International Business Times fails to disclose reporter's ties to Bernie Sanders

[George II]

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/international-business-times-fails-to-disclose-reporters-ties-to-bernie-sanders/article/2569058

International Business Times fails to disclose reporter's ties to Bernie Sanders

By EDDIE SCARRY • 7/28/15 12:01 AM

David Sirota, an aggressive politics reporter for the International Business Times, is a former aide to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, but the Times is not disclosing that, even in stories that are critical of Sanders' chief rival, Hillary Clinton.

Since Clinton launched her campaign in mid-April, Sirota has written or co-written at least 11 stories for the Times that questioned the ethics of Clinton's behavior as secretary of State or the dealings of her nonprofit Clinton Foundation.

One of Sirota's biggest stories was one from May that attempted to connect foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation to preferential treatment by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is now a Democratic presidential candidate. It said former President Bill Clinton was paid handsomely to deliver a speech in Washington, D.C., in 2011 and that some of the world leaders who attended had donated to the Clinton Foundation.

Past stories by Sirota, 39, include the headlines, "Firms Paid Bill Clinton Millions As They Lobbied Hillary Clinton," "Clinton Family Continues Raking In Personal Cash From Firms That Lobbied Hillary Clinton's State Department" and "Clintons And Foundation Raked In Cash From Banks That Admitted Wrongdoing."

___________________________________________

I wonder if he has anything to do with the NYT "reporter" who published that fake hit piece on the non-existent "criminal investigation"?

[NCTraveler]

1. Gutierrez, one of our progressive leaders on immigration reform,.....

was thoroughly trashed here by many for his foolish comments. Opposition research was done on him by a member here in order to completely discredit a Clinton surrogate, his progressive accomplishments, and a leading progressive voice almost across the board. What he did was foolish. This surrogate appears to be flat out sinister. Lets see how the same people react. The opposition research poster is on a time-out, kind of. But they had enormous support in their opposition to a leading progressive in the Latino community.

[fbc]

2. But those headlines are true

"Firms Paid Bill Clinton Millions As They Lobbied Hillary Clinton" - this happened
"Clinton Family Continues Raking In Personal Cash From Firms That Lobbied Hillary Clinton's State Department" - this happened
"Clintons And Foundation Raked In Cash From Banks That Admitted Wrongdoing." - this happened

[George II]

4. Welcome to DU

[Snotcicles]

7. Not very timely. A sincere welcome would have been nicer. nt

[bahrbearian]

21. Its like when Sid Dithers welcomes some one, its never sincere.

[Snotcicles]

23. For some insults are for standard fare. nt

[beam me up scottie]

31. You're not sid.

Maybe you should stop insulting other posters and concentrate on defending your ridiculous op.

[msanthrope]

32. how do you know that's not sid? nt

[beam me up scottie]

33. Sid's better at it.

[Number23]

45. Are you allowed to question these people or their motives, msanthrope?

I wouldn't want you to get into trouble or anything. These folks seem so constantly enraged, and so perpetually up in arms about absolutely every damned thing and absolutely nothing at the same time that I think it's best to just let them be.

The self-immolation has to reached its zenith at some point. I don't want to see you get hurt in the blast.

[msanthrope]

46. I believe we predicted some spectacular flameouts were going to happen......

So far I'm just sitting back laughing and pointing......

hell yes we can question....... in a circular firing squad very little shrapnel falls backwards.

[Number23]

47. I honestly don't know what worse. The white hot rage that swallows some people's

every single solitary post to anyone who dares to disagree with them about anything or the fact that posters here who have said some of the nastiest, most ignorant shit to the few remaining posters of color were all in Pitt's LATEST "fare thee well" post hollering about how "right wing" DU is now.

Yeah, we predicted some epic flameouts and some have already come to pass. But I wouldn't be surprised if the next flame out was Skinner's. The rage combined with the political and historical ignorance on display here every second of every day have drowned out whatever entertainment value the place still had. He's gotta be looking at the joint and wondering if it's still worth it.

[msanthrope]

48. I actually think we are at the start of a great purge......

I didn'.....t think it would come so early in the primary season....... but I think there are a great many Bernie supporters who are absolutely aghast at the conduct of a few here.

ask for Skinner...... I think he shows great patience with us all. I also think that if he thought this site was truly not helping the Democratic Party at all he would shut it down. I think great changes are going to come over the next 3 months.

