In covering the report issued by Rep. Henry Waxman's oversight committee, Washington Post reporters Glenn Kessler and Karen DeYoung (pictured) obscure the partisanship of the authors.
Their September 28 story fails to make clear to the reader that the opposition Democrats running Waxman's committee were the sole official authors. Kessler and DeYoung do report in passing that the report is "by the majority staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform." However that reference, well-located in the second paragraph, is not explicit about the partisanship involved.
The journalists quote a Blackwater spokeswoman as calling the report "one-sided," but do not cite any Republican staffer or member of the committee. By contrast, the Associated Press did quote the Republican chief of staff, David Marin.
Finally, the Post article completely omits the fact that the authors based their report heavily on material provided by a trial lawyer who stands to gain financially from a lawsuit against Blackwater. (A copy of the trial lawyer's letter asking for initiation of a hearing is here: Download callahan_pelosi_letter.pdf)
Click here to send an email to Glenn Kessler and Karen DeYoung. Keep it concise and polite.
