The Daily Beast’s Hit Piece on Cory Booker Sure is Weak
October 25, 2014 by Daniel Greenfield 0 Comments
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. He is completing a book on the international challenges America faces in the 21st century.
Cory Booker has often been accused of putting style over substance. The same is true of Olivia Nuzzi’s hit piece on him for The Daily Beast which is a fun read, but in substance comes down to nothing.
Once you get all her sneers and put downs out of the way, here’s the sum total of her actual indictment of Booker.
But a state audit by the comptroller’s office found that the agency’s director, Linda Watkins-Brashear, was a donor and close ally of Booker’s, was using the Watershed like her own personal bank account—paying herself $1.98 million over seven years, when her salary came to just $1.16 million. The also doled out millions in no-bid contracts to her friends and husband. Further, Booker’s former law partner, Elnardo Webster, had been acting as the Watershed’s counsel—and his firm had profited $212,318. “He had nothing to do with the business the firm conducted with the Watershed,” Booker’s spokeswoman, Silvia Alvarez, told me.
…Which is not to say that blame for the corruption should be placed solely at Booker’s feet—but the the comptroller’s office noted in their report that the mayor did not attend a single meeting regarding the agency. He instead sent a business administrator in his place, and then when the administrator resigned, in 2010, Booker never replaced them. He had no time to go to the meetings, he said. Never mind that a dearth of free time never seemed to get in the way of a commencement address, or a talk-show appearance, or a social-media stunt.
That’s the best that Nuzzi has and it’s not remotely news. But Nuzzi, who appears to have done little for this piece except pile of sneers, manages to take a shot at Charles C. Johnson who actually did investigate Booker.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/the-daily-beasts-hit-piece-on-cory-booker-sure-is-weak/