[fbc]

36. Excluding people that don't like Hillary Clinton would be bad business

Haven't you seen the favorability ratings? If any employer doesn't hire people because they don't like Hillary Clinton, their employee candidate pool would dry up quickly. They would be excluding well more than half of the country.

[LiberalAndProud]

3. You say that like it was a big secret or something.

We used to like Sirota around here.

[dsc]

9. I, for one, had no idea he had worked for Sanders

that is a quite relevant piece of info that should have been front and center in any article written by him about any candidate in this race. Imagine the outrage if one of Clinton's former staffers were writing negative pieces about Sanders and no one said he or she was a Clinton staffer when they printed or quoted them.

[Capt. Obvious]

10. Wiki would have informed you

Later he moved to Washington, D.C. and worked in the political department of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).[5] His next job was as press aide and then spokesperson for Bernie Sanders, the independent at-large U.S. Representative from Vermont who describes himself as a "democratic socialist".[1][4][6]

[dsc]

19. the fact it is in Wiki isn't good enough

but the fact it is on his bio page which is linked to his articles is. I still think it would have been better if once he announced each story get a direct spelling out of his role with Sanders, but having it on the bio page is reasonable and those interested in checking the backround of him could do so.

[Luminous Animal]

34. It is in his bio on the IBT website. Just click on his name on any article that includes his byline

and there you go... worked for Sanders.

http://www.ibtimes.com/reporters/david-sirota

[Capt. Obvious]

5. Washington Examiner, eh?

[NCTraveler]

6. Appears it was a very close relationship.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2007/02/sirota_journalist_or_activist.html

I take it the Washington Post is acceptable considering posters are using a outlet they themselves have recently defined as the National Enquirer. Seems nothing is off limits anymore.

What does appear real is the very close connection between these Sanders and Sirota.

[Snotcicles]

8. Strawman. nt

[stevenleser]

35. Really, whose statement did this change into something else? Nt

[BooScout]

11. Sirota's hatred of HRC goes back a long time....

So does his ties to Bernie Sanders....you know, the man who pledged not to do negative campaigning. How noble that he has his political operators and supporters do it for him.

[virtualobserver]

53. yes, the vast Sanders-wing conspiracy n/t

[hootinholler]

12. So the examiner thinks that Sirota should have disclosed that he was Sanders' press secretary

years ago, which is no secret, it's on his Bio page, for an article that was written before Bernie announced he was running?

Ok, I guess.

[George II]

16. That's not on the IBT website.

[Capt. Obvious]

20. LOL

Click on his name.

[dsc]

22. the link in his post isn't on that website

and you didn't bring up the page on the website in your response to me either. Yes, they do have a bio page on the website and that is good enough but it wasn't linked in the post being replied to in the post you replied to.

[Capt. Obvious]

25. Yes, because I never clicked on the OP's link

until his comment that I replied to. That piece hypes the article a took a screen cap of.


I did that because you tipped me off that his bio is there.

Thanks for the tip.

[djean111]

13. Was anything Sirota wrote untrue? If asked if he knew Bernie, would he lie and say

he was not sure who Bernie is?

Like “We’ve got the socialist, uh I can’t remember his name. Bernie Sanders,” Gutierrez said. “I don’t know if he likes immigrants because he doesn’t seem to talk about immigrants. But sooner or later, he’ll tell us. I hope he likes immigrants. I haven’t heard him say anything. He’s been kind of quiet and silent."
This from a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which Bernie helped found and still, of course, belongs to.

[ibegurpard]

14. any of these pieces false?

He's not under any obligation to prop up Clinton...now if he's lying about her that's a different story.

