What really riles the right, Part Two
POWERLINE
By Paul
One of my criticisms of the Washington Post's story about the voter intimidation case was that, by noting that DOJ whistle-blower J. Christian Adams was hired during the Bush administration, the Post signaled that Adams is "not the right kind of career lawyer." But Bill Otis points out that the Post's slant was more egregious than that.
The fact is that the Post never identified Adams as a career lawyer at all, a problem I missed because I already knew he was. Rather, as Bill puts it, the Post "slickly implied that [Adams] was political by saying that he was 'hired during the Bush years.'" But "hundreds of DOJ lawyers are hired in the administration of any given president, and almost all of them are career, as was Adams."
It's my understanding that, unlike the vast majority of DOJ's career hires, Adams is a conservative, not a liberal. If the Washington Post thinks this undermines his credibility, it should say so, and explain why the Post does not use the same lens to scruntize the claims of liberals who blow the whistle during Republican adminstrations. The Post should not attempt to make the point without expressing it, by misleading its readers about Adams' status at the Justice Department.
So, while this isn't exactly a correction, I do apologize for, in effect, giving the Washington Post the benefit of the doubt. |
