Washington Post: "Sirota's undisclosed connection to Sanders is a breach of journalistic ethics"

[Talking Tom]

Washington Post (March 20, 3019):

Sirota’s undisclosed connection to Sanders is a breach of journalistic ethics. The basic rule is that journalists are supposed to be free of any personal or financial relationship with those they cover or comment on, even an “informal” relationship, as Sanders’s campaign has described Sirota’s pre-hiring role. Alternatively, reporters are obligated to at least disclose such relationships so that readers or viewers can evaluate the integrity of the reporting for themselves.

Sirota, 43, not only didn’t mention his relationship with Sanders’ campaign but apparently sought to erase his long history of attacks against Sanders’ opponents. Just hours before his hiring by Sanders was announced, Sirota deleted about 20,000 or so of his tweets. He suggested that the timing of the mass deletion was coincidental, telling the Atlantic that his account was scrubbed by an “autodeleter” that periodically and automatically removes his posts.

It remains unclear how long Sirota advised the Sanders camp before his hiring. Neither Sirota nor Sanders’ representatives responded to multiple requests for comment on Wednesday.

Sirota’s vitriolic tweets and blog posts also appear to be at odds with the ethos of the Sanders’ campaign, which has stressed that it will “respectfully engage” other Democratic candidates. His hiring as a speechwriter also appears to be an acknowledgment that Sanders, whose extemporaneous public remarks have been a sign of his authenticity, will at times be scripted like other politicians.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/a-bernie-sanders-supporter-and-journalist-had-a-secret-he-kept-from-his-readers/2019/03/20/063aabee-4b26-11e9-b79a-961983b7e0cd_story.html

[Cha]

1. Sure As Hell Is.

[R B Garr]

3. It sure as hell is, Cha, which makes it disqualifying.

Such vile lies about our candidadates belong with the GOP.

[Cha]

9. If BS' "message" is so great.. why

does he feel the necessity to hire 3rd party "attack dogs".. and one who has breached "journalistic integrity"?

It sounds like he's desperate.. and this early out!

I appreciate the Light is getting Shone on this, tho.

[trueblue2007]

54. I AGREE WITH YOU !!! Maybe the DNC should remove him ..

[stonecutter357]

5. +1000

[RandySF]

2. It's been done before

Fox News

[R B Garr]

4. If they are so anti-Democrat, maybe this isn't a good fit. nt

[stonecutter357]

6. K&R

[Me.]

7. But Is It? Look At Who Was Just Hired As Press Secretary.

"Sirota’s vitriolic tweets and blog posts also appear to be at odds with the ethos of the Sanders’ campaign"

[comradebillyboy]

94. I don't know about that. I think Sirota and Briahna Joy Gray

perfectly represent Bernie's campaign ethos.

[Beakybird]

8. Sanders seems to believe the ends justify the means.

Someone who would hire someone with such little respect for ethics scares me.

[Cha]

10. Let's hope it BackFires on his

"the end justify the means" state of mind.

[Me.]

12. On HIs BackSide?

[Cha]

14. lol.. tried

to find a nice way to say that.

Busted!

Yours is better

[ehrnst]

78. To those who believe that one person is the embodiment of ethics and all that is good and right

there is no questioning.

Especially when that individual does not tolerate any questioning or dissent.

[Cha]

109. Yeah, that's some

scary shite.

[ehrnst]

110. When one is used to everyone thinking in unison, with one voice, behind one leader

any dissent or questions seems like an ATTACK!!!!

Clearly.

[ehrnst]

77. Indeed. (nt)

[SFnomad]

11. Well, Sirota is moving on to a place where ethics have never seem to be an issue

So I'm sure it will be like a homecoming at old home week.

[NurseJackie]

73. Nicely put! (I wish I'd said that!)

[Hortensis]

76. :) That "place" is almost a definition of extremism.

Extremists don't lack principles. Quite the contrary -- they're intensely righteous and know that only they are wise enough to know the truth and that "only we can fix it." For them, there is always an existential crisis that requires them to ignore petty ethics and act ruthlessly for everyone's good.

That's all actually paraphrased from a textbook definition.

Poor Sanders. After a lifetime of greatness wholly unrecognized by his peers, no wonder he's habitually cranky and bad-tempered.

[Politicub]

102. Damn... that's almost a ginsburn!!

Almost...

