 years when you’re making millions and millions of dollars.”

Instead of doing some, y’know, reporting on this remarkable claim, the WaPo’s Ed O’Keefe lets it go with this bland acknowledgement:

Neither Reid nor his aides would identify the alleged investor, HuffPo reported.

Grant that Reid’s wild accusation — “financial McCarthyism,” you might call it — is newsworthy even if it is absolutely false. And it almost certainly is false, Dan Primack of Fortune says. But is it now an accepted practice at the Washington Post just to repeat whatever politicians say (in interviews with reporters for other publications) without bothering to do any independent reporting at all?

This is one of those “too-good-to-check” situations, and there are obvious problems with Reid’s claim. Isn’t the provenance of the claim intrinsically suspicious? How the hell would an investor in Bain Capital know how much taxes Mitt Romney paid? (Phil Klein made this point.) And why would a Bain investor call Harry Reid to make this claim? Who is this mysterious investor who’s got Harry Reid on speed-dial? Do they talk regularly? What else has he told Harry?

These questions — who, what, when, where, why, how? — are obvious, as I say, and reporters are supposed to ask them. However, if it is now the practice of the WaPo to repeat anything said by anybody on the Internet, why isn’t Ed O’Keefe quoting Allahpundit?

By the way, some random guy on the Internet told me Obama was born in Kenya. Now, do I know that’s true? Well, I’m not certain. But let me just toss it out there.

Maybe arrange a midnight meeting in a parking garage or something.

UPDATE: Breaking news that Harry Reid shtupped Nancy Pelosi “in the Senate cloakroom”? Now, do I know that that’s true? Well, I’m not certain. But I’m obligated under The Ed O’Keefe Rule of Journalism to repeat every crazy thing I find on the Internet.

Category: Election 2012, Harry Reid, Media Bias, Mitt Romney, Taxes

Comments

32 Responses to “… And the Pulitzer Prize for Recycling Second-Hand Rumors From HuffPo …”

McGehee
August 1st, 2012 @ 7:33 am

Harry Reid needs to be tested for Creutzfeld-Jakob. Seriously.
Harry Reid Caught In Senate Cloakroom With His Wrinkly Dinky In Nancy Pelosi’s Personal Space | The Rio Norte Line
August 1st, 2012 @ 7:34 am

[…] Stacey McCain has more here. 55.957870 -3.199357 Share this:FacebookEmailPrintRedditTwitterStumbleUponDiggLinkedInLike […]
Can we stop calling the Washington Post a "newspaper" now? » Datechguy's Blog
August 1st, 2012 @ 7:46 am

[…] 3: Stacy McCain elaborates Instead of doing some, y’know, reporting on this remarkable claim, the WaPo’s Ed O’Keefe lets […]
Bob Belvedere
August 1st, 2012 @ 8:13 am

Possible.

Mrs. B. thinks Pelosi may have Parkinson’s or something related.
Adobe_Walls
August 1st, 2012 @ 8:38 am

The Winston Smith Media is in for a rough time the few years.
rosalie
August 1st, 2012 @ 8:40 am

I think they’re getting desperate, which is really nice to behold.
Adjoran
August 1st, 2012 @ 8:53 am

Yes, desperation has come early to the left, including the press, who only a couple of months ago supposed Obama’s reelection to be almost a given.

Perhaps it was too much wishful thinking to believe that Obama, who only beat McCain with a 2-1 money edge and an incumbent party bearing the brunt of the public’s war weariness and economic uncertainty after the Republican made a panicked spectacle of “suspending the campaign” to go to Washington amid the growing signs of crisis.

Back when it seemed “cool” to some to have a black President, and we had no idea just how much and how completely he would suck at it.
PaulLemmen
August 1st, 2012 @ 10:04 am

Most likely the terminal phase of liberal derangement syndrome …
Evi L. Bloggerlady
August 1st, 2012 @ 10:14 am

If only it were that. Reid knows exactly what he is doing…

Separated at Birth: Harry Reid and…?
Sure | Daily Pundit
August 1st, 2012 @ 10:30 am

[…] Posted on August 1, 2012 7:30 am by Bill Quick … And the Pulitzer Prize for Recycling Second-Hand Rumors From HuffPo … : The Other Mc… Instead of doing some, y’know, reporting on this remarkable claim, the WaPo’s Ed […]
Pullet Surprise | hogewash
August 1st, 2012 @ 11:43 am

[…] Posted on 1 August, 2012 by wjjhoge Stacy McCain suggest awarding Pulitzer for Second Hand Reporting of Rumors to the media who ran with Harry […]
Red
August 1st, 2012 @ 11:57 am

This just in from the Department of Crock-shittery: a steaming pile that rhymes with slander.
MM
August 1st, 2012 @ 12:05 pm

