This is not an idle question. Shortly after the story was published, some of the reporters started appearing on cable news shows, refusing to answer questions about any of the specifics of the complaints, and — and this bit is crucial — pointing the media toward Cain, suggesting that they approach him about the specifics.
And now, the media campaign aimed at Cain is fixated less on the “crime” — even CNN ran a story acknowledging that such claims and settlements are oftentimes just the cost of doing business (Kurt Schlichter follows that up with a good New York Post column today detailing how these suits work) — and more on a supposed concern over Herman Cain’s “evolving story.” The cover-up, you see, is worse than the crime — and Cain’s responses, we’re told, have raised all sort of questions about his veracity.
The excuse the reporters gave for the thinness of the details they provided in their initial story was that they were concerned to protect the privacy of the women whose claims they’d anonymously referenced. Less concerned were they about Herman Cain’s reputation and good name and how this story may affect it — not surprising, really, given that Politico reporters were involved in at least one iteration of Journolist (essentially, a cabal of liberal-left reporters who colluded together behind the scenes to determine the news cycle and to aid progressive causes and candidates, while hoping to delegitimate Republicans, conservatives, and the TEA Party). But surprising or not, the questions I’m hoping to raise are still valid ones and redound to Politico’s standard for professional ethics....
Or, to put it another way, how do the Politico reporters square their suggestion that Mr Cain be responsible for providing the specifics to a story they published, with their own knowledge of a confidentiality agreement that they knew would prevent Mr Cain from speaking.
Already, the new wrinkle to this story is that Cain may have violated the confidentiality agreement merely by attempting to answer questions from reporters demanding the specifics Politico reporters asserted it was incumbent upon Mr Cain to provide. In fact, Politico itself is now reporting, using one of the women’s attorneys as their proxy, that Cain broke his confidentiality agreement.
JournO-list:
◼ link
A JOURNOLIST REMINDER: There was this email group, called Journolist, where journalists got together and talked about how to bury stories that hurt Democrats and push stories that hurt Republicans.◼ Journolist - discussion at Althouse
◼ (recap/prior posts) - Althouse
◼ Here is a long list of those people who belonged to JournoList and the news organizations they were/are employed by. POLITICO.com has a number of them...which shows just how far left Politico has gone. When it was launched it was a centrist new reporting organization, but it has become yet another MSM style mouth piece for the left. - The Vail Spot
◼ JournoList: 151 Names Confirmed (with News Organizations) FreeRepublic
◼ The Secret Liberal Journalist Cabal - HotAir
