Don't forget about Beltway cowardice

By Glenn Greenwald
Salon.com

Corruption and dishonesty are among the Washington vices which receive substantial attention, but cowardice is often overlooked, despite how pervasive it is. The news cycle of the last two days has been driven by an attack on organized labor from a "senior White House official" who was willing to express these views only while hiding behind the fetal wall of anonymity extended by Politico. Last night on The Ed Show, United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard was asked about those comments and this is what he said:

I'm extremely disappointed that the individual would make that comment and not have the courage to let us know who said it. Anonymous comments shouldn't be given the kind of attention they've been given. I'm both disappointed and angry -- he's entitled to his opinion, but I don't think he or she is entitled to be anonymous if they want to articulate that.

That there is no remote journalistic justification for granting anonymity for these kinds of catty comments is self-evident, but that's not worth discussing, since the Drudgeified Politico has long ago established that they operate without any ethical constraints of any kind when it comes to such matters. The only anonymity standard Politico has is this: we grant it automatically the minute someone in power wants it (though on some level, in a warped sort of way, that's almost more admirable than what the NYT and Post do: pretend that they have strict anonymity standards while basically handing it out as promiscuously as Politico does). But what is striking is how often top White House officials -- who are among the most politically powerful people in the country -- are willing to inject views into the public discourse only if they can be assured that they will never be accountable for what they say. That is just unadulterated cowardice.

(More here.)