Kenneth Vogel

LAT Laments How Mega-Donor Tom Steyer Was Not Decisive in 2014 Midterms
By Tom Blumer | December 31, 2014 | 4:09 PM EST

Chris Megerian at the Los Angeles Times, in a report first published online on Tuesday, had a difficult time trying to downplay the fact that Democrat and leftist mega-donors outspent their Republican and conservative couterparts by an overwhelming margin during the past election cycle.

But Megerian made the best of it, giving readers the impression that David Koch, of the supposedly evil Koch brothers, was the fourth-largest such donor. Times editors did their part to keep the news as quiet as possible by publishing the obviously national story in the California secion of its Wednesday print edition.

Politico Thinks Years of Gov Candidate Driving Without a License Is a 'Small Scoop'
By Tom Blumer | September 22, 2014 | 7:08 PM EDT

Politico's Kenneth Vogel and Byron Tau filed a long Friday article moaning about how influential opposition research has become in the conduct of this year's political campaigns. My takeaway is that they really don't like it this time around — not because the money involved has increased, and not because supposedly lax campaign-finance laws have accommodated this increase. No, they're really upset because, according to Joe Pounder, a cofounder of the conservative American Rising, "so far, at least — Democrats had endured more such hits than Republicans."

So I guess the next step for the Politico pair inevitably had to be to minimize the importance of hits against Democrats. Here's their one-sentence evaluation of one of them: "[S]maller scoops have proliferated as well — an Ohio gubernatorial candidate caught driving without a license, for example." You've got to be kidding.

Dylan Byers Defends Politico For 'Diversity' That Barely Exists, and Is Shrinking
By Tom Blumer | August 20, 2014 | 11:08 AM EDT

Just to be clear, the racial makeup of a news organization should be irrelevant to its ability to cover current events. The answers to who, what, where, when, why, and how are colorblind. The practice of assigning reporters to stories based on the ethnicities or races of stories' subjects is offensive, and should be seen as insulting.

But the fact is that news organizations and so-called progressives are obsessed with "diversity" — in everything but viewpoint, of course. So it's especially delicious that Politico's Dylan Byers claim that Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery's tweet that "black ppl don't work for @politico" was "offensive and factually inaccurate" has caused the truth about the insufferably self-righteous web site's track record to gain wide exposure.

Not News: Obama Authors Emails Sent by (Formerly?) 'Non-Partisan' Organizing For Action
By Tom Blumer | May 31, 2013 | 4:00 PM EDT

Add this to the seemingly endless list of things which would be considered news and denounced far and wide if a Republican or conservative were involved.

In early February, the Politico's Tarini Parti and Kenneth P. Vogel noted the insistence on its "About" page by Organizing For Action, the non-profit 501(c)(4) successor to Organizing for America, President Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign, that it "be involved in any way in elections or partisan political activity." That didn't last long. In fact, the quoted language is no longer on OFA's "About" page. Instead, OFA now exists, despite growing evidence that a mountain of information which could have swung the election to Obama's opponent was deliberately kept from the public, "to support President Obama in achieving enactment of the national agenda Americans voted for on Election Day 2012." Accordingly, OFA has no compunction over sending its members emails from Obama himself.

Press Virtually Ignores DC Meeting of Dem Super-Donors; Obsessed Over Romney's During Campaign
By Tom Blumer | November 30, 2012 | 10:36 AM EST

The annual winter conference of the Democracy Alliance is getting almost no press attention. The alliance "was created to build progressive infrastructure," and promotes a "collaborative giving strategy." Membership is invitation-only. Its board includes Mary Kay Henry, who "serves as International President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)." The meeting is in essence a planning session for the funding of "progressive" candidates, their supposedly unrelated Super-PACs, and other causes.

This morning, Matthew Continetti at the Washington Free Beacon called out the press hypocrisy in virtually ignoring this event. A 10 a.m. ET Google News search on "Democracy Alliance" (in quotes) returned only a half-dozen post-Thanksgiving items. Among major outlets, only the Politico, as seen at NJ.com (written by Kenneth Vogel, but not noted there), has given the meeting any attention. Continetti noted that coverage, and the complete lack of any other attention which accompanied it (HT Instapundit; bolds are mine):

Politico: 'Restaurant Group Nixed Backing Cain,' But Decision Made Weeks Ago, May Not Be Connected to Controversy
By Ken Shepherd | November 1, 2011 | 1:23 PM EDT

"Restaurant group nixed backing Cain," reads a teaser headline on Politico's website today, hinting to casual readers that a National Restaurant Association (NRA) endorsement of their former chief Herman Cain was a done deal until Politico dug up an old out-of-court sexual harassment settlement. 

The story was also plastered on the front page of the November 1 print edition, headlined "Restaurant Group Tamps Down Cain Talk."

But in the November 1 story itself, Politico staffers Anna Palmer and Kenneth Vogel noted that a teleconference on endorsing Cain was done in October prior to Politico breaking its scoop about the out-of-court sexual harassment settlement (emphasis mine below). Left unmentioned in the story is that the NRA is co-hosting with other trade groups a series of town hall forums where members can phone in questions to presidential candidates:

CNN Defends Debate, Says Vetting Was 'Focused on the Questions'
By Ken Shepherd | November 29, 2007 | 6:14 PM EST

CNN is defending its job in vetting questions for last night's debate, reports Politico's Kenneth Vogel:

The retired general who quizzed Republican presidential candidates about gays and lesbians in the military was not the only person linked to a Democratic presidential candidate who got to ask a question at Wednesday’s CNN/YouTube debate. CNN also aired questions from supporters of Democratic candidates John Edwards and Barack Obama. And that’s fine by the network, which is standing by its question selection process and lashing out at critics who say the debate demonstrated CNN’s liberal bias. “We’re focused on the questions, not the questioners,” said Sam Feist, CNN’s political director.

There might be something to that approach. As our own Brad Wilmouth reported, the questions largely pressed the Republican field from the right.: