Politico Plays Fast And Loose With The Facts

This odd (as in: hard to understand) headline had me clicking through to read more: Iowa GOP-ers wince at Palin fee. Turns out to be a story about speaking fees, stuck-up Republicans in Iowa (politicians should feel honored if we let them come speak to us!), and Sarah Palin. But there's a problem with the entire premise of the article, the central fact that has everyone so twitterpated. This is a long story, I'm just going to pull out the items that are directly related to the central premise of the story - even then you'll see there are a lot, underlining making it more obvious:

Rather than exciting conservatives about the prospect of a visit from the former Alaska governor, the group’s plan to raise a six-figure sum to bring her to the state has GOP activists recoiling at the thought of paying to land a politician's speaking appearance.

The Iowa Family Policy Center’s effort to cobble together $100,000 for Palin would represent a striking departure from customary practice in the first-in-the-nation state, these Republicans say, noting that a generation of White House hopefuls has paid their own way to boost their party and presidential ambitions...

But representatives from other Iowa-based political advocacy groups said they would never consider shelling out money for what many politicians see as a privilege...

“If somebody tells me they want me to pay an appearance fee, it tells me they’re not very serious about running for president,” said Ed Failor, Jr...

He noted that his group had not and never would pay for a politician to spea...

Steve Scheffler, the president of the Iowa Christian Alliance and a longtime GOP activist, said his organization would also never ante up.

“We certainly wouldn’t do it, even if we had the money,” Scheffler said, adding that he wanted to keep his group “impartial” in the caucus process and that paying money to one prospective candidate could raise questions about such neutrality.

Tim Albrecht, spokesman for the conservative, Iowa-based American Future Fund, said his group “has a policy not to pay speakers to come to Iowa,”...

Like the other Iowa political hands, he could not recall a single instance where a potential candidate had been paid to speak...

Privately, Iowa Republicans are cringing at, not only the idea of pay-to-play, but also what they view as an amateurish effort to sell tickets for the dinner by floating Palin's name...

Palin, it seems, is breaking the mold again.

Longtime Iowa strategists say the attempt to publicly dangle money before her is yet another reminder of Palin’s sui generis status on the political scene...

“If she can draw a big enough crowd, it would put a spotlight on the organization,” Kochel added, noting that they could recoup the speaker’s fee if, as is being considered, they drew Palin and had the event at Des Moines’s Wells Fargo Arena...

Failor, the anti-tax advocate, said the only other examples he could recall when a group paid for a political speech were with big-name talk show hosts such as Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.

But for Iowa political activists accustomed to high-profile politicians of both parties—Clintons, Kennedys and Bushs—descending on their state and spending hours in their homes, schools and churches, the idea of paying for the attention some see as their birthright is anathema...

Whew. That's a LOT of mentions about paying Palin to speak there, isn't it?

Except for one little item that they do slip into the piece, a single sentence buried amidst all that you just read.

There is no indication that the former governor has requested a fee or that her decision whether to attend is being influenced by whether she’ll be paid.

Oh. Is this what a "real news organization" looks like, Mr. President?

Most oddly, the 'disclaimer' is around the middle of the article. That means that they printed a pile of quotes from angry Republicans, saying they'd never 'lower themselves' to such a thing...then say there's no evidence it's happening...and then print more quotes and such about how unprecedented the thing that doesn't seem real is, including one person talking about how they could "recoup" the fee that doesn't seem to exist for an appearance that seems unlikely to happen.

Bizarre. Frankly I can't think of any reason for printing this other than to smear Palin. Imagine, for a moment, that a liberal group was trying to raise money to pay Obama to speak at a conference in Iowa, at least according to scuttlebutt. So you put a reporter on it and they talk to some people and find out how weird it all sounds. Then the reporter can't even come up with anything to indicate that any such speakers fee agreement is in place and, beyond that, talks to the person scheduling Obama's appearances and they are told that's it's awfully unlikely that Obama would even accept the invitation to appear at all - being a busy guy and all, all that golfing and basketball and stuff. Would they still run the story? Even after it turns out to be a non-story? I would venture to guess the answer is 'no'.