RNC Chair McDaniel: Democrat convention was a 'masterpiece in fiction'
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel reacts to Joe Biden's nomination acceptance speech at the Democrat National Convention.
A Politico reporter declared that Republican National Committee chair Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel is “so dishonest and so untrustworthy” that she doesn’t deserve to comment on a story that mentioned her by name 18 times.
The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple first reported an email exchange between Politico chief political correspondent Tim Alberta and the RNC that has since been confirmed by Fox News. The exchange occurred after Politico Magazine published a lengthy feature headlined, “The Inside Story of Michigan’s Fake Voter Fraud Scandal” that didn’t include the common journalistic practice of seeking comment from the subject of a report.
“Alberta packed a lot into his sizzling Nov. 24 feature. … There’s a tight narration of the Trump campaign’s destructive effort to undo the Michigan vote, strong writing about the central characters in this drama and bluntness about the bad faith behind all the maneuvers,” Wemple wrote. “One thing was missing from the presentation, however: A comment from McDaniel and the Republican National Committee, which she chairs. The problem wasn’t that McDaniel declined to provide one; it was that Alberta didn’t seek one.”
RNC communications director Michael Ahrens didn’t appreciate Politico not seeking comment and sent the following email to Alberta: “Is there a lot more editorial leeway granted with magazine pieces that allows you to write at length about someone and not reach out to them at all before publishing? Haven’t run into this before with Politico, or many other mainstream outlets to be honest, but wanted to check.”
Alberta fired back, “Our editorial standards are fairly uniform across mediums/verticals. 99.9% of the time, I will request comment from a principal or organization I’m writing about. However, there are extremely rare instances when the person/entity has proven so dishonest and so untrustworthy that I feel no obligation to provide them a platform from which to deceive the public. Sadly, that is the case with Chairwoman McDaniel and her staff at the RNC.”
The Politico reporter then told Ahrens that he would “review” any comment the RNC wanted to pass along about the piece. Wemple, who covers media for the liberal Washington Post, said Alberta deserves credit for his consistency.
“Both his story and his email attack McDaniel and her organization for dishonesty,” Wemple wrote.
Ahrens then emailed a group of prominent Politico staffers and essentially mocked Alberta by informing his colleagues of “Politico's new editorial standards” when dealing with the RNC.
“Since my colleagues and I have worked rather closely with you all over the last few years, wanted to make you aware of Politico's new editorial standards with regards to the RNC, the chair, and all of our staff. My understanding is that these would now apply to your coverage, as well,” Ahrens wrote. “If this is incorrect, please let me know.”
Eventually, Politico editor-in-chief Matthews Kaminski responded to Ahrens to defend his reporter.
“Tim's magazine story is based on deep reporting on both sides of the aisle in Michigan the past few weeks and draws on years of reporting on the GOP and of course Michigan too. His relationship with Ronna McDaniel goes back most of the past decade. Tim’s credibility on this piece and in general is beyond question,” Kaminski wrote.
“I won't get into our editorial processes with you or anyone else except to say that we stand by every word of the piece. Let’s also dispense with this nonsense about our ‘changing standards.’ I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you know the answer,” Kaminski added. “If you or McDaniel wish to reply to the piece or submit an oped on this or another topic, we’d be happy to consider it.”
The RNC told the Post that if Politico bothered to reach out, it would have attempted to clarify “factual inaccuracies” that made it into the published piece.
“Whether you agree with who you are covering or not, the basic standards of journalism should still apply. I have never heard of a news organization taking the position that they are ‘beyond question’ and therefore do not need to reach out to the people they cover,” Ahren told Wemple.
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Meanwhile, Politico continued to defend its story when reached by Fox News.
“It is a deeply sourced article that not only makes clear the position of the national GOP, but reflects the views of a number Republicans close to the RNC whom Tim spoke with in reporting out the story. The Republican National Committee was offered an opportunity to reply to the story or to submit an op/ed from Chairwoman McDaniel on this or any other topic. Politico stands by the story and encourages people to read it for themselves and form their own opinion,” Politico spokesperson Brad Dayspring told Fox News.
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