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.@WashingtonPost asserts, without evidence, that @RepMaxineWaters is the scourge of Wall Street washex.am/2Hemv3a
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is set to head the House Financial Services Committee. It’s a big move, one that deserves careful scrutiny, especially considering the congresswoman's family continues to benefit directly from her proximity to power.
But if you were hoping to learn more about the incoming chairwoman's history of dubious ethics and backroom dealings, you would be better served reading anything but the Washington Post.
WaPo managed somehow to omit all mentions of the congresswoman’s spotty background in its coverage this week of her new role. The congresswoman owes the Post a gift basket.
"Maxine Waters takes the reins of a powerful House committee. Wall Street is nervous,” reads the Post's headline.
It's her dream headline. It's also totally unsupported by the facts.
It's her dream headline. It's also totally unsupported by the facts.
The closest the story comes to demonstrating the financial sector is “nervous” about Waters' chairmanship is when it quotes a D.C.-based policy analyst: “I don’t want to be the next financial institution to mess up. We will have big bank CEOs raising their right hand a lot more.”
The Post’s attempt to characterize Waters as a get-tough regulator hinges, amazingly, on praise by a banker, former Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who is currently a director at a bank.
More amazingly, Frank rather infamously steered $12 million in federal bailout funds to a now-defunct Boston bank where Waters held stock and her husband was a board member.
Readers might have appreciated a reminder that Waters was charged in 2010 with violations of House ethics after it was discovered she was involved in ensuring $12M in fed bailout funds were directed to a bank in which she & her husband held professional & financial interests.
The Post didn't mention this. It didn't even mention that Barney Frank was involved in the incident. The does quote Frank as saying Waters will be so tough and thorough on Wall Street. So there's that.
In other words, this isn’t new reporting. It's public relations. Democracy dies in darkness indeed.
