The Press slims Senator Dan Coats
Remember the story "[U.S. Sen. Dan] Coats lobbied for Chavez-connected oil company." It seemed pretty devastating for Coats who is looking to challenge Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.). The news stories that covered this initial report by Politico were devastating. Well, guess what? The oil company hired Coats' firm because it was trying to get its assets back from Chavez's government AFTER THEY HAD BEEN NATIONALIZED. It might be interesting to know who Mr. Glenn Thrush contacted before he wrote the story. Did he contact Harvest Natural Resources, which is the firm that had these "connections" with Chavez? Did he contact King & Spaulding, the firm that Mr. Coats worked for?
NOTE: I have meet Senator Coats a couple of times and he has always been extremely courteous when I talked to him. Beyond that I have no personal knowledge of the man, but it would be interesting to see what checking Mr. Thrush did before going with his story. Thrush's piece doesn't mention talking to either the Harvest to the consulting firm before running the story.
UPDATE: Mr. Thrush's response in the comment section makes it clear that he asked Mr. Coats' office about the claim. My concern is that it isn't surprising that with a new campaign it would take a little while to get things in gear. With such an explosive claim it would have been useful to have checked with one of the other sources, either the firm that hired the consulting firm or King & Spaulding. As I wrote: "Did he contact Harvest Natural Resources, which is the firm that had these "connections" with Chavez? Did he contact King & Spaulding, the firm that Mr. Coats worked for?"
NOTE: I have meet Senator Coats a couple of times and he has always been extremely courteous when I talked to him. Beyond that I have no personal knowledge of the man, but it would be interesting to see what checking Mr. Thrush did before going with his story. Thrush's piece doesn't mention talking to either the Harvest to the consulting firm before running the story.
UPDATE: Mr. Thrush's response in the comment section makes it clear that he asked Mr. Coats' office about the claim. My concern is that it isn't surprising that with a new campaign it would take a little while to get things in gear. With such an explosive claim it would have been useful to have checked with one of the other sources, either the firm that hired the consulting firm or King & Spaulding. As I wrote: "Did he contact Harvest Natural Resources, which is the firm that had these "connections" with Chavez? Did he contact King & Spaulding, the firm that Mr. Coats worked for?"
Labels: mediabias
posted by John Lott at 11:23 PM
1 Comments:
From Glenn Thrush: Before filing the post, I contacted Coats' office and told them I was publishing the story within the next two hours. I also contacted the NRSC because Coats had no official spokesman. I received no response for several days from either. Then Coats' flack said he would get me answer. He never did. On Thursday -- a week after my initial request for comment-- they put out a press release with an attack. Did you try calling me, instead of just wondering who I am? My email is listed on my blog, so it's not that hard to reach out.
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