The Spectator (UK) is the oldest surviving magazine in the world. It is a venerable institution, now with its own American edition published as Spectator World.
Visiting a friend yesterday morning, I received an email message from the Spectator’s pseudonymous Cockburn. He wrote me: “Can’t help but notice…the recent trend in national media for claiming ‘exclusives’ about Somali fraud in Minnesota and Ilhan…have these guys not been reading Power Line/[Center of American Experment] for the last 7-8 years or are they merely pretending not to?! Thinking of doing an item on exactly that for today’s Cockburn newsletter.” He included my response in his column yesterday (links in original):
An amusing spat has been playing out between various outlets over who deserves credit for reporting out the welfare-fraud scandal in Minnesota’s Somalian community. The chief actors are the 19th-century pastiche paper County Highway, who published a detailed report by Armin Rosen last month, and Manhattan Institute outlet City Journal, whose contributors Christopher Rufo and Ryan Thorpe intoned on November 19, “The Largest Funder of Al-Shabaab Is the Minnesota Taxpayer.” The New York Times followed up with their own write-up 10 days later.
“We broke this story wide open with our investigation,” Rufo tweeted after the Times follow-up. “Sorry, but we beat you by a week on this story, with deeper and more accurate reporting,” responded the official County Highway account to Rufo. “Learning to give credit to others when it is due will only enhance your credibility as a journalist.”
One rather blue reply points out that both outlets are “six years late to the ‘breaking story’” and demands, “Apologize To @billglahn for being arrogant and disrespectful.” “Suck ****,” responded the official County Highway account.
Cockburn has a long history of giving credit where it’s due – and a fondness for the Land of 10,000 Lakes, where he will spend the festive season. Allow him, therefore, to sing the praises of Bill Glahn and Scott Johnson, who have dedicatedly pursued this and other Somali scandals via the Center of the American Experiment and Power Line sites, respectively.
“I can only say I covered the Feeding Our Future case because I thought it was important and wanted to make it a national story. I tried and failed,” Johnson told Cockburn. “I obviously need a course in public relations or self-promotion.” Cockburn is happy to provide lessons to our friends in the north any day.
Well, thank you Cockburn. I hope to have lunch with you when you comes to town over the holidays. I don’t think I’ll be taking you up on that offer though — I don’t want to be like that!
I’m filing this under Laughter Is the Best Medicine.
