I know I’ve said it before, but I love politics and I especially love presidential election years. I always try to keep my posts focused on the markets but the last 24 hours have been so strange and disappointing to me that I feel that I have to share a story with you all.
The story begins with on my many favorite political websites, Politico.com. I have been a dedicated reader of this site since before the primaries. The site seems to anger both sides of the political spectrum, which usually means that they are doing a good job of reporting both sides of the story. I especially like the two blogs written by Ben Smith, who covers the Democrats, and Jonathan Martin, who writes about the Republicans. It was through these two guys, Ben especially, that I first learned about many of the biggest stories of this last year (Bitter people clinging to their guns, Hillary under sniper fire, Palin’s secret flight to Akron, OH and of course the “Goddamn America Video”.) While some of these stories have been good for my candidate and other have not, I have never questioned Ben Smith’s motivation for reporting a particular incident. That changed last night and I think that as you read, you will see that my initial warning to Smith opened up a can of worms that made me totally lose respect for his professionalism.
As you might know, last night Matt Drudge was sensationalising a story about a girl who was allegedly attacked because she was a McCain supporter. Ben Smith picked up the post and put it on his blog. The post started out with, “Here is some campaign-related violence, via Drudge.“ I was disgusted by the thought of such an attack and quickly read the story. It didn’t take long to realize that the story relied totally and completely on the word of one person, the “victim”. She claimed that she was robbed by a black man and because her car had a McCain sticker, the man came back after her, beat her and “carved” a B onto her cheek. It was clear that Drudge had every reason to sensationalize the story, given that his candidate was getting his clock cleaned, but the reality was that something just didn’t smell right. I felt that by putting the story up on his blog, Smith was legitimizing it before it could be investigated. I worried that we could see lynch-mob style reprisals against innocent people. I therefore sent an email to Ben at 6 pm on Oct 23rd.
It said:
Ben,
I enjoy your blog, but does this really deserve reporting? Don’t you think you need a little more evidence for this crime being campaign related? How does this girl know he did this because he looked at a bumper sticker? Come on. This is racially charged stuff that needs to be investigated a little more thoroughly.
It is really disappointing to see you parrot Drudge.
Paul
Surprisingly, I got a pretty quick response from Smith, which said:
There’s a police report. She could be lying, but it’s passed into public record. Reverse the campaigns — an obama volunteer in texas, say.
I didn’t accuse the “victim” of lying. I just suggested that we need to know more before we started a race war (hyperbole). So I responded with the following email at about 7 pm central time on Oct 23rd.
Ben,
Of course there is a police report, there was a crime. The only thing campaign related is that the victim was a McCain volunteer. Does it become news because the criminal is black, or does it become news because a “B” was scratched into her face? Why would the “B” be for Obama? How can the victim know it was because the perpetrator saw a McCain sticker?
My problem is that there are just too many unknowns. The news says that the crime was within view of the atm cameras, so why didn’t you wait for that to be released?
What if there are reprisals and it turns out to be something other than advertised? Innocent people have been killed for less.
I apologize for the emotional email, but this is scary stuff.
Paul
Now here comes the incredible part. Smith responds with the following one line email.
Does it even say anywhere he’s black?
Can you believe that shit? So now this clown is trying to turn the tables and call me racist for assuming he was black? Guess what Ben, the original story that you posted stated clearly that the “victim” claimed that she was attacked by a “6-4 dark-skinned black man”. Give me a break!
Perhaps Ben Smith needs to start reading the stories he posts instead of just riding Matt Drudge’s ever shortening coattails.
Of course we now know that this nut-job “victim” just made the whole thing up. I hope the credibility of Ben Smith takes a hit after this 24 hour fiasco. That way the next time he pulls something like this, no one will take it seriously.
Side note: Jonathan Martin also reported this BS as fact. I did not email him.
UPDATE: I thought I was disgusted before. Now I can barely hold down my dinner as I read these “professionals” try to rationalize their pathetic behavior. Ben Smith says that although he is a journalist, he doesn’t have to live up to the same standards because he was just blogging the story. What a joke!
I wrote a letter to Politico’s editor-in-chief, John Harris. I suggest you do the same.
Let’s not forget Ben’s ass kissing article writen with Jonathan Martin.
Here is the screen capture of the email. I blacked out my email.
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