In case you haven't noticed, I very rarely post anything that comes from Politico.  That is because the stupidity and unsound journalistic practices of Politico, which is unquestionably a biased source of news, can be traced to those who fund and run it....right wing, scandal ridden Reaganite Repugs and their flunkies. 

As Glenn Greenwald wrote in 2007:  "In the middle of an article by The Politico's Mike Allen regarding last night's GOP presidential debate, one finds this paragraph:

She [Nancy Reagan] was escorted out of the hall by Frederick J. Ryan Jr., chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation, and president and CEO of The Politico.

"So the President and CEO of The Politico, Frederick Ryan, is also the Board Chairman for the Reagan Library. And that makes sense, because Ryan is a long-time, hard-core Reaganite.

"There is nothing wrong per se with hard-core political operatives running a news organization. Long-time Republican strategist Roger Ailes oversees Fox News, of course. But it seems rather self-evident that a news organization run by someone with such clear-cut political biases ought to have a hard time holding itself out as some sort of politically unbiased source of news. [Bold added.]

"The Politico's biggest boosters are Matt Drudge and George W. Bush, and it is run by a Reagan loyalist. At the very least, those facts are worth considering. Given that Editor-in-Chief John Harris has repeatedly vowed to be more "transparent" in how they conduct themselves, shouldn't we have some understanding of the role played by Ryan, and what his connection is to "Allbritton Communications," whose "deep pockets" are (partially? fully?) financing The Politico?

"The Politico's primary (perhaps sole) funding source is the Allbritton Company, of which Frederick Ryan is an employee. The Allbritton family's leader, Joe, was CEO of Riggs Bank when Riggs pleaded guilty to a series of illegal financial transactions with right-wing Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and his brutal military that took place throughout the 1990s and into 2001."

So it's annoying as hell when Politico and its ilk plus talking heads like "Tweetybird" Matthews generalize about the "new media," insisting that "both sides [left and right] do it" which is blatantly misleading and a load of horse patooties.  Right wing bloggers and media are notorious for habitually disseminating lies and disinformation; a clearly one-sided, reactionary practice but according to Politico done by "both sides."

Digby explains: "This Politico analysis of the problem with new media is very interesting. They use this week's "Journolist" leaks and the Breitbart mess as examples of how "both sides do it." That the first is the result of a right wing web site peddling off-the-record emails and the second is the result of a right wing web site peddling lies doesn't seem to inhibit their conclusion one bit. In fact, they go out of their way to point out that one of the experts they consult, Deborah Tannen, wrongly sees this more as a one-sided phenomenon.

"The fact is that partisan blogs are partisan. I'm not sure why that's even worthy of comment. But one side has a habit of unethical behavior by any standard --- making things up, editing to create a wrong impression --- and the other doesn't, [bold added] which the Politico manages to elide throughout the piece. Indeed, the entire analysis fails to even address this particular aspect of the story. Evidently, they've decided that it just doesn't matter --- it's part of the "landscape."

"In the end they pretty much say Breitbart rules their world and that there's nothing to be done about it. Indeed, they seem to be warmly embracing it --- may a million right wing hit sites bloom. And I think we can count on Politico uncritically covering each and every bogus story they print."