A decade of failing to persuade the New York Times to pay attention to Leonard Leo

[Nevilledog]

https://medium.com/@thcarter123/the-old-gray-lady-aint-what-she-used-to-be-a-decade-of-failing-to-persuade-the-new-york-times-to-8c3ab0dcea5e

Robert Draper, award winning NYT reporter, was my Capitol Hill neighbor. He’d walk his dog Bill, a friendly black mutt, past my house almost daily. I’m usually outside doing yard work and Draper often stopped to talk, before Bill moved on to another bush or hydrant.

One day spring day in 2012, Draper was wearing a “Daily Show” baseball cap. “Where did you get that,” I asked. He said it was swag from a recent Jon Stewart appearance.

I was impressed. “Daily Show? Really? Who the fvck are you?”

DC journalism royalty, as it turns out. Originally from Texas, Draper had written a history of Rolling Stone magazine, a book on the Bush years and more recently, “Do Not Ask What We Do: Inside the US House of Representatives.” It was that book he was on “The Daily Show” promoting.

I had retired a few months earlier and had my own connections to conservative DC. I spent 25 years as a print reporter on the foreign desk of the Washington Times (1983–2008), a year as media director at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and then three years as a federal government pr flack (2009–2012) for the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

Heading up USCIRF was a pudgy little lobbyist for the Federalist Society — a GOP political appointee and my de facto boss: Leonard Leo.

*snip*

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

[BoRaGard]

2. The Times is failing

it's just a big bloated corporate pr machine at this point.

[MOMFUDSKI]

3. Times has become

a rethug rag

[MerryBlooms]

4. r&k Excellent read.

[shrike3]

5. I take issue with the notion that Catholics are (always) taboo.

Catholic clergy certainly are not. The days of harassment over reporting on pedophile priests are long gone. Reporting of that sort is everywhere. Times has done a lot of it. Seems to be a certain slice of Catholics that is taboo: Catholics with money, right-wing Catholics with money. They are indeed a frightening group. Among the greatest threats to our liberty.

I worked in media, and journo types are for the most part irreligious. A relative of mine, clergy, did an interview and remarked to me that the journo knew absolutely nothing about religion. "Why is he a religion reporter when he knows nothing about it?" I said that journos are always given subjects they know nothing about. They're expected to learn on the job.

This story includes a link to another story on efforts to canonize Leo's daughter. Lord.

[JT45242]

11. Still taboo to go after cardinals for the cover up

If you ever suggest that higher ups be held accountable, there is hell to pay.

Ok to expose an underling priest but never the enablers and people responsible for the cover ups.

[shrike3]

14. I've read lots of coverage over the years.

There are articles on the institutional church but not on groups like the federalist society. Vanity Fair did a great expose on far-right Catholic kooks, but not on the institutional damage wrought by Leo and company. Kooks are far more entertaining, but the institutional damage is far reaching and affects us all.

I will admit Mr. Carter's background gave me pause. He spent years at the Washington Times, deeply conservative and owned by the Moonies. I guess anyone can see the light.

[Mister Ed]

6. Thank you. I recommend everyone read the linked article start-to-finish. n/t

[rubbersole]

7. Excellent read. Mandatory, actually.

Leo is the most powerful man in DC. Thanks for posting.

[NoMoreRepugs]

8. ND - cannot thank you enough for posting this - fascinating background on

why some of what is - IS.

[czarjak]

9. JBS has been around more than a decade.

[Pompoy]

10. Wow. what a read

[SleeplessinSoCal]

12. What happens when Leo's network is investigated.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/23/brian-schwalb-leonard-leo-investigation-00148385

"Allies of Leonard Leo have mounted a monthslong offensive against the man investigating the judicial activist’s network: Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb.

Since news of the probe broke last August, the GOP chairs of powerful congressional committees launched their own investigation of Schwalb’s investigation; conservative media wrote articles criticizing Schwalb on unrelated crime issues — based on a social media post from a top Leo lieutenant; and a group of his Republican law enforcement peers sent letters warning Schwalb to stand down.... '

[SleeplessinSoCal]

18. wrong place

Moved it.

[PortTack]

13. Creeps like Leo are why the crazies will not just disappear after tsf loses in November

Yes, it will get better but they will relaunch …it’s enough to make one vomit!!

[shrike3]

15. Carter has quite the background.

He spent 25 years at the deeply conservative Washington Times. Worked for the Becket Fund, founded by a friend of Alito's and the plaintiff's counsel in the Hobby Lobby case. I guess anyone can see the light.

[Mersky]

16. K&R!!!

[shrike3]

17. Pro Publica got it done. "We don't talk about Leonard."

https://www.propublica.org/article/we-dont-talk-about-leonard-leo-supreme-court-supermajority

Short and thick-bodied, dressed in a bespoke suit and round, owlish glasses, Leo looked like a character from an Agatha Christie mystery. Unlike the judges in attendance, Leo had never served a day on the bench. Unlike the other lawyers, he had never argued a case in court. He had never held elected office or run a law school. On paper, he was less important than almost all of his guests.

If Americans had heard of Leo at all, it was for his role in building the conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court. He drew up the lists of potential justices that Donald Trump released during the 2016 campaign. He advised Trump on the nominations of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Before that, he’d helped pick or confirm the court’s three other conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, John Roberts and Samuel Alito. But the guests who gathered that night under a tent in Leo’s backyard included key players in a less-understood effort, one aimed at transforming the entire judiciary.

snip


Many could thank Leo for their advancement. Thomas Hardiman of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled to loosen gun laws and overturn Obamacare’s birth-control mandate. Leo had put Hardiman on Trump’s Supreme Court shortlist and helped confirm him to two earlier judgeships. Kyle Duncan and Cory Wilson, both on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, both fiercely anti-abortion, were members of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, the network of conservative and libertarian lawyers that Leo had built into a political juggernaut. As was Florida federal Judge Wendy Berger, who would uphold that state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. Within a year of the party, another attendee, Republican North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Phil Berger Jr. (no relation), would write the opinion reinstating a controversial state law requiring voter identification. (Duncan, Wilson, Berger and Berger Jr. did not comment. Hardiman did not comment beyond confirming he attended the party.)

snip

The judges and the security detail, the law school leadership and the legal theorists — all of this was a vivid display not only of Leo’s power but of his vision. Decades ago, he’d realized it was not enough to have a majority of Supreme Court justices. To undo landmark rulings like Roe, his movement would need to make sure the court heard the right cases brought by the right people and heard by the right lower court judges.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

19. Leonard Leo: just another thin skinned tyrant

Man Arrested For Protesting Outside Federalist Society Chief's House Earns $62.5K Settlement From The Cops

Leonard Leo got a protester arrested. The protester secured the last laugh.

"....Durand-McDonnell called him (Leo) a “fucking asshole” on a public street and that this made his family “distraught.” I dunno, has Leo considered just not being a fucking asshole? That might avoid these situations too.... "

Enjoyable read, considering the asshole at the center of the story

https://abovethelaw.com/2024/05/leonard-leo-protester-settlement/