[dalton99a]

13. Sirota is nothing but a character assassin and a lying sleazebag.

Journalist, my ass

[comradebillyboy]

25. That's why Greenwald hired him. And why Bernie hired him.

[Gothmog]

15. Good article

Link to tweet

A reporter’s undisclosed connection to a political candidate would constitute a breach of journalistic ethics. The basic rule is that journalists are supposed to be free of any personal or financial relationship with those they cover or comment on, even an “informal” relationship. Alternatively, reporters are obligated to at least disclose such relationships so that readers or viewers can evaluate the integrity of the reporting for themselves.

Sirota, 43, not only didn’t mention his relationship with Sanders’s campaign but apparently sought to erase his long history of attacks against Sanders’s opponents, according to the Atlantic. Just hours before his hiring by Sanders was announced, Sirota deleted about 20,000 or so of his tweets. He suggested that the timing of the mass deletion was coincidental, telling the Atlantic that his account was scrubbed by an “autodeleter” that periodically and automatically removes his posts.

It remains unclear how long Sirota advised the Sanders camp before his hiring. Neither Sirota nor Sanders’s representatives responded to multiple requests for comment on Wednesday.

Sirota’s vitriolic tweets and blog posts also appear to be at odds with the ethos of the Sanders’s campaign, which has stressed that it will “respectfully engage” other Democratic candidates. His hiring as a speechwriter also appears to be an acknowledgment that Sanders, whose extemporaneous public remarks have been a sign of his authenticity, will at times be scripted like other politicians.

[dalton99a]

16. "Not engaged in 'some sort of secretive political conspiracy for a particular candidate'"

Last edited Thu Mar 21, 2019, 12:58 AM - Edit history (2)

[mentalslavery]

17. yall like talking to each other lots

im super concerned about this scandal and sure it will sink bernies campaign....

[ucrdem]

18. It might.

Because it raises the question, what else is he hiding? Sirota's secret reflects badly on the whole campaign which relies on the notion that Sanders is a better breed of pol. Well, it seems he isn't.

[mentalslavery]

21. nope...it won't cuz people want healthcare, free college

and don't care about scandals....evidence....trump....

have the best policies....or at least appear to....and you win.....

[R B Garr]

24. Then there is no reason to lie about and kneecap

other Democrats with unethical journalistic relationships. If policy is all people want, then quit the hatchet jobs on good Democrats and just talk about your goodies.

Obviously there is something more to Sanders’ motives.

[mentalslavery]

28. whooooo

[ucrdem]

26. Some will support him through thick or thin, true.

But he needs to expand his base dramatically to win the primaries and would need to expand it again to win the general. The problem there is that voters on board with the scorched-earth approach already have their guy.

[ucrdem]

31. He did well in a few early states when it seemed Hillary was inevitable.

Once it became a race though voters got serious and lined up behind Clinton. I saw it happen in California. Bernie's crowd's were a small fraction of what was reported and he was soundly beaten. And that will happen here again with Kamala and all the other better choices who will be on the ballot.

[ehrnst]

87. Caucus states in particular, where it's not put to a popular vote. (nt)

[CreekDog]

53. you apparently don't even know the answer, because it sure doesn't show Bernie winning those

but maybe you get your info from memes, much as you speak of "data":

Virgin Islands Clinton:87.1% Sanders: 12.9% (result Clinton +74.2)
Puerto Rico Clinton:59.4% Sanders: 37.5% (result Clinton +21.9)
California-- Clinton:53.1% Sanders: 46.0% (result Clinton +7.1)
Montana--- Clinton:44.6% Sanders: 51.0% (result Sanders +6.4)
New Jersey Clinton:63.3% Sanders: 36.7% (result Clinton +26.6)
New Mexico Clinton:51.5% Sanders: 48.5% (result Clinton +3.0)
North Dakota Clinton:25.6% Sanders: 64.2% (result Sanders +38.6)
South Dakota Clinton:51.0% Sanders: 49.0% (result Clinton +2.0)
Wash--D.C. Clinton: 78.7% Sanders: 21.1% (result Clinton +57.6)

[MrsCoffee]

63. Best go find yourself a horse then.

[NurseJackie]

85. Oh my! Where'd they go?

[MrsCoffee]

89. Gonna be a long time before the primaries are over.

You would think some folks would pace themselves.

Maybe he went to find that horse.

[CreekDog]

52. Bernie isn't the only ticket to those things

[MrsCoffee]

64. "or at least appear to"?

SMH.

[yardwork]

68. I felt that was a refreshingly honest observation on Bernie's campaign.

Bernie's campaign so far is more like "to appear" than "to be."

[MrsCoffee]

71. Yep.

[MH1]

103. the only people who want "free college" are those that think they will benefit, and who

don't think they will end up paying for it anyway.

