| Jim Himes has been clear for nearly a year and a half that he disinvested every single share in Goldman Sachs before becoming a member of Congress. But WNPR didn't bother to find the facts, simply preferring to put out a lie and adding Himes' denial. That's not journalism, that's sleaze.
And then the story concluded again with those anonymous "watch dog groups'" accusation that his taking campaign contributions was distorting the financial reform legislation. Not a word in that story about the fact that Goldman Sachs is bitterly fighting against precisely that legislation that Jim Himes helped to draft, and not a single word about the fact that Himes voted for that legislation that Goldmans is opposing. No, WNPR just put out the implication that Himes was doing Goldmans' and Wall Street's bidding on the financial reform bill, when in fact it was Himes who was leading the effort to impose tighter regulations that Wall Street hates. And not a word about Nobel-laureate economist Paul Krugman's consistent description of the House bill as a good bill that will, indeed, impose much needed regulation.
I followed up by calling John Dankosky's show "Where We Live" (BTW, the show was being recorded for future broadcast on the CT cable channel) that came on right after that "news" story was broadcast to complain about it. Dankosky is one of the directors at WNPR, so it wasn't out of line to complain to him. But he cut me off, and said that he thinks that the unnamed "watch dog" was Factcheck.org. But the story mentioned "watch dogs"- plural. So it couldn't have been just Factcheck alone. Then he refused to listen further and changed the subject.
That story was a hit-job, and it's part and parcel of the right-wing snark that so pervades that station (think "Politics, Burgers & Beer", which is still holding open the spot for UConn professor Ken Dautrich who is under multiple investigations by the state of Connecticut and his university for legal and ethical violations pertaining to his working secretly for Jodi Rell's re-election effort and possibly receiving compensation for that work in the form of another state no-bid contract).
WNPR should retract that story, apologize for the horribly deceptive and dishonest reporting that went into it, and do it on air. It's supposed to be public broadcasting, not Fox News for Connecticut.
(If anyone can find the link to that story on WNPR, I'd appreciate your adding it.)
A big thanks to Jonathan Kantrowitz for tracking down the truly sleazy story from Capitol News Connection's Paul Barton. I don't know this reporter's bio, but he certainly looks as though he's right out of the Fox News school of journalism. Take a look at his hit-job on Jim Himes:
As for Goldman Sachs contributions influencing votes, the Himes spokesperson said the House member "makes each decision based on the merits of the bill." And Himes supports financial regulatory reform that would be tough on Wall Street, Kerr added.
The claim of no influence is typical of many lawmakers' response to such questions.
So "Kerr says" that Himes supports reform that would be tough on Wall Street, but that's typical of "lawmakers' response". In other words "reporter" Paul Barton is calling Himes a liar.
And he starts out quoting conservative UVA professor Larry Sabato. Perhaps Barton should have been more careful about "toxic funding" to his own sources in his article about "toxic funding". This from Wikipedia:
Earmark controversy
In June 2009, it was revealed that Sabato's Center for Politics had been the recipient of over seven million dollars in earmark money from (Republican) Congressman Virgil Goode, whom Sabato predicted would win re-election in 2008, despite declining poll numbers; Goode ultimately lost the race by a small margin.[13] Some observers have suggested that Sabato should have revealed his financial connection to Goode or recused himself from making predictions about the race.[14]
No mention either that Sabato is a regular on Fox News and other Fox programs. And neither Barton nor WNPR pointed out that Democrats voted against Goldman's interests in passing the financial reform bill, while Republicans were uniformly against it. Barton and WNPR just did a hit job on Himes.
I've been troubled with some of the stuff from this "Capitol Reporting Initiative" in the past. But this was truly disgusting.
Truly disgusting. I suggest writing to WNPR and Dankosky at "Where We Live" to let him and the station have it! |
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