MDforDirtyPolitics… and journalism [MD4BUSH]

NRO ^ | 11/08/05 | Stephen Spruiell

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Earlier this year a mysterious source turned over some e-mails to a Washington Post reporter. The e-mails seemed to indicate that a man with ties to the Republican governor of Maryland, Robert Ehrlich, was spreading rumors about the governor's chief political rival on FreeRepublic.com. The Post wrote a series of articles about the e-mails and the man — a state employee named Joseph Steffen — resigned and apologized to the governor.

The Post didn't do any reporting on the source of the e-mails — someone only identified by the Free Republic screen name "MD4Bush" — but it was apparent from the nature of the e-mails that MD4Bush had entered FreeRepublic.com with the intention of engaging Steffen in a conversation about the rumors, leading him into making damaging statements in private e-mails or "Freepmails," and then turning those e-mails over to the Post.

The strategy worked like a charm. Washington Post reporter Matthew Mosk demonized Steffen and downplayed aspects of the e-mails that seemed exculpatory, such as when Steffen wrote (in response to a clearly leading question), "I am sure you will understand, I cannot and will not offer suggestions that may be considered unethical concerning what you should do, campaign-wise. This is especially true concerning [the rival's] personal life." In over a dozen stories written about Steffen over the subsequent months, this statement appeared only once, in the last paragraph of a sidebar story titled, "Uproar brings focus on role of bloggers."

While Mosk was playing Judith Miller for some anonymous political operative, WBAL-TV investigative reporter Dave Collins was getting curious about the identity of MD4Bush. He reported a few stories speculating about the identity, but he couldn't do much — FreeRepublic.com sympathized with the governor's side but was bound by law to keep any information on MD4Bush confidential.

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NRO new media writer Stephen Spruiell slams the Washington Post for their role in the MD4BUSH saga.

[KC_Conspirator]

The more I read of this, the more I hate the ComPost. Mosk should be fired immediately.

[Whitewasher]

I don't believe the depths of this entire sordid affair have been even skimmed yet. Amazing. This should serve as a textbook lesson to many.

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

For your reading pleasure if you haven't caught this one yet.

[sausageseller]

. Mosk knew MD4Bush was some kind of an operative with an axe to grind. He saw the leading questions. He knew it was a set-up. He didn’t stop and say, “Hey, wait a minute.

Mosk is still reporting too!

What a bunch of lying weasels.

[ANGGAPO]

Looks as if the Dumbacrats are up to there sleazy eye balls in this according to the link to nationalreview.com. Who could have guessed?

[ANGGAPO]

Looks as if the Dumbacrats are up to their sleazy eyeballs in this plot according to the link, nationalreview.com. Who could have guessed? (Pays to edit first)

[Moose Dung]

Hmmmm,

Sounds like a "Culture of Corruption" to me.

dung.

[ikka]

The ends justify the means for Demoncrats.

[Alia]

You might ping your lists.

[NonValueAdded]

Wow, a reporter who keeps the facts straight when writing about new media! Excellent work, Mr. Spruiell.

[The_Victor]

This is the part of the whole sordid tale that I just love:

Under pressure to tell the public what it knows about MD4Bush, the Post included the following in its statement:

As we have also reported in the newspaper, we do not know the identity of MD4Bush. We have tried to find out who MD4Bush is, but we have not been successful.

How can the post claim to have "authorized" access to a Free Republic account, and not know who the account belongs to?

[sausageseller]

Mr Mosks wife wrote :Selective dumbness is not a frequent disorder and there remains still currently an intriguing disorder surrounded by a certain mystery..

Hey Matthew, ask your wife if she remembers that quote?

[conservative in nyc]

MD4Bush Ping!

[Grampa Dave]

November hasn't been a good month for liberals for a few years.

Moi Kerri got his butt kicked last November.

This year their favorite city is burning, Paris, thanks to the jihadists the liberals are in love with.

The Fizty thing is ready to turn into a nightmare for all of the lying MSM maggots who lied in rotation at the Grand Jury.

The republicans in the Senate and House are getting ready to hold hearings on who outed our real CIA agents at those prisons.

Now the Compost is running into the Free Republic like Blather/Mapes and CBS did last year.

[Mo1]

I'm seeing legs :0)

[Katya]

blistering...

[Anti-Bubba182]

"..It gets better. By sharing his sign-on information, WBAL reported, MD4Bush might have violated the website user policy that he agreed to, thereby voiding his right to confidentiality.

Free Republic is showing signs that they’re ready to go public with the name, and it doesn’t look good for the state Democratic party.."

There really is no might to it. MD4Bush did violate the User agreement.

Registration and User Agreement

"User Account Confidentiality: User agrees to protect user's account and password and not to disclose account information to any third party."

What's more the Washington post did as well when they logged in under his name and this might get a lot more serious than mere embarrasment.

Unlawful Access to Stored Communications 18 U.S.C. 2701.

"§ 2701. Unlawful Access to Stored Communications

(a) Offense.--Except as provided in subsection (c) of this section whoever–

(1) intentionally accesses without authorization a facility through which an electronic communication service is provided; or

(2) intentionally exceeds an authorization to access that facility; and thereby obtains, alters, or prevents authorized access to a wire or electronic communication while it is in electronic storage in such system shall be punished as provided in subsection (b) of this section. "

The WP did exceed an authorization to access FR by using anothers password(Forbidden under the Users Agreement which govern the access of users) to access FRmails and did not make any attempt to determine the rules of access to FR or presumably they would not have improperly used anothers password. They flat did violate section 2b of 18 U.S.C. 2701 in that they did not view, or observe the rules if they did view them. If the reporter was unaware of 2b of 18 U.S.C. 2701 it won't help. A professional at a large newspaper should know or should have asked.

[conservative in nyc]

We haven't even started much on the WaPo's ethical problems with using anonymous sources in violation of their own policies for using anonymous sources. Like giving the reader enough information about the source to figure out if the source is holding a grudge.

[Anti-Bubba182]

As NRO points out and any reasonable reader would surmise, MD4Bush baited Steffen and then ratted him out. Only one with a grudge or political operative would do that.

Mosk could not have missed that point. He hoped he readers would overlook the obvious. If not for MD4Bush's mistake of registering from a traceable email address it would have worked with few problems.