Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Reporter writes highly critical article about her experience working for the McCain campaign - but doesn't disclose she is an Obama donor

Reporter Margriet Oostveen wrote an article published September 13th in the newspaper NRC Handelsblad about her experience as a volunteer in the McCain campaign. Her article, highly critical of McCain campaign techniques, has been picked up by various media, and was published today in Salon.
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Oostveen claims she was put to work as a "ghost writer" writing pro-McCain letters to the editor. She says Phil Tuchman at the McCain campaign told the letter-writing volunteers they could lie in their letters.
"You can be whoever you want to be," says an inviting Phil Tuchman. "You can be a beggar or a millionaire. A mom or a husband. Whatever. You decide!"
Ostveen admits she wrote a letter to the editor falsely claiming she had a son in Iraq.

Can you trust What Oostveen said about her experience working for the McCain campaign?
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I don't know. But she failed to disclose she is a supporter of Barack Obama.

According to this site, Oostveen donated $351 to Barack Obama in quarter 2 of 2008.

Should Oostveen have disclosed her support for Barack Obama? Yes, because that would help readers evaluate her credibility.

Hat tip: Romenesko

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Believe it or not the story is true. Phil Tuchman is a 22 year old living in Bethesda, MD - a recent graduate of UMD. I happen to know him and he confirmed the story for me.

You can message him on Facebook and he'll probably reply to you...

He's not even a paid staff member of the campaign, just a volunteer.