The story behind the Bennet story

What a total disgrace.  It turns out that the front-page NYT story on Michael Bennet's supposed mistakes on a bond deal for the Denver Public Schools when he was superintendent is riddled with errors and was planted by a fervent supporter of Bennet's primary opponent, a fact that wasn't disclosed in the story even though she was quoted.

 

A day after Gretchen Morgenson's 3,000-word story in the New York Times questioned Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet's financial stewardship of the Denver Public Schools when he was its superintendent, the story's key source went on the record in the local press saying she had pitched the story to Morgenson.

What Morgenson didn't report, but the Denver Post pointed out, was that the source, Jeannie Kaplan, was a well-known supporter of and fundraiser for Bennet's opponent in Tuesday's Democratic Senate primary, Andrew Romanoff.

That omission, along with several financial conclusions drawn in the piece, prompted vociferous complaints from the Bennet campaign, which put out a factsheet pushing back against the piece. Current DPS superintendent Tom Boasberg flew back from his vacation on Friday to rebut the article.

"The person she is quoting was politically motivated," said Adrianne Marsh, Bennet's deputy campaign manager. "This person is a supporter of Andrew Romanoff who has contributed to his campaign. It's astonishing that none of that was disclosed."

The outcry put the Times on the defensive, and forced it to issue a two-part correction on Monday. Part of the correction included noting Kaplan's fundraising activities for Romanoff.

 

I usually enjoy Morgenson's writings, but on occasion she's fed a story by someone with an agenda and writes a hatchet job – I rebutted one of her stories two years ago here: http://seekingalpha.com/article/80311-fairfax-financial-anatomy-of-a-hatchet-job

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The story behind the Bennet story
By: Keach Hagey
August 9, 2010 09:10 PM EDT

www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/40857.html