missing text image: sites/all/themes/obs_2007/img/reply.gif
Mr. Dictaphone (not verified) says:

Koblin reports above "William Rashbaum, a reporter of the old school whose outgoing message refers telephone callers to a pager number, got a tip. The nine-year veteran of the paper’s courts and investigations desks was holding a complaint detailing the arrest of four people associated with a prostitution ring; information in the documents told the story of a john in Room 871 at a hotel somewhere in Washington.

They knew from the tip that Client 9, as the court documents called him, was a “New York official,” one source familiar with the investigation said."

But did anybody at The Times vet the source of the "tip" to determine the purpose of leaking the information to the New York Times? Isn't it obvious that the leak was intended to bring down Eliot Spitzer? And isn't that a central aspect of the story? I'm sorry, but here we go again. Remember Judith Miller taking dictation? And going to jail to "protect her sources", or something? Was Rashburn suspicious of motive? Was anyone at The Times? Or was this an unnecessary rush to publish by telling would could very well be half the story?

Reply

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd><br> <p> <i> <b> <embed> <img> <blockquote> <span> <strikethrough> <u>
  • Use <!--pagebreak--> to create page breaks.

More information about formatting options

By checking this box you are giving permission for Observer staff to contact you to obtain contact information and permissions required for publication.