Re: following up

From:Jake.Tapper@abc.com To: Jpalmieri@americanprogress.org, Jake.Tapper@abc.com, john.podesta@gmail.com Date: 2009-05-04 15:31 Subject: Re: following up

The report Thinkprogress filed about me is dead wrong. I made that clear to your reporter and he wrote it any way. If this is the quality of CAP's work I will let ABC News know that your organization cannot be counted on for factually accurate information. ________________________________ Hi, we have a board meeting today. So I have been out of pocket. We will be done around 330 pm, so I'll be able to talk then. ________________________________ What's the plan? To try to intimidate reporters who ever report on anything the White House disapproves of? Disgusting. ________________________________ Thanks -- we'll get that up asap. -------------------------- Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Device ________________________________ Please attribute the following to an ABC News spokesperson: "Your assertion that Jake reported on this matter because he was encouraged to do so by conservative talk radio hosts or their listeners is inaccurate. No one pressured him, no one peddled anything to him, and no one reached out to him to cover this. Indeed, the first he heard of Mark Levin pushing this story was in your post." "Jake first heard of this story when he overheard a radio reporter talking about Mr. Lauria's interview with WJR-AM. Having covered the Chrysler deal for ABC News, and having spoken to many Obama administration officials about the hedge funds whom President Obama disparaged, Jake was also interested in hearing the other side of the story." "He did due diligence on Lauria, found he was a leading bankruptcy attorney who represents players in this debate, with no discernible partisan bias, and called him up. He also reached out to the White House and got its denial of the story. Your implication is completely different from what actually happened." Thanks, Emily Lenzner ________________________________ The post is actually a pretty straight presentation of facts. If you dispute my conclusion, I'm happy to publish that. -------------------------- Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Device ________________________________ Off the record, Faiz, you should be ashamed for printing something so untrue. And John - is this was thinkprogress is? Print anything, damn the facts? ________________________________ You told me nothing for attribution. Like I said, I don't think the story is damaging for you, Jake. You get information from all sides. If you'd like me to print this part of your email, I'd be happy to: "Nothing in your story about my reporting on this matter is accurate. No one pressured me, no one peddled anything to me, and no one reached out to me to cover this. Indeed, the first I heard of Mark Levin pushing this story was on your post." ________________________________ Off the record Faiz -- As I told you many times off the record, both in email and on the phone, the premise of your story is just false. You nonetheless wrote it anyway, indicating quite clearly that you don't care about accuracy or the truth in your reporting. You wanted to push a narrative that I was used by the right wing media, so you wrote what you wrote regardless of the facts. That's shoddy journalism, and it's simply not reflective of the truth. As I told you, I heard of Lauria's claims when I overheard Ann Compton talking with someone at ABC News radio about Lauria's interview. That was the last I heard of it. I was interested in speaking with someone representing the hedge funds since President Obama spoke so strongly against them. Friday I was busy with Justice Souter's story, so I didn't get a chance to look into it. On Saturday, I found Lauria's interview on the WJR-AM website. I looked into Lauria, found him to be a credible voice, a leading bankruptcy attormey who indeed had represented the firm in question. Moreover, he had recently given $10,000 to the DSCC so he had no discernible partisan motives. I reached out to the White House, they denied Lauria's story, which we gave prominence in the story. Nothing in your story about my reporting on this matter is accurate. No one pressured me, no one peddled anything to me, and no one reached out to me to cover this. Indeed, the first I heard of Mark Levin pushing this story was on your post. The fact that you don't mention Lauria's giving money to Democrats is quite telling. This is inaccurate and you should be ashamed to have written it after I told you what happened. Jake ________________________________ here's the story. feel free to let me know what I got wrong (of course, I'm always happy to print an on the record response from you): http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/04/right-wing-radio-tapper/ ________________________________ off the record, i assume youll mention that the WH denial of the story first appeared in my blog, which highlighted their disputing of the story ________________________________ How did you first learn of tom lauria's comments on the frank breckmann show? -------------------------- Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Device ________________________________ What is the question you're seeking me to comment on? ________________________________ 202 247 0038 -------------------------- Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Device ________________________________ What's your number? ----- Thanks Jake -- I appreciate your honesty. It's my understanding that a right-wing radio host was peddling this to you, and I'm going to assert that you gave their cause some legs. I wanted to give you a heads-up and an opportunity to comment. If you'd like to go on record with anything, please let me know. ________________________________________ Off the record, I heard some of our radio people talking about it. I was busy with souter reporting friday, so on saturday I looked into Lauria. He had only given money to dems, is a leading attorney in his field, and represents many of these hedge funds and money managers - and until recently represented the firm in question. Certainly thought given the way the president had gone after his clients, it was worth hearing his view, in the context of the WH and Perello Weinberg statements. Why? What's your angle? ----- Hi Jake, As I noted before, I'm working on a story about how Tom Lauria's comments got legs. I know they were first uttered on Frank Beckmann's show on Friday. But I'm wondering how you learned about it. Would you mind letting me know? If you'd rather not say, that's fine. Thanks -Faiz