[LiberalAndProud]

15. Also, it's not true. From IBT:

David Sirota

David Sirota is International Business Times' senior editor for investigations. He is also a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and a bestselling author. He lives in Denver, Colorado and covers the intersection of money, politics and finance. He appears periodically on national television shows and has been published in (among others) The New York Times Magazine, Politico, The Atlantic, Harper’s, Wired.com, Vice and Salon.com. He also has served as a journalist and consultant on documentaries for CNN and The National Geographic Channel. In 2014, he was the winner of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers' investigative journalism award, and the winner of the Izzy Award for Journalism from Ithaca College's Park Center for Independent Media. He was also a finalist for UCLA's Gerald R. Loeb Award and Syracuse University's Mirror Award. Before becoming a journalist in 2006, Sirota worked in Washington for, among others, U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee Minority Staff and the Center for American Progress. He also worked on political campaigns. For Sirota's full biography, go to DavidSirota.com.

http://www.ibtimes.com/reporters/david-sirota

Emphasis is mine.

[arcane1]

18. Way to ruin a perfectly lame guilt-by-association attempt.

They've run out of things to invent against Sanders himself, so now they're going after his friends.

Proof that he is doing something right!!

[whatchamacallit]

17. Lol n/t

[Comrade Grumpy]

24. You could write an angry letter to the International Business Times. n/t

[Luminous Animal]

26. Journiatic ethics say he should disclose but not doing so

does not mean his reporting is inaccurate.

[LWolf]

27. I guess that depends on what it means to "disclose."

His background as press secretary for Sanders is public record and can be found within a second or two from a variety of easily accessed sources.

Here is what the IBT says about Sirota:

David Sirota is International Business Times' senior editor for investigations. He is also a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and a bestselling author. He lives in Denver, Colorado and covers the intersection of money, politics and finance. He appears periodically on national television shows and has been published in (among others) The New York Times Magazine, Politico, The Atlantic, Harper’s, Wired.com, Vice and Salon.com. He also has served as a journalist and consultant on documentaries for CNN and The National Geographic Channel. In 2014, he was the winner of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers' investigative journalism award, and the winner of the Izzy Award for Journalism from Ithaca College's Park Center for Independent Media. He was also a finalist for UCLA's Gerald R. Loeb Award and Syracuse University's Mirror Award. Before becoming a journalist in 2006, Sirota worked in Washington for, among others, U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee Minority Staff and the Center for American Progress. He also worked on political campaigns. For Sirota's full biography, go to DavidSirota.com.

http://www.ibtimes.com/reporters/david-sirota

That's a live link to Sirota's website; the biography page there says this:

Before becoming a full-time journalist in 2006, Sirota was a political strategist serving as a senior campaign aide to Gov. Brian Schweitzer, Montana’s first Democratic governor in 16 years; a campaign adviser to Connecticut’s antiwar icon Ned Lamont, who defeated Sen. Joe Lieberman in the 2006 Democratic primary; and the press secretary for Vermont Congressman Bernard Sanders, the longest-serving independent in congressional history. He also worked at the Center for American Progress.

http://davidsirota.com/biography/

Sirota's been critical of Clinton for years. Long before Sanders decided to run for president, he's been a public critic.

In his 2008 book The Uprising he talks about her "corruption and capitulation." That's on page 136.

https://books.google.com/books?id=7sO2YgyCuvIC&pg=PA136&dq=the+uprising+sirota+hillary+clinton&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAGoVChMI9tXmh93-xgIVyZuICh0oFw3Z#v=onepage&q=the%20uprising%20sirota%20hillary%20clinton&f=false

Also in '08, he said this, talking about whether or not Obama should choose Clinton as a running mate; interestingly enough, this is remarkably applicable to the current primary:

The conventional reason why Clinton shouldn't be on the ticket is a purely political one — the theory goes that because she is so despised by Republicans, her name on the ticket could help John McCain consolidate the GOP base behind his candidacy. Little discussed is the fact that putting Clinton on the ticket could directly undermine the mandate of the party's primary: the rejection not of Hillary Clinton, but of Clintonism itself.

Clinton backers have long said Clintonism is all about moderation, negotiation and smart positioning in the face of Republican extremism. But it really is the politics of capitulation, triangulation and obfuscation in the face of money and power.

Bill Clinton spent his time in the White House working with Republicans to champion trade, telecommunications and financial deregulation — destructive policies specifically crafted to boost corporate profits at the expense of ordinary workers. As a key Clinton administration player, Hillary Clinton promoted many of these policies, and as a senator she has backed abominations like the credit card industry-written bankruptcy bill and the war in Iraq.