Newsflash: Harry Reid calls Magwood, a black man, “a first class rat,” “a tool,” a “sh*t-stirrer,” a “treacherous, miserable liar.” http://newsbusters.org/blogs/pj-gladnick/2012/07/30/huffpo-soft-spoken-harry-reid-curses-out-fellow-democrat#ixzz22Edb7JAV
Conservatively Speaking | Under the Fedora Olympics, Rumors and Dying churches
August 1st, 2012 @ 12:06 pm

[…] McCain IS a real reporters and says this: This is one of those “too-good-to-check” situations, and there are obvious problems with […]
Some Rumors are More Worth The MSM’s Time Than Others « Nice Deb
August 1st, 2012 @ 12:22 pm

[…] McCain adds: Instead of doing some, y’know, reporting on this remarkable claim, the WaPo’s Ed O’Keefe lets […]
frank
August 1st, 2012 @ 1:11 pm

I read on the internet that Harry Reid’s wife accused him of being a closet monogamist who is into philately! I suspect it’s not true. I mean, who could believe that there’s a woman out there who would marry Harry Reid?
Michelle O.
August 1st, 2012 @ 1:53 pm

I heard BHO’s college grades were crap. A birdie told me that.
pabarge
August 1st, 2012 @ 2:38 pm

<a href="http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/interactivity/images/EdOKeefe.jpg"Ed O'Keefe
Look at the propagandist
Under the Fedora: Olympics, Rumors and Dying Churches | The Minority Report Blog
August 1st, 2012 @ 4:01 pm

[…] McCain IS a real reporters and says this: This is one of those “too-good-to-check” situations, and there are obvious problems with […]
DaveO
August 1st, 2012 @ 7:13 pm

So is the WaPo a corporation making an acceptable donation by its editorial practices to the DNC?

Do the stories, and stories killed, have a defined cost (salaries, time, resources) that can be counted toward campaign donation limits?

Will the next GOP WH Chief of Staff and Press Secretaries make the connection between access to the WH by WaPo staff, and hatchet jobs by remote editors?
john cunningham
August 1st, 2012 @ 9:32 pm

I was walking down the street by a homeless drunk who was shouting that Harry Reid cornholes 4-year old boys. Now I don’t know if this is true or not, but Reid needs to respond to it.
Under the Fedora: Olympics, Rumors and Dying Churches
August 1st, 2012 @ 11:56 pm

[…] Stacy McCain IS a real reporters and says this: […]
K-Bob
August 2nd, 2012 @ 12:17 am

Tertiary syphilis?
Bob Belvedere
August 2nd, 2012 @ 7:23 am

Who would schtoup her?
K-Bob
August 2nd, 2012 @ 8:13 am

Well, she was better looking back in the “primary” syphilis days.

Damn, I’m terrible. I denounce myself!
Bob Belvedere
August 2nd, 2012 @ 8:29 am

Yeah…me too: I denounce myself.
Harry Reid’s Financial McCarthyism: ‘I Don’t Think the Burden Should Be on Me’ : The Other McCain
August 2nd, 2012 @ 12:25 pm

[…] 1: … And the Pulitzer Prize for Recycling Second-Hand Rumors From HuffPo …July 24: Axelrod’s Nixonian Manipulations: Tax Flap Is About Mitt’s Mormon […]
Red
August 2nd, 2012 @ 2:36 pm

Mr. P. But don’t remind him 😛
FMJRA 2.0: Hey Porter : The Other McCain
August 5th, 2012 @ 1:30 pm

[…] 2.0: Hey PorterPosted on | August 5, 2012 | No Comments– compiled by Wombat-socho… And the Pulitzer Prize for Recycling Second-Hand Rumors From HuffPo …The Rio Norte LineDa Tech GuyDaily PunditHogewashConservatively SpeakingNice DebThe Minority […]
Conservatively Speaking | Under the Fedora: Harry Reid, Chick-Fil-A and the Oldest Trick in the Oldest Book
August 8th, 2012 @ 12:01 pm

[…] none of it good. At first the MSM seemed perfectly willing to go with this. As Stacy McCain put it: Grant that Reid’s wild accusation — “financial McCarthyism,” you might call it — is […]
Under the Fedora: Harry Reid, Chick-Fil-A and the Oldest Trick in the Oldest Book
August 8th, 2012 @ 3:31 pm

[…] That the media was willing to give this story legs even before he repeated these charges on the floor of the US Senate speaks volumes about the MSM, none of it good. At first, the MSM seemed perfectly willing to go with this. As Stacy McCain put it: […]
Under the Fedora: Harry Reid, Chick-Fil-A and the Oldest Trick in the Oldest Book | The Minority Report Blog
August 8th, 2012 @ 4:01 pm

[…] MSM, none of it good. At first the MSM seemed perfectly willing to go with this. As Stacy McCain put it: Grant that Reid’s wild accusation — “financial McCarthyism,” you might call it — is […]