I actually support making it easier for people to get better post-secondary education. But "free college" sounds so simplistic AND expensive that it's a non-starter with a lot of people who aren't the people in my subject line. And that's a lot of people.

"they just want free stuff that we have to pay for" is one of the easiest attacks by older, more conservative people on left-leaning millennials. It isn't helpful to campaign on that being true.

[Cha]

19. That's not the point. The point is...

BS hires 3rd party trolls to run his campaign.

Just more Divisive crap from mr.. "be nice guy"

Bernie Sanders Politely Asks Supporters Not to Harass His Opponents

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1287&pid=5478

[mentalslavery]

22. well ...ur candidate is clean as a whistle

thats for sure....

[Cha]

23. Your "whataoboutism" isn't working.

This is about BS hiring 3rd party "attack dogs" to be more Divisive.

[R B Garr]

30. You replied also. It's obvious you don't think Bernie

needs any prior Clinton voters (the mainstream bulk of the party) because he’s just going to attack whomever he wants and everyone will just roll over for him. Is that how it works??

[Cha]

34. That must be it, RB.. everyone just

rolls over for BS and his 3rd party "attack dog" hires.

[R B Garr]

35. Yes, that's what it sounded like. Get ready for the attacks

as if they think Sanders will get your vote anyway. NO, it doesn’t work that way. Hence Sanders LOSSES, more losses to come.

It’s such an amazingly bad faith exercise we are enduring, and for what...

[Cha]

36. Yes, "bad faith".. that's

a good way to put it.

[mentalslavery]

39. u gonna vote 4 the d candidate no matter who it is.....i am

[Cha]

61. Maybe this is why BS feels he needs 3rd party "Attack Dogs"?

Link to tweet

Sanders Promised Civility but Hired Twitter Attack Dog - The Atlantic

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/sanders-promised-civility-hired-twitter-attack-dog/585259/

[mentalslavery]

37. whatever...good luck with biden

[Cha]

32. Have you paid attention to this Forum

and the rest of the internet? Everybody cares about the damn divisive no journalist integrity, 3rd party "attack dogs" hires except BS supporters.

[mentalslavery]

40. have u.....tastes like weak sauce 2 me

[Cha]

41. Good. BS isn't confident in

his "message" so he hires 3rd party "attack dogs".

[mentalslavery]

43. u have an amazing talent of saying the same thing over and over....

hope it works out 4 u

[Cha]

44. Sanders Promised Civility but Hired Twitter Attack Dog - The Atlantic

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/sanders-promised-civility-hired-twitter-attack-dog/585259/

[Cha]

46. Your talent lies in kicking this thread.

"Sirota's undisclosed connection to Sanders is a breach of journalistic ethics"

[mentalslavery]

47. same 2 ya

[Cha]

49. Keep it up.

[CreekDog]

56. you ran away from your demand to show the results of the final 2016 primaries:

HERE YOU GO:

Virgin Islands Clinton:87.1% Sanders: 12.9% (result Clinton +74.2)
Puerto Rico Clinton:59.4% Sanders: 37.5% (result Clinton +21.9)
California-- Clinton:53.1% Sanders: 46.0% (result Clinton +7.1)
Montana--- Clinton:44.6% Sanders: 51.0% (result Sanders +6.4)
New Jersey Clinton:63.3% Sanders: 36.7% (result Clinton +26.6)
New Mexico Clinton:51.5% Sanders: 48.5% (result Clinton +3.0)
North Dakota Clinton:25.6% Sanders: 64.2% (result Sanders +38.6)
South Dakota Clinton:51.0% Sanders: 49.0% (result Clinton +2.0)
Wash--D.C. Clinton: 78.7% Sanders: 21.1% (result Clinton +57.6)

[CreekDog]

57. you said to show the results of the final primaries in 2016:

THIS PROVES THAT SANDERS WON!

2 of them!

Virgin Islands Clinton:87.1% Sanders: 12.9% (result Clinton +74.2)
Puerto Rico Clinton:59.4% Sanders: 37.5% (result Clinton +21.9)
California-- Clinton:53.1% Sanders: 46.0% (result Clinton +7.1)
Montana--- Clinton:44.6% Sanders: 51.0% (result Sanders +6.4)
New Jersey Clinton:63.3% Sanders: 36.7% (result Clinton +26.6)
New Mexico Clinton:51.5% Sanders: 48.5% (result Clinton +3.0)
North Dakota Clinton:25.6% Sanders: 64.2% (result Sanders +38.6)
South Dakota Clinton:51.0% Sanders: 49.0% (result Clinton +2.0)
Wash--D.C. Clinton: 78.7% Sanders: 21.1% (result Clinton +57.6)

[hlthe2b]

65. This is not twitter. Can you please post in real sentences?

I am not commenting on the validity of any comments you are making, but surely any comments are more credible (and understood) when you actually convey them.

