Meida Matters: Who Tried To Smear Jane Mayer? (Re: Koch Brothers Article)

[Hissyspit]

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201101140021

Who Tried To Smear Jane Mayer?
January 14, 2011 11:46 am ET by Joe Strupp

Someone has engaged in an organized effort to smear the reputation and credibility of Jane Mayer, a prize-winning journalist at The New Yorker, according to a New York Post reporter's published accounts and his subsequent statements to Media Matters.

Last week, the New York Post's Keith Kelly reported that The Daily Caller, a right-wing news site run by Tucker Carlson, had spent "several weeks" pursuing false allegations that Mayer had committed plagiarism in at least two articles. One of the allegations involved Mayer's landmark expose about Charles and David Koch -- billionaire brothers who have funded conservative organizations tied to the Tea Party movement.

Kelly tells Media Matters that the plagiarism charges were also pitched to the Post, apparently by a different source than the one that tipped off the Daily Caller. The Post investigated and ultimately reported that the allegations were untrue.

After first saying that the plagiarism story would result in an "extensive piece," The Daily Caller ultimately told both Kelly and The New Yorker that the article had been spiked.

Kelly has reported that "the person or persons behind the allegations remains a shadowy mystery," and both Carlson and Daily Caller reporter Jonathan Strong have declined to identify the original source of the smear.

The Daily Caller has significant ties to the Koch brothers and to the business they run: Koch Industries.

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[gratuitous]

1. Carlson won't snitch

If he does, the checks stop coming, and that would be horrible for poor Tucker.

[suffragette]

2. K&R

[xchrom]

3. recommend