Redstate

By Erick Posted in War — Comments (8) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Given the stuff on the New Republic, we should all be aware that the Washington Post is preparing to send it's newest young superstar, Amit Paley, to Iraq. Mr. Paley is a twenty-something Harvard grad who has been covering the U.S. Department of Education for the Washington Post.

If his present track record of covering education for WaPo is any indicator, we can expect to get a fable, not facts, from Iraq.

Getting his big break on the front page of the Washington Post in April, Paley wrote a host of hard hitting articles citing his leading source as a "senior official," "senior agency official," and even a "presidential appointee." Unfortunately, WaPo had to run a correction admitting that the source was none of the three.

Weeks later, Paley returned to the front page without fact checking. On April 21, 2007, Paley wrote, “The No. 3 official in the U.S. Department of Education, who oversees the student loan industry, had more than $10,000 invested in student lenders, according to documents released last night.”

The fact was that the husband of the official owned the stock via a 401(K) and sold it before his wife faced Senate confirmation.

Instead of running yet another correction, WaPo just sneaked in two paragraphs in *a different story* mentioning these facts. This sneaky way to correct their prodigy's record even upset WaPo's ombudsman who called the handling "problematic" and wrote that the correction "should have had its own headline and more prominent display."

And yes, there's more below the fold . . .

No surprise, but just months later Paley was at it again. He ran a story with the headline "Ex-Aides Break With Bush on 'No Child'; Conservatives Giving Vent To Doubts; Support for Opt-Out Proposal Grows." The headline was totally out of context and Paley purposefully used sources out of context to make his point. What'd he do? He blamed his editors.

What'd the editors do? They changed the headline online and softened portions of the story. The original headline and inaccurate story remained in the print edition without correction.

Paley has, in his brief career, made repeated, serious errors in his reporting. Each of his errors portrayed the Bush Administration in a very bad light, enough to garner criticism from Deborah Howell, WaPo's own ombudsmen.

So, realizing they need to do something to get Paley off the Education beat and stop the embarrassing need to substantively correct his front page stories, WaPo has come up with a great idea. They are sending him to Iraq as a war correspondent.

Who needs Scott Thomas when you've got Amit Paley.

The corrections history:

April 6, 2007 Friday

FINANCIAL; Pg. D01
Education Dept. Official Under Scrutiny in Student Loan Probe

The U.S. Department of Education is investigating a senior official in its financial-aid office who owned about $100,000 worth of stock in a student loan company that has been subpoenaed by New York authorities, department officials said yesterday.

April 7, 2007 Saturday

A-SECTION; Pg. A05
Student Loan Official Suspended

The U.S. Education Department yesterday suspended a senior agency official who held more than $100,000 of stock in a student loan company at the same time he helped oversee the lending industry.

April 9, 2007 Monday

CORRECTION
In some April 7 editions, an article incorrectly referred to Matteo Fontana, general manager in a division of the office of Federal Student Aid, as a presidential appointee.

April 13, 2007 Friday

A-SECTION; Pg. A09
Education Chief Orders Ethics Check

U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has launched reviews of the department's ethics and financial disclosure policies in response to questions raised through far-ranging investigations of the student loan industry, the agency said in a statement last night.

Last week, the Education Department suspended an official, Matteo Fontana, after revelations that he owned at least $100,000 in stock in the parent company of Student Loan Xpress while he helped oversee the student loan industry.

April 21, 2007 Saturday

FINANCIAL; Pg. D01
Federal Overseer Of Student Loans Invested in Lenders;
She Owned Stock in 5 Large Firms

The No. 3 official in the U.S. Department of Education, who oversees the student loan industry, had more than $10,000 invested in student lenders, according to documents released last night.

Sara Martinez Tucker, the agency's undersecretary responsible for financial aid and higher education, reported the shares in financial disclosure forms filed in October 2006 and released yesterday in response to a request from The Washington Post.

The department said she had not violated any ethics rules, which prohibit employees from working on matters involving a company in which they hold more than $15,000 in stock.