After realizing that the Democratic primary would be a battle and not a coronation, Clinton desperately tried to obscure this record. The saber-rattling lawmaker who helped lead the country into war presented herself as a steadfast critic of it; the first lady who gave speeches backing NAFTA claimed she never supported it; the senator gracing Fortune magazine's cover suddenly tried to be a Huey Long populist.


With such a clear line from Reaganism to Clintonism to our current national security and economic crises, it was too little too late.

http://www.creators.com/opinion/david-sirota/an-anti-clinton-for-vp.html

[beam me up scottie]

30. ^^^this^^^

[Armstead]

28. Ummmmm....He also worked for the Clinton aligned Center for American Progress

Nothing necessarily wrong with that, but it does refute the concept of getting in high dudgeon over his past association with Sanders.


From Wikipedia:

The president and chief executive officer of CAP is Neera Tanden, who worked for the Obama and Clinton administrations and for Hillary Clinton’s campaigns.[5] The first president and CEO was John Podesta, who served as chief of staff to then U.S. President Bill Clinton. Podesta remained with the organization as chairman of the board until he joined the Obama White House staff in December 2013. Tom Daschle is the current chairman.

The Center for American Progress runs a campus outreach group, Generation Progress, and a sister advocacy organization, the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Citing Podesta's influence in the formation of the Obama Administration, a November 2008 article in Time stated that "not since the Heritage Foundation helped guide Ronald Reagan's transition in 1981 has a single outside group held so much sway".[6]

[beam me up scottie]

29. You like the Washington Examiner, George? How about posting these articles?:

Usual Clinton tactics won't fix Hillary's new mess

Hillary Clinton's big paydays from Goldman Sachs

Hillary Clinton: The candidate of meh

Now Chafee rips Hillary: 'Lapses of judgment' on email, Foundation fundraising


You constantly accuse others of posting right wing hit pieces here, why are you such a hypocrite?

[beam me up scottie]

37. Hello?

Where did you go, George?

[Evergreen Emerald]

38. I have to laugh at these responses

So dismissive of the story.

Take off your Bernie colored glasses for one minute and tell me that if it were Hillary instead of Bernie, you would not all be apoplectic in your disgust.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

39. The headline is a lie. Why shouldn't I be dismissive?

[beam me up scottie]

40. What we're "dismissive" of is the op citing a rw hit piece after complaining about rw hit pieces.

That and the fact that he didn't even bother to check on the accuracy of the article.

Plus he abandoned his thread when he realized how ridiculous it was.

And the cherry on top was all the recs it got from people who complain about rw hit pieces when they're about Hillary.


We're laughing right along with you, dude, just not for the same reason.

[Evergreen Emerald]

42. I will make a deal with you

I will stop laughing at the hypocrisy if you stop posting RW hit pieces against Clinton.

[beam me up scottie]

50. 1.) I never posted any rw hit pieces on Hillary.

2.) EVERY article critical of Hillary is a "rw hit piece" according to her fan club (including one from Mother Jones - yes someone actually called it that).

So the only hypocrites here are HC supporters.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

41. How to expose a right wing lie in 4 easy steps

1. Click on George II's link that takes you to the right wing website of the Washington Examiner.
2. In the 3rd paragraph of the smear piece, click on the link that takes you to the IBT website.
3. Now you're at the David Sorota article in question. Click David Sorota's name.
4. Read the part about Sirota previously working for Bernie Sanders.

Optional step 5: find the right winger who tried to sell you this bill of goods and let him know you're not nearly as stupid as the target audience he's looking for.

[AtomicKitten]

44. Cut to the chase. I like the cut of your jib.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

51. Well, thanks.

At the risk of sounding "me-too-ish", I've always liked your posts. See you on the front lines.

[Armstead]

49. Step 6 - Note that Sirota also worked for the Clinton-connected Center for American Progress..

...for a while. But ignore that inconvenient truth

[Cheese Sandwich]

52. LOL Thanks that was easy

[beam me up scottie]

54. Nicely done!

Some of Hillary's supporters don't know a rw hit piece from a Mother Jones article.

Literally.

[Agony]

43. OMFG! OMFG! OMFG!

In other news…

Manuel Zelaya wants to know why SoS Clinton was so indecisive about the coup in Hondouras?