politico-that figures.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/democratic-national-committee/dnc-rips-politico-story-tying-polanski-to-obama-silly-amateur-hour/DNC Rips Politico Story Tying Polanski To Obama: “Silly,” “Amateur Hour”
In another sign of the Obama operation’s zeal for playing rough with the media, the Democratic National Committee is taking an unusually hard shot at Politico for posting a much-criticized story today linking Roman Polanski with Obama and the DNC.
“This story is just lowbrow, and it’s amateur hour,” DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse told me. “It’s one of the silliest stories that I’ve ever seen.”
The story, titled “Roman Polanski backers Gave $34K To Barack Obama, DNC,” reported that Hollywood types urging Polanski’s release shelled out that amount to the DNC and to Obama’s presidential campaign. It took a beating in the blogosphere for concocting a link between Polanski and Dems that seemed almost comically tenuous.
I’d heard people at the DNC were mightily ticked by the story. When I checked in, Woodhouse uncorked an unusually harsh tirade — the sort the DNC normally reserves for unabashedly ideological right wing outlets.
“You could find a certain number of {our donors} who believe in Scientology,” Woodhouse fumed. “You could find a certain number who are even Redskins fans.”
“It’s a silly story that’s just meant to try to generate a sensational headline and a lot of clicks,” he continued. “It’s really unfortunate that it was written, period. But also, we were blindsided by it. They didn’t contact us.
We raised $750 million, and they found that $34,000 of it that was raised by people who know Roman Polanski.”“We will look for the political angle in virtually any story,” responded top Politico editor Jim VandeHei. “This short blog item was done for the Click page — where we run a lot of entertainment and personality items. It was quick item based on FEC data alone.”
The aggressive Dem response is another sign of the harder edge that Woodhouse has brought to the increasingly combative DNC. It’s also a reminder that the fractured new media landscape — and the multiplication of outlets the Obama operation has at its disposal to get its message out — has diluted the power of individual outlets and turned them into easier targets for aggressive pushback.