Lachlan Markay

Open Thread: Obama/Duncan Ed. Dept. Has Designated 'Denial Officer' for FOIA Requests
By NB Staff | August 12, 2014 | 6:31 PM EDT

Former NewsBuster Lachlan Markay, who now does excellent work at the Washington Free Beacon, tweeted a link to a stunning photo of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request denial letter sent from one Taylor D. August, a "FOIA Denial Officer" at the Department of Education to Morgan Smith of the Texas Tribune. "Here's to transparency in job titles! #foia," Smith tweeted from her account at 4:20 p.m. Eastern today.

"Apparently there's a DOJ employee whose entire job is to reject FOIA requests pic.twitter.com/zWEi1CyLd7 via @MorganSmith," Markay tweeted at 6:11 p.m. Eastern, later retweeting a clarification by Smith, "@lachlan that response came from Dept of Ed, not DoJ (I realize now the cropped pic is confusing)." You can see the embedded tweets from Smith below the page break. Consider this your evening open thread:

NYC Mayor Bloomberg Is Using Taxpayer Money To Fund Anti-Gun Campaign, Who Else Will Report?
By Matt Vespa | July 18, 2013 | 3:15 PM EDT

Imagine if you will a conservative Republican mayor used public employees' work time to advocate stricter state-level abortion regulations throughout the country? The Left would, and to an extent rightfully so, raise a fit, and the liberal media would, again, rightly so, beat the drums and make the abuse of power a major national story.

But when it's liberal independent Mayor Michael Bloomberg doing the same thing to push a gun control agenda, the media are not-so-strangely silent, given the media's push for ever-more-restrictive gun laws.

AP on Friday: Mich. Right to Work Law an Exercise in 'Raw Power,' With No 'Political Niceties'
By Tom Blumer | December 11, 2012 | 6:25 PM EST

There will be plenty of time later to look at how the Associated Press and other wires more than likely fail to report the violence that took place in connection with right-to-work legislative actions in Michigan's legislature today. For now, let's look at the reactions of Associated Press reporters John Flesher and Jeff Karoub on Friday in an item which is no longer at the AP's main national site.

Their dispatch's headline ("Michigan Republicans end part of union tradition") was from all appearances an attempt to make it seem uninteresting. The story itself didn't describe the law involved as "right to work" until its fourth paragraph. Both before and after that, the pair, who are more than likely members of the Occupy Movement-supporting News Media Guild, got bitter (bolds are mine throughout this post):

Matt Damon's Anti-Fracking Film Backed By OPEC Nation
By Noel Sheppard | September 28, 2012 | 2:07 PM EDT

NewsBusters reported in April that Matt Damon is creating an anti-fracking film called "Promised Land."

On Friday, the Heritage Foundation's Lachlan Markay revealed that some of the financing for this movie came from the OPEC nation the United Arab Emirates.

CNN, at OWS 'Office' in New York, Interviews 'Volunteers' Heritage Outs As Seasoned Leftists
By Tom Blumer | December 6, 2011 | 8:36 PM EST

Last week, CNN's Steve Kastenbaum (podcast is also at link) visited what he characterized as Occupy Wall Street's "nerve center" (but don't call it a "headquarters," Occupiers insisted) in space provided by an anonymous donor. No, it wasn't at Zuccotti Park or any other open-air location. It was, and presumably still is, in Lower Manhattan, one block south of the New York Stock Exchange.

Along the way, Kastenbaum interviewed several people who portrayed themselves as "volunteer staff" for a supposedly leaderless movement, but as is par for the course in the establishment press when leftists are involved, didn't reveal anyone's previous background. At Heritage, Lachlan Markay reports at Robert Bluey's blog that the prior affiliations and involvements of at least a few of those interviewed belies their starry-eyed self-portrayal: