Okay, folks. I have some Thoughts and Opinions this morning, and I’m going to share them.
You know what really pisses me off? When a non-traditional news outlet breaks a major story and the traditional media do one or more of the following:
1. Ignores the story due to partisan agenda.
2. Runs with the story based on the subject’s response to the story.
3. Refers to the story without linking to or giving proper credit to the original outlet/writer who broke it.
2. Runs with the story based on the subject’s response to the story.
3. Refers to the story without linking to or giving proper credit to the original outlet/writer who broke it.
Fun Fact: @jenvanlaar broke a major story. The story is that Rep. Katie Hill of California was involved in multiple affairs while in office, one of them being with a Congressional staffer, which is against the rules.
The story is not Hill’s response to the affairs going public. That is only a part of the larger story that Jen broke. The story is also not the release of the photos, which were given to Jen for the purpose of proving the affairs were real.
Jen, by the way, used excellent judgment in using and censoring SOME of the photos she was given, proving the affairs were real while not posting straight-up revenge porn (there were, as she admitted, even more scandalous ones, so if we wanted to just shame Hill, we would’ve).
It is a news story, it does call into question Hill’s use of power over her staff, and it should be covered by mainstream outlets.
What should not happen, however, is the attempt to effectively write @jenvanlaar out of the history of this scandal. It would not be public, and it would not be as explosive as it is without her. For several outlets, that seems to be the aim.
They are simultaneously trying to write Jen’s and RedState’s role out of the story so they can try to pass it off as original reporting, while also providing cover for Hill by framing it as anything other than what it is: The use of power by a politician for sexual purposes.
It is simply not fair to Jen, who has put in WEEKS of work chasing this story, to write her out of this. The very least some of these outlets can do is link to her original work. Be honest, please. Show people where this came from.
And for God’s sake, don’t act like this is just something you stumbled across and wrote about. I watched the traffic. I watched social media. This exploded quickly. You didn’t just come across some obscure site and chased down your own leads. Jen did the work for you. Admit it.
Those are my Thoughts and Opinions this morning. Have a nice day.
I put all this into a column as well. I had more thoughts. redstate.com/joesquire/2019…
