About Mr. Kurt Eichenwald...

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"Further, Eichenwald in 2005 obtained and used administrative sign-on privileges to explore a commercial porn website containing images of a 14-year-old boy masturbating. Eichenwald went on to write a major Times story based on reporting he did about this site and the people who ran it."

Here's the problem though...

"Kurt Eichenwald, then a Times reporter, said he accidentally accessed a few illegal images while doing month’s-long reporting on Internet child pornography. In a sidebar to one of Eichenwald’s articles, the Times said that a law – presumably 2252– excused the reporter’s encounter with the illegal material. But Eichenwald’s published work implied he had accessed far more than two images."

And also this:

"Eichenwald claimed he became involved with child pornography to find out about the problem. In some instances, he did not tell Times editors what he was doing. Later expose of his activities provoked intense controversy in the media world, and currently he is not working as a journalist. However, he has not been criminally prosecuted."

(This controversy happened back in 2007)

[Excerpts from: http://www.counterpunch.org/2007/08/01/more-secret-payments-by-former-new-york-times-reporter-to-web-porn-star-surface-in-nashville-courtroom/]

Apparently Kurt Eichenwald thought it was a good idea to contact an administrator of a child porn website, pay this person 2000$ dollars in cash, get administrative access to said website, "research" said pictures/videos(never told the Times how many of these documents he observed) and bring the owner to authorities

He is coming back to prevalence today after his various Trump hit pieces in Newsweek. In defense to the controversy concerning his child pornography piece, he claimed that he had "severe memory disruptions" and that he had a "deeply unreliable memory for names, facts and events" back in 2007.

The issue stems from the amounts of cash he paid to the owner of this website. Eichenwald apparently paid $2000 in order to meet/reveal himself to the owner(in order to continue his piece and eventually 'save' this man). This was, at the time, a violation of the NYT's ethics. But the real oddity here was that he paid the owner an additional $1100, at a different time, under ANOTHER pseudonym(http://observer.com/2007/08/kurt-eichenwald-resigns-from-iportfolioi/). The second payment(2000$) was done to meet, tell the owner that he was a reporter(obtain the owner's identity in the process) and 'save' the owner of the website. We do not know what the first payment was for($1100) and why it was done under a separate pseudonym. The information regarding this is apparently sealed under court orders(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/08/business/media/08paper.html?_r=2&ref=us&oref=slogin). Eichenwald only told the website's owner who he was AFTER the $2000 payment. What if the first payment was done to access and view illegal child porn material? Eichenwald cannot say that he did this to gain trust from the website's owner, since the two payments were done under different pseudonyms at different times. He also told a colleague at the NYT this:

"Lawrence Ingrassia, the business editor of The Times, said that when the $2,000 payment came to light this year, Mr. Eichenwald told him that there were no other payments to Mr. Berry, save for one payment of $10 made through a PayPal account."

Why did he lie and not disclose the first payment of $1100?

This brings up a question that many wouldn't like to address: What was Eichenwald doing between the first and second payments? What if the first payment was done to get illegal child pornography material? If this was part of the story, why didn't he tell his colleagues?

There are many questions to answer regarding this and it is a shame Mr. Eichenwald had "severe memory disruptions" because it leaves so many questions unanswered.

Why has Mr. Eichenwald not told the public the reason why he made this payment of $1100?

(Disclaimer: This is obviously speculation, but this is what Mr. Eichenwald has done in his pieces recently)

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Sources: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/08/business/media/08paper.html?_r=2&ref=us&oref=slogin

http://www.counterpunch.org/2007/08/01/more-secret-payments-by-former-new-york-times-reporter-to-web-porn-star-surface-in- nashville-courtroom/