Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Who Is Ethically Challenged Here?

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by

James A. Bacon
in

What is it the Mainstream Media says about bloggers — they’re not journalists, they’re careless with the facts? They don’t live up to journalism’s high ethical standards? Hmmm. An interesting case study sheds some light on MSM posturing.

Read what Washington Post reporter Sandhya Somashekhar wrote Oct. 10:

A state Senate candidate in Virginia has been improperly receiving a tax break on a home she owns in Northwest Washington, according to D.C. land records and interviews with city officials.

Since 2005, city records show Jill Holtzman Vogel (R) and her husband have received a homestead deduction on the property taxes they pay on a condominium they own near Washington Circle. To get the $60,000 annual deduction, the owner must declare the home as their primary residence.

The Post ran the story even though Vogel and her husband denied having any knowledge of the tax break and openly acknowledged that they did not live in the District. Somashekhar added an extra dig, describing Vogel as “an attorney who specializes in ‘ethics, campaign finance and tax exempt organizations,’ according to the Warrenton firm’s Web site.”

Here’s the follow up story posted the next day:

D.C. tax officials said yesterday that it was their fault that a state Senate candidate from Virginia got an improper tax break on her Washington Circle condominium.

The candidate, Jill Holtzman Vogel (R), and her husband never applied for the city’s homestead deduction, said Natalie Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Office of Tax and Revenue.

Note how the article blames the D.C. officials for the error, taking no responsibility for running the story before checking out all the facts.

(Hat tip to Joe West.)

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13 responses to “Who Is Ethically Challenged Here?”

  1. Toomanytaxes Avatar
    Toomanytaxes

    The Washington Post is a liberal rag. It has some excellent writers, but they are under the thumb of ideologues, such as Fred Hiatt. Hiatt has no journalistic ethics. His goal is higher taxes and more spending for Virginia, regardless of the facts. Normally, Hiatt pushes his goals by promoting Democrats, but, in the case of Chichester and Potts, RINOS do fine.

    A good friend of mine knows a few Post reporters quite well. Several of them have informed my friend that the “Third Floor” regularly intervenes against Virginia stories that are critical of the big spenders. Look at all the stories that are critical of the Loudoun County Board vis a vis developers. Yet, Gerry Connolly and his cronies are doing the very same thing in Fairfax County, with no press coverage. Gee, I guess corruption is not corruption in the eyes of Freddie Hiatt.

    The previous story was against a conservative Republican. Why would Hiatt’s paper care about its accuracy? The Post is a rag.

  2. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    So Bacons Rebellion is digging its tiny Chihuahua teeth into the ankle of the great Washington Post over an error in a story about a minor politician.
    And toomanytaxes thinks the Post and editorial page editor Fred Hiatt are “liberals?”
    Hmm. Does anybody really read the newspaper? Its editorials are moderate, sometimes conservative. Unlike the NYT, it has steadfastly supported its decision to back Bush’s war. In the Clinton era, the Clintons were constantly whining about Post hostility The Post still has the best coveragein the state. If you want to so a true disaster, read the Richmond Times-Dispatch that has gone from mediocre to God-awful. But it backs the GOP without shame.
    Meanwhile, I would hope that this blog site can get to a higher altitude than simple “liberal” bashing.

  3. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Anonymous 7:56, My original post about the WaPo made no mention of “liberal bias.” (I have accused the editorial page of bias in the past, but not the reporters covering Virginia news, but even that’s beside the point, because I never raised the “bias” issue in this post.)

    Furthermore, the Post’s “error” was not some trifling, extraneous detail. It was an error which formed the basis for the entire story. Without the error, there would have been no story.

    As for your characterization of Vogel as a “minor politician, am I to deduce that errors are less odious when the people being defamed are of little consequence? Reporting falsehoods is bad when you’re talking about important, powerful people, but not so bad when they’re weak and insigificant? Aaah, journalism has come a long way.

  4. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Jim Bacon,
    Please read before you write. I never accused you of bias, just tomanytaxes. If you look just above my first post on this matter you will see “toomanytaxes” stating empirically that “The Washington Post is a liberal rag.”

  5. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Sorry, Anonymous, I was reacting to your remark, “I would hope that this blog site can get to a higher altitude than simple ‘liberal’ bashing.” I perceived your remarks as aimed at me as well. If that’s not the case, then I retract my remark.

  6. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    I am an equal opportunity basher. I see liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans as equally at fault for the problems in the US and in Virginia. The two big political parties are, in my opinion, self-mocking. I won’t waste any more words on their run away buffoonery.

