The Mirror

Politico Tries to Redeem Itself After BP Oil Publishing Disaster

Betsy Rothstein Gossip blogger
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Sunday is a perfect day for redemption. It’s the day Politico tried to change the perception of the disastrous BP story published last week in Politico Magazine by publishing a counter piece by Kara Lankford. They stuck this one in their once abandoned “In the Arena” section.

Lankford, Interim Director of the Gulf Restoration Program at Ocean Conservancy, has a superb lede for Politico optics: It announces in bolded blue that last week’s story was “opinion.” It also shreds last week’s story on BP by Geoff Morrell, who just happens to be BP’s VP of U.S. Communications and External Affairs.

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Screen Shot 2014-10-27 at 2.50.38 PMWhile Lankford’s piece discusses how BP actually did damage the Gulf, Morrell’s story explains why BP didn’t ruin the Gulf.

For some odd reason, Politico failed to affix the word “opinion” atop the Morrell piece, causing days of outrage from the media masses. They only added the word after the venom rightfully began pouring out online.

It’s not like Politico Playbook by Mike Allen is sponsored by BP again and again and again (and again). Why should they be sure to add the words “opinion” to what looks like a regular reported out magazine piece? By the way, BP sponsored Playbook every day between Oct. 20-26. On the eighth day, BP rested and allowed The Content Show at NYC’s Television Week to take over its duties.

“This defies journalism,” a longtime Washington journalist wrote to The Mirror during Politico‘s BP disaster last week. “It is a press release masquerading as something else.”

Even ex-Politco reporter Ginger Gibson, now a senior political reporter for International Business Times in New York, was appalled or “amazed,” depending how you interpret her tweet.

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