Posted on 09/25/2004 4:03:10 PM PDT by litany_of_lies
Jennifer Loven is the AP reporter responsible for the over-the-top biased article "Bush, Kerry Twisting Each Other's Words" filed today.
As noted in that thread, she is also author of a hit piece back in June pretending that the Bush Administration was being damaged by Richard (Yellowcake Fraud) Clarke:
"Bush not able to dispel questions"
HERE
What is not known is that she has NO BUSINESS covering the Presidential campaign or the Presidency in general for the following reasons (hat tip to PowerLine Blog):
1. Her husband, Roger Ballentine, has donated over $7000 to various Democrat candidates and the DNC in the past 10-plus years, including $1250 to the Kerry campaign:
(If someone could post a pic of this page, it would be much appreciated).
2. Her husband is not only a Democrat contributor, but also a former Clinton Administration official(!):
Washington Life Magazine-May 2003: Real Estate News (scroll down):
Extract:
Roger Ballentine is president of Green Strategies, a consulting firm specializing in energy and environmental issues, and was previously deputy assistant to President Clinton for environmental initiatives and chairman of the White House Climate Change Task Force. He also sits on the board of directors of Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF)along with actors Ed Begley, Jr. and Larry Hagman.
Mostly the news readers on Headline News, a couple on Fox, and one on CNN.
I KNEW you were going to go there.
The Bush 41 and Clinton people made independent decisions to keep Matalin and Carville, respectively, on board.
But they aren't the press. If James were working (that's hard to imagine) for AP at the time covering the Bush 41 campaign headed up by Mary his beau, the libs would have screamed that James wasn't objective (and they would have been right). Same thing if Mary had been covering the Clinton campaign headed by Carville.
Nice try. No sale. Even if you don't buy my arguments about contributions and his past paid job with Clinton, you don't cover the campaign of the other guy when your husband is a spokesperson for his opponent. She should be smart enough to see the conflict, and if she isn't, AP should be.
"Ever notice how these AP types never byline their stories on terrorism, and they don't even say terrorism most of the time."
Ala the New York Slimes....educated readers still know the difference, but they are counting on the fact that the demon-rat base does not.
By comparison, let's send out the spouse, if he has one, of Matt Dowd (Bush spokesperson) to cover the Kerry campaign and see how long she lasts befor the howls of outrage begin.
And that's my take.
lets do a back grounder on all the AP's on the convention trail..... see what else we find.....
That is NOT the sensibility in the CPA world, or the lawyer world, or in a lot of other professional spheres.
Not that this will change your mind, but Mr. Ballentine is not just a spokesman for the Kerry campaign, he appears to be a paid spokesman:
Link:
http://www.worldfuels.com/news/week/0904/091004_01.htm
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Sep 10, 2004
Kerry Supports Piecemeal Approach to Energy Bill
Rachel Gantz
Editor, Renewable Fuel News
Miami—To overcome the current U.S. legislative stalemate in trying to pass a renewable fuels standard (RFS) package as part of the energy bill, Senator and Democratic nominee for president John Kerry (Mass.) is advocating a piecemeal approach, a strategist working on his campaign told RFN on Wednesday.
Roger Ballentine, president of Green Strategies Inc. and hired by the Kerry campaign, explained to the audience at the F.O. Licht/Clean Fuels Development Coalition conference here about the senator’s commitment to alternative fuels. “Bioenergy is absolutely central to Kerry’s [proposed] energy plan,” he said, in contrasting the senator’s proposed energy strategy to George W. Bush’s National Energy Policy. Noting while the president’s energy plan does promote renewable fuels, including ethanol, it is short on specifics.
For the rest of this article, please either request a trial subscription by contacting James Worthen, Hart Energy Publishing's Customer Service Manager at Jworthen@Hartenergy.com or by calling 301/354-1612. If you are already a subscriber and would like the rest of this article, please contact Hart Downstream Editorial Director Robert Gough at Rgough@Hartenergy.com or call 301/354-2039.
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IMHO, these people should know better, and they don't. Ms. Loven MUST be reassigned, NOW.
I'm a lawyer, and it most certainly is. Nobody cares what one spouse does, and indeed it would be infra dig to even bring it up. Moreover, law firms have all kinds of lawyers with various ideological persuasions, sometimes working both the Dem and the GOP side of the fence.
Roger Ballentine donated $2K to the Kerry campaing. Keep in mind that he has both a DC address and a MD address.
The know conservatives pose no physical threat to them so it's open season.
Good for you. That doesn't happen to be everyone's take. Lots of people don't have the disadvantage of law school.
Spouses are a good way to disguise a donation.
Yes--the guy with an Islamic name. Freepers alerted that guy to websites that expose SEAL wannabes withing minutes of AP reporting that garbage. It is amazing that these "professional-journalist-don't-try-this-at-home" brain donors can't perform basic fact checking.
I looked over some of Loven's columns. To be fair, she does not often write the crypto-liberal column very often. This latest, "Bush Twists Kerry's Words" does not even sound like her other columns.
Wonder if Roger wrote it while Jennifur was looking after the baby?
I guess we live in different "worlds."
In the legal profession around here, Spouse 1 would not be allowed to do research or any work for the Plaintiff if Spouse 2 (obviously working for another law firm) was defendant's lawyer.
Judges around here routinely abstain themselves (probably wrong term) from cases argued by their spouses or involving their spouse's company, because the other side would have obvious grounds for appeal.
The newspaper around here would not allow Spouse 1 to be the news reporter on the case noted above.
The newspaper around here would also not allow the wife of the current congressman's campaign spokesperson to cover the campaign of the congressman's opponent (the opponent would justifiably scream bloody murder if it somehow happened).
If that's true locally, why isn't it true for the presidency?
The word is recuse. Yes, in litigation, although not required, it is probably best to avoid pillow talk.
I didn't catch the MD address.
He at least complied with the CFR limit ($1000 in 2003 and $1000 in 2004). Pretty good for a Dem.
take action *ping*
You might also bring your campaign to the attention of Howard Kurtz at the Washington Post, who makes a career of sniffing out this kind of thing.
I agree with the poster who says that merely being married to a political activist ought not disqualify a reporter from covering politics. HOWEVER, when a reporter with such an association repeatedly files one-sided stories ... well, at that point, a news organization ought to think about the "Caesar's wife" principle. Even if you don't think the reporter has done anything wrong, you have to worry about the APPEARANCE of wrongdoing.
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