    The liberal vs. conservative definition is more important. I believe that both the liberals and conservatives have good points that should be considered by the voters. The trick is finding a real liberal or a real conservative. Meaning somebody with a set of ideals that represent liberalism and conservatism. Right now, I see a lot of people who are LINOs (liberals in name only) and CINOs (conservatives in name only). Just once, I’d like to see a list of issues confronting Virginia along with the truly conservative view of that issue and the truly liberal view of that issue. In the past, you could depend on certain politicians and newspapers to provide the conservative view and the liberal view. This contrast allowed one to understand the trade-offs that each approach required. Today, few politicians and fewer main stream media outlets provide an unadulterated conservative or liberal viewpoint. And … that’s a big reason why the blogs are so popular. You can read the arguments expressed from one perspective and then, at the click of a mouse, see the arguments expressed by the other side. With newspapers like the Washington Post it’s hard to say what perspective they are arguing. I think it’s usually slanted to the liberal side but there are plenty of examples where it is pretty conservative.

    I like the good old days when there were clearly stated conservative views and clearly stated liberal views. A voter could get their heads around the choices back then.

  7. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    here’s what I hate..

    “well.. a Republican did this terrible thing…”

    ” well, that’s ok because last (week,month,year,decade,century) a Democrat did a worse terrible thing”

    and on and on…

    a pox on anyone who thinks that this kind of back and forth is worth anything more than used spit.

  8. Toomanytaxes Avatar
    Toomanytaxes

    7:56 Where did I get into national politics? My complaint about the Post is that it addresses Virginia news through a lense of more spending and higher taxes. If I’m wrong, please point to articles or editorials to the contrary.

    The Examiner and the many local newspapers (weeklies) in NoVA do a much better job of digging into how money is spent in Virginia. Moreover, they seem to be willing to write stories about this issue, regardless of which political party controls the spending levers. The Post isn’t. Many of these local weeklies are run by liberal journalists. But the papers actually dig into the facts and write about them. They see a difference between news and the editorial page. The Post doesn’t.

    Another example, the Post had several stories about VDOT’s traffic study for the proposed rezoning of several large areas south of Dulles Airport. VDOTs’ study showed the added traffic would overwhelm area roads. The Loudoun County BoS rejected the rezoning. These were good articles and good reporting.

    But where are the similar stories about Gerry Connolly’s plan to rezone Tysons Corner? Using Fairfax County data, the added traffic is much worse than that which would have occurred in Loudoun. Yet, the Post ignores those issues. The Examiner and local papers write about Tysons and its dirt regularly. Gee, could the difference be which political party controls the BoS in each county? If not, why the difference?

    Watch this one. The Mark Warner-John Chichester tax increases essentially raped Fairfax County taxpayers. We send well more than $100 M more to Richmond each year, but get only pennies back. With Warner running for Senate, the Post will not write a single story about the impact of that tax increase on Fairfax County. Won’t happen, ever!

    The Post is a rag.

  9. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    Groveton for Nobel in clear speaking!

    Donkey Clan and Elephant Clan both do their best to avoid substantive discussion of the real issues.

    As we will demonstrate in “Estate Matrix,” WaPo has no choice but to do what it is doing.

    TMT: There must be a lot of Freddie stories out there, we have one from personal experience that would curl your hair.

    EMR

  10. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    TMT –

    What NoVA papers do you find the most useful? Do these papers have electronic versions?

    I am trying to stay up on the news and analysis in NoVA – even when I am traveling.

    Thx.

  11. Toomanytaxes Avatar
    Toomanytaxes

    Groveton – I find that the Examiner, Connection and Times Community newspapers, along with the Sun Gazette (from time to time) do a much better job of looking at the details of what’s going on in Fairfax County than the Post does. Of course, there are exceptions. The Post does have some very good reporters, but it seems more and more clear that they are writing to advance the Post’s editorial agenda.

    All but the Examiner are weeklies, but in many instances, their weekly stories tell much more than the Post’s daily reporting. I suspect that the smaller papers need to do a better job to survive.

    I know that the Connection, Times Community, and Examiner have websites.

    It’s not politics alone. The Connection, for example, has a very liberal editorial bent. But one can still read stories about Fairfax County’s misspending of money or the negative impact of the Warner-Chichester tax increases on Fairfax residents in the Connection. When has the Post really written a series of stories that do anything but suggest the need for more spending and higher taxes in Virginia?

    I read the weeklies in print; and scan the Examiner, Post and Washington Times on line.

  12. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    WaPo does not bother me.. neither does the NYT or RTD or WSJ…(except their wretched NeCon flaws).

    the only thing I take as “possible” fact is what all of them tend to not disagree about… and even then.. they can all get it wrong (and have).

    Each of us has a responsibility to learn and know enough about issues so that we KNOW when a reporter or a paper is blowing smoke…

    yeah.. its touch when we get “snookered”.. but don’t blame the media.. they’re deeply flawed but a heck of a lot better than the papers in China or North Korea.

    p.s. ANYTIME I see an article that uses a political label donkey/elephant in a accusatory/hypocritical connotation .. my “fart warning” light goes off…

  13. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Jill was still getting the tax break. You telling me this lawyer didn’t know she was getting the massive 60,000 tax break? Come on! She should have reported the error herself!

    She’s a pathetic, phony candidate. I have zero respect for her. The entire Tate scandal was led by her and disgusting.

    Karen Schultz all the way.

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