Last week, when Paul Blumenthal of the Sunlight Foundation and I hosted the search for quality news coverage of the U.S. Congress, the highest overall review score from Newstrust's community went to "Home Builders Halt Campaign Funds After Setback," by the Washington Post's Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, a story I had not predicted in my blog post introducing the featured topic.
Birnbaum wrote on February 14 about the announced withdrawal of campaign contributions after the homebuilders' political action committee saw its desired tax breaks cut from the economic stimulus package. He outlined the breaks sought and set the background of what's happening in the housing market. The story had been broken, according to Google News, the afternoon of February 12 by Reuters reporter Kevin Drawbaugh, and the Wall Street Journal's Brody Mullins had blogged that date about the withdrawal of funds, depicting its effects as "a blow to Republicans" because "[u]ntil recently, the home-builders had given about two-thirds of their donations to members of the GOP" and had given "55% of their $868,000 in campaign cash to Republicans" this year. Birnbaum used the extra time to go further, getting quotes from attorneys, other lobbyists both pro and con the move, and tried to get a comment from the PAC, who declined to elaborate on a written statement.
One of our new reviewers, Justin Michels, wrote, "maybe it is in all our best interest that at least someone is trying to hold them [politicians and lobbyists] accountable. In my opinion this article is the epitome of good reporting, because it encourages us to ask real questions and illustrates an important topic. well worth the read."
The story received an overall rating o 4.0, with eleven reviews ranging from a 3.0 to 4.4. As our editorial director Rory O'Connor commented, "Campaign contributions from 'interest groups' are tied to the decisions they hope lawmakers will take on their behalf? As Louie put it in Casablanca, 'I'm shocked!' Still, as this piece points out, the 'connection that usually goes unspoken.' This time it's explicit."
One of our hosts, James Jackson, who still found the story to be accurate, balanced and well-written, answered, "I would be genuinely surprised if the world didn't work this way. If I make an investment, I expect a return on investment."
Host Ben Ross suggested the story could have been improved by mentioning "present or past reform to lobbying and [PAC's.]" I also would have liked a bit of background on who this particular PAC supported and how they voted, as well as what Congress opted to include in the stimulus package in lieu of the homebuilders' favored incentives.
Thanks are due, too, to our new host Juliet Sallette, host/editors Mark Monday and Jim Lang, as well as Contributing Editor, David Cohn, all of whom also took time out of their busy schedules to review this story and thus compile Newtrust's "guide to good journalism" on the featured topic. A special hat tip, too, to Associate Editor Kaizar Campwala, who helped me locate stories on the U.S. Congress and get them out to our readers. And, of course, to all of you in the community who submitted and/or reviewed stories on this and other topics.
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