MDforDirtyPolitics… and journalism [MD4BUSH]

NRO ^ | 11/08/05 | Stephen Spruiell

[advance_copy]

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.

[tgslTakoma]

I saw that (he hasn't, though - yet).

;-)

[sawoody]

Thanks CinNYC, You gave me a few new keywords for searching. I've read most of the MD4Bush threads beg to end, but I haven't seen much on this subject. Hopefully more to come.

[sawoody]

If anyone logged in from the Washington Post posted anything I am sure we would have heard about it. They probably verified the contents of FR mail under MD4Bush which they could not access as a guest.

Thanks AB182, that makes sense. JR would have a WP IP address if the WP reporter moved the freepmails. Can a reporter use private emails like that as a source? Or would it require moving them to the public forum before sourcing? WP may have instructed MD4Bush to move them before they could use the info.

[Anti-Bubba182]

"..Can a reporter use private emails like that as a source? Or would it require moving them to the public forum before sourcing? WP may have instructed MD4Bush to move them before they could use the info."

I'm not sure on that. At the time I just thought MD4Bush was posting them on various threads to taunt FR and Steffen. Maybe there was another reason.

[pieces of time]

WaPo is telling us that not only do they use un-named sources but an "un-known" source. Journalism at it's finest.