Members-Only Article
I’ve just read the latest Times dissection of the reporting and sexual/relationship history of its reporter Ali Watkins. This is the star reporter who carried on a three-year relationship with the senior Senate staffer now charged with lying to investigators in the course of a leak investigation. I cannot help but think, all the complexities considered, that the Times is falling into the trap of interrogating Watkins’ sexual and relationship decisions and history in a way that strikes me as deeply unfair. While she was vague on some points, what stands out to me is that Watkins revealed the relationship to her various employers and she at least claims that the Senate staffer, James Wolfe, was not a source during their relationship.
But reading this piece, everything else receded to the background because of this part of the story: the role of an apparently rogue Customs and Border Protection officer who was almost certainly not acting alone.