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Read other letters about this article
I'm glad to see this article, however, Mr. Manjoo makes the mistake in the article of not making completely clear what the true focus of the complaints were. All the yammering about details of whether Abramoff "directed" contributions to Democrats is completely off the mark.
The point is that the Abramoff/Delay scandal is about flat out, quid pro auo bribery by Abramoff of US elected officials all of whom are Republican. None of them are Democrats. The scandal is not about Abramoff bribing everyone who any and all of his clients contributed to. Conveniently and coincidentally, the Wapo's Howell spewed out the line that the RNC is spinning and it is/was clearly identifiable. Dissecting the finer points of that is right where the RNC wants eveyrone to be. Salon reporters and writers should be more sophisticated than to end up in that trap, yet the majority of Manjoo's article centers on points that are completely and uttlerly off the mark with respect ot the truth of the scandal.
That Howell and the Wapo hide behind the technically correct but totally unrelated "correct" mention of Democrats having received contributions from Abramoff clients is frankly bullshit. (oops! nasty profanity there--hope the whole letters section isn't closed down as a result) Whenever journalists are caught red handed in printing something that is misleading they often point to how they can claim that what they printed is factually correct. However, they usually do so by considering the "fact" in question outside of the context in which it is printed. Context is everything in journalism and they know it.
The bottom line is that they hide behind that transparently weak argument because they refuse to admit that the way she wrote about this subject clearly and unequivocally implies that Democrats are involved in the Abramoff/Delay scandal which they most obviously are not. It's false and misleading to do what she did in any article dealing with the scandal and both Howell and her colleagues at the Wapo know it. It simply isn't a bipartisan scandal because the Democrats have no power to make things happen anymore een though the Republicans and Wapo staff would like people to think so. The Republicans control everything in DC and thus the bribery and corruption are owned lock, stock and barrel by the corrupt Republicans who are in command in Washington and able to deliveer the unsavory favors Abramoff solicited. That's the story here. That's why the complaints were so vehement. Focusing on anything else is semantic sophistry of the worst kind.
