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Politico and Transparency

Glenn Greenwald (Salon): Who funds and runs the Politico? So the President and CEO of The Politico worked in multiple positions in the Reagan White House, and was continuously promoted until he rose to the level of Assistant to the President. And his close connection to the Reagan family and the Reagan presidency continues through today. Are we supposed to treat this fact as irrelevant or something when assessing what The Politico is and what type of political coverage it churns out?

This certainly came as news to me as well. And it’s absolutely, plainly relevant for readers.

How does this differ from the Republican leanings of Dean SIngleton, whose company now owns a vast number of newspapers in America? The difference is that the sole coverage area of the Politico is politics. Suppose General Motors bought the Detroit News and Free Press.

The Politico has, it seems to me, shown a somewhat rightward tilt. That’s fine, but the site should also be practicing a bit more transparency.

4 Comments on “Politico and Transparency”

  1. #1 Andrew Glass
    on May 5th, 2007 at 11:39 am

    Dan,

    I have yet to detect any political pressure. I have also found that is more fun to report than to comment — or what we once called bloviating.

    – Andy

  2. #2 Dan Gillmor
    on May 5th, 2007 at 2:21 pm

    Andy, glad to hear it. I trust it’ll stay that way.

  3. #3 Delia
    on May 5th, 2007 at 7:39 pm

    Dan,

    Does that really answer your concern? (it doesn’t seem that it would) I mean, trust is a great thing but being able to see what’s going on is even better! It seems to me that… they *still* need to become more transparent… (whether or not Andrew Glass detects any political pressure… yet…)

    Delia

  4. #4 Dan Gillmor
    on May 6th, 2007 at 3:21 pm

    Delia, I’ve known Andy for a long time, and believe him. But of course, I still think there needs to be more transparency.