(05/26/10) “Hit job: What Media Matters and the SEIU got wrong about Fortune’s Nina Easton” (Daily Caller)

[Kbentleyis]

No one heard much about this from the lamestream media. Wonder why? Does the lamestream media feel embarrassed about union actions? To me, they are way out of hand, and they better rethink their thuggery actions.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/05/26/hit-job-what-media-matters-and-the-seiu-got-wrong-about-fortunes-nina-easton/

Last week, Nina Easton, the Washington editor of Fortune, wrote a column about the SEIU and National People’s Action. The two progressive groups had sent roughly 500 protesters to Easton’s Chevy Chase neighborhood on May 16th to picket the front yard of Bank of America’s Greg Baer. Easton had just put her 2-year-old son down for a nap, and stepped outside to ask the protesters to quiet down. They didn’t. Easton wrote a column. And now she’s become the target of the SEIU and Media Matters for America.
Why? Because Easton, by “refusing” to disclose her husband’s relationship with Bank of America, was misleading her audience at Fortune, and the viewers of FOX News, where she commented on the protest. The only problem? There is no relationship between Easton’s husband and Bank of America.

According to SEIU blogger John Vandeventer, “one Google search” reveals that Easton’s ”husband is Russell Schriefer, Republican strategist and consultant to several big corporate interest groups. In fact, her husband’s client list includes the Business Roundtable, a special interest group that counts Bank of America and other Wall Street banks among its members.”

Media Matters’ Brian Frederick reprinted the same intel, citing Vandeventer. Both writers suggested that Easton had committed journalistic malpractice by not revealing her husband’s business doings.

But according to a source close to the family, both writers are wrong. Yes, Russell Schriefer worked with the Business Roundtable–once, during the 90s.

And yes, he’s worked for the Chamber of Commerce, but not since 2006. Currently, his firm “primarily does media for Republican senate, governor and presidential candidates”–not Bank of America.

Presumably it was the assumption that Easton had a dog in the fight–not just the fact that protesters woke up her 2-year-old and terrified Baer’s son, who was home alone–that led Vandeventer to write, “a woman came storming across her lawn, screaming at us to shut up and go away – telling us we had no business being there”; and, “The really interesting question here is: why is Ms. Easton so angry? And why has she decided to use her position as a member of the media to air her own personal rant at the people who showed up to share their foreclosure stories?”

Easton declined to comment for this story. Media Matters could not comment before this story went to print. The SEIU did not return The Daily Caller’s request for comment.

[samurai007]

Typical Leftist tactics, as we've seen over and over... smear the source (even if they have to lie to do it), don't discuss the real issues.

[Kbentleyis]

Glenn Beck reported on this, but we hear crickets from the lamestream. These unions storming on an individual's home is wrong. Why didn't they go after the guy at his business?

May 21, 2010 - 2:50 ET
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/40926/

Do you ever get the feeling you're in some sort of a parallel universe or on the set of a Hollywood movie? I have no logical explanation to explain the things going on in America today.

I read this morning that the chairman of the president's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, Paul Volcker, said that the United States doesn't have a sense of urgency and that "there are serious questions, most immediately about the sustainability of our commitment to growing entitlement programs."
Hmm, that sounds familiar. Oh that's right: It's the same thing I've been saying. Where's Anthony Weiner? It sounds like Paul Volcker is engaging in fear mongering. By the way, did you see the Dow today? It fell 376 points and is down 900 points for the month.

You know, when I first put this show together, I thought about what I wanted to do and how I wanted to approach it. Originally, the idea for the show was to tell you about the story of America: Every day it's a new page. As much as I feel like we are in a movie, that movie has no basis in reality. Why we have to do that is beyond me, when there are great stories out there. They're called news stories for a reason.

I think it's because in everything that happens, you see a little bit of yourself. But increasingly, news stories are becoming fairy tales.

So let me tell you a news story that you probably haven't heard. Remember the pictures I showed you the other day of SEIU protest? The media barely covered it. Well, let me tell you the story behind it.

Greg Baer, like many dads, enjoyed last Sunday afternoon by watching his youngest son play in a Little League baseball game. Even for me, someone who's not big into sports, there's nothing quite like watching your kid play baseball. Unfortunately for Greg, his day was about to take a turn for the worse.

Driving home, no doubt talking about all the highs and lows of the game with his son, Greg was shocked to find out what was waiting for him when he got home: An angry mob of protesters, surrounding the house, screaming and yelling bloody murder.

Greg was horrified, not only because his younger son had to witness this, but because his 14-year-old son was trapped in the home — alone.

These protesters were bussed in — 14 buses filled with about 500 people. They poured out of the buses and swarmed right onto the property and up to the house. Greg's older son, Jack — alone in the house — was so frightened as the mob yelled and became angrier that he called his father's cell phone and told him he was locking himself in the bathroom.

Greg, still in the car, was now faced with a decision: What do I do? I can't bring my younger son — around the age of 12 — through this mess. But I cannot leave Jack in the house to fend for himself. He tried to call police, but the police feared intervention would only incite the crowd even more.

So now what? Greg didn't have much time to think; mobs can turn at any moment. So he made a gut-wrenching decision: He drove around the corner, parked his car — with his younger son inside — and went to get his older son out of the house.

He made his way though the crowd — Excuse me. I need to get in the house. I have a child who is alone in there and frightened — they continued to yell and chant. I can only imagine what was going through his mind at this point. He eventually got his son out of the house and got back to the car and got out of there.

Now, you may be asking, what did this man do to warrant a bus of 500 mobsters at his house? If you said nothing, you're right. No one deserves this, especially not in America. But here's the excuse: The people were from a union — SEIU. They claim to be angry because Baer is the deputy general counsel for corporate law at Bank of America. Yes, he's one of those evil bank executives — a greedy Bush crony, no doubt.

Oh wait, he's a lifelong Democrat who worked for the Clinton Treasury Department.

But why not have the protest at the office? Why bring it to the front door? Unfortunately that's they way things are done now:

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

ANDY STERN, SEIU: We took names. We watched how they voted. We know where they live.
(END AUDIO CLIP)

Intimidation.

After the mob finally packed it in and left, they moved on to another CEO's house and then another. See, SEIU was on an intimidation tour and they were completely unapologetic, accusing a reporter who questioned the tactic of getting "emotional" on the story.

It's a good thing that there weren't very many reporters there to ask questions. No one there to question if this morally reprehensible or ethically even thinkable. No one to question if anyone was even in the house. No one to question the family about how they feel. How do they feel today? Are they sleeping well? How are the kids? Did his younger son have a great game that now has forever been lost? Because he'll never remember the game — the family won't remember it — it'll always be the day that their house was surrounded.

No one is asking the question: Why would they surround a lifelong

Democrat — a Clinton official? No reporter is left to question SEIU owing a ton of money to Bank of America. Isn't this the same tactic that SEIU and ACORN used on the banks that forced them to make risky loans? Does it have anything to do with unionizing tellers at the banks? There are a million questions.
That's the news part of the story. But to get a news story, the media have to ask questions, care or even just show up.

What are we turning into?

By the way, the neighbor who was brave enough to tell all the details — Nina Easton from Fortune magazine — is now under attack from SEIU. Guess where else she's being attacked? The Huffington Post.