The vision for the Daily Caller was simple: It would be a kind of conservative version of the Huffington Post, doing real reporting but reflecting the quirky irreverence and political leanings of its founder, Tucker Carlson, a household name since his days as a CNN host.
A gonzo-inspired disdain for authority and sanctimony was part of its culture from the beginning. So when Carlson met longtime PR man David Martosko, and the two got into an animated conversation about novels they liked, Carlson had a flash of inspiration. He made Martosko the Daily Caller?s executive editor, despite the fact that Martosko has never been a journalist.
Continue Reading?Literally not one moment did I worry about that,? Carlson said. ?I find it less worrisome than 15 years at the Washington Post.?
Five months after Martosko?s hiring, that spur-of-the-moment decision is looking less inspired. Martosko?s background and approach to the job - particularly his decision to run, and then double down on, an erroneous report that the Environmental Protection Agency was proposing to hire 230,000 new employees - has embarrassed some Daily Caller staffers and contributed to their departures. And it has raised larger questions about whether Carlson is serious about his promise of a publication that may approach stories with a conservative point of view, but is dedicated to reporting them out with the same rigor as the New York Times.
The EPA story was published in September and ended up as a Drudge-linked and Fox-fueled viral hit cited by members of Congress. The agency, wrote Matthew Boyle, was ?asking taxpayers to shoulder the burden? of hiring ?up to 230,000 bureaucrats? to regulate greenhouse gas emissions through the Clean Air Act at a cost of $21 billion.
The figures came from an EPA brief which argued that this costly regulatory burden could in fact be avoided by allowing the agency to enact a ?tailoring rule? that would enable it to regulate big polluters first, rather than everybody at once.
But the report mentioned nothing of the tailoring rule, prompting the EPA to denounce the article as ?comically wrong? and PolitiFact to rate the article?s central claim, repeated by Rep. Allen West, as ?false.? Rather than run a correction, Martosko pushed back:
?The EPA is well-known for expanding its reach, especially regarding greenhouse gas emissions. What?s ?comically wrong? is the idea that half of Washington won?t admit it,? he said, adding, ?The suggestion that the EPA ? this EPA in particular ? is going to court to limit its own growth is the funniest thing I?ve seen since Nancy Grace?s nipple-slip.?
For those engaged in the political battles over the work of groups like the Humane Society of the United States and PETA over the years, Martosko?s response had a familiar ring - clear, forceful and dripping with sarcasm.
walter isaacson zodiac killer battlefield 3 review battlefield 3 review real housewives of new jersey coraline coraline
No comments:
Post a Comment