The Politico takes a beating from CJR Daily‘s Paul McLeary over the Dan Gerstein flap:
There comes a time in the life of most every publication when it runs into some ethical quandary concerning the affiliations of one of its contributors. More often than not, the trouble could have been avoided by a couple of words in the author’s bio, or a line or two in the article itself disclosing whatever ties the author has to a person or group that smacks of impropriety…
While [Gerstein’s] right that his piece barely mentions Lieberman (he refers to the Lieberman-Lamont Senate race twice in order to show how nasty liberal bloggers are), he’s sidestepping a crucial point — that he’s still on Lieberman’s payroll, and that the liberal blogosphere ain’t anywhere near through bashing his boss.
And that, friends, is one important reason why we have bio lines, to announce such connections.
We’re not saying that Gerstein is hiding his affiliation with Lieberman — he is quoted as working for him in the other Politico story, but from a journalistic standpoint, his continuing relationship with Lieberman, and all the history with liberal bloggers that that relationship entails, does in fact taint his piece.
While Gerstein claims innocence, it’s important to remember that he’s a political operative, and thus he works under a very different set of rules than a journalist. His goal is to push the interests of his clients, period. It’s the editors of the Politico who should have known better.
The rest is here.
