It’s serendipitous when an old colleague calls one out for teaching him something, and that something is something I had not quite forgotten, but definitely had not been remembering enough of late.
@LibertarianSass Always, always, always ask why the story you're looking at exists. @GerryDales taught me that a decade ago.
— Thomas H. Crown (@ThomasHCrown) February 17, 2015Thanks, Thomas. Blind squirrel, acorn and all that.
We are on day three of a media full-court press on Rudy Giuliani’s comments on Obama’s love of country. We’re at the point where a few journalists are starting to express amazement at how strident the feeding frenzy has been. And without question, the attacks are veering towards Scott Walker. Mark Halperin is merely the latest example of stretching to make an attack. There have been many before.
So, back to the forgotten lesson.
Why is this story out there?
When I ask, I am not talking about the sharks swarming because they smell blood in the water. Sharks are sharks. All they do is eat, swim, and make baby sharks. Similarly, journalists eat, write, and make baby journalists. They are swarming because that’s their nature.
Instead, I am talking about why this story is out there in the first place?
Somewhere, there is someone who was at that event and immediately went to the press with it. Clearly, whoever it was knew how to get the story out, and is likely savvy (eta: sensing the opportunity for a strike is a sign of it). I find it hard to imagine this was a case where someone made a casual aside not knowing it would end up in the news; a casual aside that had fairly specific quotations. No. Someone with an agenda wanted this out there.
Most likely, that would be someone aligned with a campaign who saw an opportunity. Odds say that would be someone who has a large network with the capability of egging a story on behind the scenes. Maybe in a bar, over drinks, just saying, “I agree. This is important.” Who knows?
But make no mistake. A supporter or surrogate of one of the Presidential candidates wanted this story out there.
That should be a story as well. Who threw the chum?
Updated to add: I note the stories do not include a quotation from whoever went to the press here. Fingerprints were avoided.
Another edit: the original post title was "In the Conservatory, With the Candlestick". I changed it because I had gone with a different allusion in the post and thought of one more fitting for it.