[ehrnst]

83. Like the sauce on "pho 90's Democrats?"

[ehrnst]

81. I'm sensing more fear than confidence in your candidate in your posts.

[NurseJackie]

106. With good reason.

[ehrnst]

79. And whataboutism for the win!

whataboutism
NOUN

The technique or practice of responding to an accusation or difficult question by making a counter-accusation or raising a different issue.

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/whataboutism

[Cha]

105. Mahalo, ehrnst! I didn't know it

was in the dictionary!

[ehrnst]

107. Indeed. It's part of debate training. (nt)

[Thekaspervote]

48. Yup talking with one another brings up all kinds of things

[CreekDog]

51. was it disclosed now because payments to Sirota are going to show up in the FEC filing?

that's why he should have disclosed it from the start.

[KitSileya]

58. Ooooh, that's a point I hadn't considered.

Senator Sanders has as bad a history with FEC as he has when it comes to releasing his tax returns, but he might not be allowed by law to start filing for extension after extension this early in the race, so he might have to actually be transparent when it comes to his campaign expenditures....this time.

[MrsCoffee]

66. It's a discussion board. We talk to each other lots.

Seems you get that being as here you are talking lots about how super unconcerned you are.

[NBachers]

20. Pretend journalist attack dog working for a pretend Democrat. Yeah, let's elect that

[dalton99a]

38. +1. An attack dog who specializes in kneecapping Democrats

and who has been friends with him for decades

[RandySF]

33. I wouldn't say the guy who called me "motherfucker" in 2008 was ever a journalist.

[Snotcicles]

42. I'm curious about undisclosed connection inhouse. nt

[CreekDog]

50. LOL, no it's not

Sirota is exempt from those. Just like Greenwald.

[CreekDog]

55. Sirota is taking on the critically important role of vetting Sanders' supporters

deciding which of them is worthy and which are not worthy.

[fleabiscuit]

59. I'm surprised that was a secret. nt

[melman]

60. Another sleazy hit piece

This one seemingly based solely on the completely debunked hack job in the Atlantic. Pathetic.

[Talking Tom]

62. It wasn't debunked

Explain.

[MrsCoffee]

67. Lol.

[NurseJackie]

74. Nothing has been "debunked" ... why so sad?

Pathetic.

The truth can sometimes be painful and embarrassing. I believe those are two things that people associated with the BS campaign will become very familiar with. (This is what vetting looks like.)

[R B Garr]

80. Did he restore the 20,000 deleted twitters?

Did someone find the 20,000 deleted twitters? Did Sanders prove he wasn’t on the payroll? What’s been debunked?

[ehrnst]

84. Because journalistic ethics doesn't apply when it's this politician's

senior level staffer? And an article from a Pulitzer Prize winning news organization, with the editor that broke the pedophile priest scandal, that holds Sirota to the same standards as other journalists is a "hit piece?"

That's some rationalization there...

{waits for arguments that WAPO is not really that reliable and owned by Bezos, who is clearly orders journalists to smear anyone who criticizes Amazon, so anything they say bad about a politician really means the OPPOSITE and that politician is therefore good for the country because Amazon itself is attacking them, etc.}

[George II]

108. "Sleazy hit piece"? He denied working with the campaign months ago and even went to...

...the point of calling anyone who said he was working with the campaign "a filthy liar"! Even while he WAS working with the campaign.

Yeah, what a sleazy hit piece.

Link to tweet

[bpj62]

69. This looks familiar

Bernie Sanders is taking a page out of Donald Trump's 2016 Campaign playbook. He is hiring people who are polarizing and caustic in thier actions and statements. He saw the success that Trump had with this strategy during the GOP primaries. Mark my words his campaign is going to be scorched earth against the other Democratic candidates.

[R B Garr]

82. +1000, Excellent. I thought of the same person that he

was trying to emulate for the same reasons. Tad Devine and Paul Manafort ran the opposition campaigns against Hillary, which were very similar, so......

[SidDithers]

70. Bernie hires only the best people...nt

Sid

[NurseJackie]

72. Scrubbed by an "autodeleter"?? ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL

ust hours before his hiring by Sanders was announced, Sirota deleted about 20,000 or so of his tweets. He suggested that the timing of the mass deletion was coincidental, telling the Atlantic that his account was scrubbed by an “autodeleter” that periodically and automatically removes his posts.

I would only hire him if I had very low (or nonexistent) ethical standards.

