A Politico reporter sent a full draft of a story to the Democratic National Committee before submitting it to his editors, DNC emails released by WikiLeaks reveal.
Politico now says its reporter, Ken Vogel, made a mistake, by sending the entire story rather that just certain facts that needed to be checked,
The Hill reports.
"POLITICO's policy is to not share editorial content pre-publication except as approved by editors," spokesman Brad Dayspring said. "In this case, the reporter was attempting to check some very technical language and figures involving the DNC's joint fundraising agreement with the Clinton campaign."
He continued: "Checking the relevant passages for accuracy was responsible and consistent with our standards. Sharing the full piece was a mistake and not consistent with our policies. There were no substantive changes to the piece."
In his email April 30 of the piece to DNC national press secretary Mark Paustenbach, Vogel wrote, "Per agreement … any thoughts appreciated."
Paustenbach forwarded Vogel's email to DNC deputy communications director Luis Miranda, writing, "Vogel gave me his story ahead of time/before it goes to his editors as long as I didn't share it. Let me know if you see anything that's missing and I'll push back."
Vogel came under intense criticism from Republicans and from some in the media.
Washington Post blogger Erik Wemple, however, called the matter a minor journalistic infraction considering that Vogel was actually trying to get response from the DNC after finding that only a small portion of joint funds raised with state parties were staying in the states.
Vogel was actually "bringing the full weight of a Politico investigation to the DNC and the Clinton campaign, as if to say: We’ve got all this stuff on you. What say you?" Wemple wrote.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.