April 24, 2007 Tuesday

Correction Appended
FINANCIAL; Pg. D01

3 Schools Settle Lending Charges;
Attorneys General Follow N.Y.'s Lead In Probing Industry

Also yesterday, the Department of Education released new details about the No. 3 official at the agency, who reported holdings of more than $10,000 in student loan companies on her financial disclosure forms. The Washington Post reported on Saturday that the official, Sara Martinez Tucker, the agency's undersecretary responsible for financial aid and higher education, disclosed the shares of stock on forms filed in October 2006.

Katherine McLane, a department spokeswoman, said she learned after publication of the article that the holdings were part of a 401(k) that belonged to Martinez Tucker's husband. She said the shares were sold in November shortly before Martinez Tucker, who has declined to comment about the holdings, was confirmed by the Senate.

CORRECTION:
An April 24 article in the Business section may have left the impression that Career Education Corp. began steering students toward Sallie Mae and Wachovia after the lenders paid $21,000 to Career Education's scholarship fund. Sallie Mae and Wachovia were already on Career Education's preferred-lenders list at the time of the donation.

April 29, 2007 Sunday

EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. B06
Falling Short on Fairness
Deborah Howell

Reader Terry Steichen of Fairfax questioned an April 21 article on the Business section front page headlined "Federal Overseer of Student Loans Invested in Lenders." The story, by Amit R. Paley, said that Sara Martinez Tucker, the No. 3 official at the Education Department, had reported in financial disclosure forms filed in October that she owned stock in Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wachovia, five of the six largest student lenders. All of the investments were in the $1,000 to $3,000 range, well within ethics rules.

The story said: "The disclosure comes in the midst of a widening student loan scandal exposing financial ties among lenders, universities and government officials."
Steichen felt the story was "incredibly misleading. . . . What the article didn't mention is that these five are each very large public corporations that do a huge amount of business in varied fields . . . Why was the story published and . . . with such an accusatory headline? Why was it placed on the front page of the Business section?"

The investments were small and the story was problematic, of interest only because of the student loan scandal. An Education Department spokesman called Paley back a few days later to say that she had learned that the stock belonged to Tucker's husband as part of a 401(k) retirement savings plan and was sold as Tucker went to work at the department.

That was revealed in the last three paragraphs of an April 24 story on another facet of the student loan scandal.

The first story was on the cover. The rollback of it was buried. The second story should have had its own headline and more prominent display. Business editors agreed.

June 26, 2007 Tuesday

A-SECTION; Pg. A04
Ex-Aides Break With Bush on 'No Child';
Conservatives Giving Vent to Doubts; Support for Opt-Out Proposals Grows

President Bush urged lawmakers yesterday to renew No Child Left Behind, his landmark education initiative, but one of his biggest political liabilities in achieving that goal comes from an unlikely source: his former aides.

The legislation Republican critics introduced in March is drawing support from several former department officials, including Hickok and Brian W. Jones, the department's general counsel from 2001 to 2004, who said he endorses the concept.

"There has been disappointment among conservatives like me," Jones said. "Those of us who consider ourselves federalists believe that at some point, the federal government needs to step back and vest states and local authorities with the power to get to the original goals of No Child Left Behind."

CORRECTED STORY

Bush Urges Lawmakers to Renew 'No Child'
Former Bush Aides Speak Out Against Initiative

Some former senior department officials said they have a strained relationship with Spellings over first-term disputes and her second-term agenda. That friction might hinder her efforts to gain support from key education groups and lawmakers for renewal of No Child Left Behind, several senior officials said. Many of those groups and lawmakers have close ties to top officials from Bush's first term.

The legislation Republican critics introduced in March is drawing support from several former department officials. Hickok endorsed the legislation and Brian W. Jones, the department's general counsel from 2001 to 2004, said he supports the concept of exploring ways to better engage the states.

"There has been disappointment among conservatives like me," Jones said. "Those of us who consider ourselves federalists believe that at some point, the federal government needs to step back and vest states and local authorities with the power to get to the original goals of No Child Left Behind."