[ehrnst]

86. "The autodeleter ate my homework."

Not very savvy where the internets are concerned, is he?

[dalton99a]

90. An "autodeleter":

https://www.tweetdelete.net/faq.php

Does TweetDelete work with any number of tweets?

For technical reasons TweetDelete can only work within the latest 3,200 tweets on your account. Tweets older than this are not easily accessible via Twitter's interface and since we're not able to find them, we can't request that they be deleted. For the same reasons they're very difficult for anyone else to find either, so tweets over this limit are of lesser privacy concern at this time.

Once you've activated TweetDelete, provided you make less than 3,200 posts per the deletion timeframe you've selected, all future posts should be deleted as you'd expect.

Why does my account still have thousands of tweets on the counter after deleting everything with TweetDelete?

As mentioned above, we can only delete tweets within your most recent 3,200 tweets. As an example, if your account originally had 15,000 tweets and we do this, you'll still have 11,800 left. These old tweets don't show up on Twitter's site though (this is unrelated to using our service and is just how Twitter works).

[NurseJackie]

91. Does this mean that Sirota is a FILTHY LIAR?

Does this mean that Sirota is a FILTHY LIAR? (Or am I misunderstanding what the information means in that post?)

Tweeting is something that remains somewhat of a mystery to me.

Is this "tweetdelete" a third-party service that fills a void in functionality that's not offered by Twitter itself?

Are their other third-party "auto deleters"?

If so, do other third party services have the same constraints that "tweetdelete" mentions in their FAQ?

[dalton99a]

92. TweetDelete is the most popular.

https://www.wikihow.com/Delete-All-Tweets
How to Delete All Tweets

Navigate to http://www.twitwipe.com. TwitWipe is a free service that delete all of your tweets in a single swoop.[1]
TwitWipe can only manage your last 3,200 tweets. If you have more tweets than that, you’ll have to delete the remaining tweets manually.

Navigate to http://www.tweetdelete.net. TweetDelete is a free service that can delete all of the tweets in your Twitter account.[4]
Due to Twitter limitations, TweetDelete can only delete your last 3,200 tweets.[5]

Navigate to https://www.gocardigan.com. Cardigan is a free and reliable open-source service that will delete every tweet in your Twitter account.[9]
Cardigan, like all Twitter deletion apps, can only manage your last 3,200 tweets.[10] However, it's possible to grant Cardigan access to the remaining tweets.

Navigate to http://www.deletealltweets.com. You can use this free tool to delete all of the tweets in your account. Like all such tools, Delete All Tweets can only access the last 3,200 tweets in your account.
Only use this tool if your sure you want to delete all of your tweets. The process starts as soon as you authorize the app, and you won’t be able to stop it.
This tool will automatically send a tweet from you that advertises its services. Continue with this method to learn how to delete that tweet.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Also:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/8/16991396/how-to-delete-twitter-history-tweetdelete
How to delete your Twitter history

[NurseJackie]

93. Looks like there's an upper limit of 3200 tweets that can be "auto-deleted".

Fascinating.

[dalton99a]

95. A ghost in the room made the extra clicks for him

without his knowledge and participation

It is fascinating

[NurseJackie]

98. Clearly, he's an unethical liar. I know that I'd never hire him...

... and I'd have to question the judgement of anyone who did.

[ehrnst]

75. Transparency is good. This is not good, especially in the first weeks of a campaign.

Especially for a politician who makes a habit of pointing out where others don't live up to his personal standard of ethics.

[comradebillyboy]

96. Bernie has never been transparent.

[cwydro]

97. Has "soon" arrived yet?

As in he’s gonna release his tax returns “soon?”

[comradebillyboy]

100. He will release them on the 12th of Never

[cwydro]

104. Lol.

My thoughts as well.

[ProfessorPlum]

99. I love the idea of the Washington Post lecturing anyone on journalistic ethics.

Such tsk tsking from the handmaidens of the elite.

[ehrnst]

101. And we have the inevitable shooting of the messenger...

Interesting that the Sanders campaign has not responded to requests for comments.

Why do you think that is? Certainly they would want to address this:

"Sirota’s vitriolic tweets and blog posts also appear to be at odds with the ethos of the Sanders’s campaign, which has stressed that it will “respectfully engage” other Democratic candidates."

Or are you saying that Sirota isn't / hasn't been working as an operative for Senator Sanders for months? Or are you saying that Sirota didn't call people who said that he was working as an operative for Sanders FILTHY LIARS?




Marty Baron: "handmaiden of the elite." Tell that to the Archdiocese of Boston....

The Washington Post did due diligence before reporting. That's journalism.