Department of Fake Conflicts of Interest
The New York Times takes a look at some potential conflicts of interest involving Obama appointee spouses, and after a few legitimate points moves on to some weird stuff:
Several other spouses of people tapped for top Obama administration jobs have careers connected to government.
Susan E. Rice, the United Nations ambassador pick, is married to a producer of the ABC program “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.” Gregory B. Craig, the White House counsel designate, is married to a graphic designer who has worked on Postal Service stamps. And the wife of Timothy F. Geithner, who is Mr. Obama’s choice for Treasury secretary, once worked for Common Cause, a watchdog group that lobbies for tighter ethics rules.
The worry is that Geithner might be unduly influenced by his wife’s penchant for ethical government? That Craig will somehow pervert the ordinary postage stamp design process? That doesn’t make any sense. A married person who lives in Washington, DC and has a spouse will almost certainly have a spouse who has some kind of connection to politics and government. That’s pretty much what people do here. But being married to a graphic designer who’s done contract work for a semi-independent government agency is about as far from a conflict of interest as you’re going to find.
32 Responses to “Department of Fake Conflicts of Interest”
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December 16th, 2008 at 9:56 am
The Times Company owns the Boston Globe.
The Times Company owns the Boston Red Sox (minority stake)
I don’t see that headline plastered above every page of the sports section, and to me that is a real conflict of interest since the it is in the Time’s (and thus the Globe’s) best interest to have everyone in Boston love the Sox and hate every other competitor for their sports entertainment $$ (Pats, C’s, Bruins) and you can see that everyday in their shameful reporting and slandering of those other 3 fine organizations.
December 16th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Glad to see the NYTimes maintaining the time-honored press tradition of requiring that Democrats be purer than Ceasar’s wife, yet holding the opposing party to a “that’s just Republicans being Republicans” standard.
December 16th, 2008 at 10:10 am
That Craig will somehow pervert the ordinary postage stamp design process?
Well, if we see any perverted postage stamp designs we’ll know where they came from.
December 16th, 2008 at 10:16 am
And the wife of Timothy F. Geithner, who is Mr. Obama’s choice for Treasury secretary, once worked for Common Cause, a watchdog group that lobbies for tighter ethics rules.
Even if by some stretch of imagination, this counts as a conflict of interest, wouldn’t it be the good kind? She’s lobbying for tighter ethics rules for heaven sake, wouldn’t we want our Treasury Secretary to be more ethical?
December 16th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Just because you can not find the scandal, does not mean the legacy media is not going to scream scandal! scandal! scandal!
Matt, I’ll buy you a nice tin foil hat at the after christmas sale. It will make it easier for you to see the SCANDALS!
December 16th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Of course, we all know how the oh-so-liberal NY Times was also so concerned about the marriage of Alan Greenspan and Andrea Mitchell. They also were always up in arms about the various conflicts of interest in the Bush administration.
Wait a minute …
December 16th, 2008 at 10:24 am
This stuff matters because if Gregory Craig had been White House counsel some years back, you can be certain that the American public would never have been allowed to choose between “Young Elvis” and “Fat Elvis,” a staggering affront to fundamental principles of democracy, and blow to all those in the world who cherish Libery and Freedom.
December 16th, 2008 at 10:44 am
when all postage stamps come from Gregory Craig’s family photos, you’ll wish you’d been less flippant in this area. Thank goodness for the ever vigilant NYTimes, always on patrol!
December 16th, 2008 at 10:49 am
How many married people, in DC or otherwise, don’t have spouses?
C’mon, Matthew, bone up on your analytic propositions.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Women who work? What is this world coming to? Next we’ll have powerful men married to public school teachers or pediatricians. Just think of what that might do to expand their outlook…agh.
December 16th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I bet a lot of these couples have children or would like to have them in the future. I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t want my government officials being unduly swayed by the insider lobbying efforts of Big Toddler. Pretty soon as much as 5% of GDP will go to juice and naps! Where’s the outrage, New York Times?!
December 16th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
This is obviously a case of “I did a lot of research for this story, and after writing it I have a lot of data left over, so I will put it into one paragraph near the end.”
Never underestimate the importance of “It is here” to the decision to include information in a news story.
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