The Problem With Politico’s Kamala Harris Hit Piece Is Not That The Sources Are Anonymous

Tommy ChristopherJul 1st, 2021, 1:22 pm
 
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND - MAY 28: U.S. Vice President Kamla Harris puts on a U.S. Navy jacket given to her by the class of 2021 as she delivers remarks at the U.S. Naval Academy Graduation and Commissioning Ceremony at the Naval Academy on May 28, 2021 in Annapolis, Maryland. The graduating class of 1,084 will be commissioned as ensigns in the Navy or second lieutenants in the Marine Corps. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Politico Playbook’s most recent article shredding Vice President Kamala Harris and her staff is being widely criticized by the VP’s allies and others, and while the anonymous sourcing is a lightning rod for those criticisms, that isn’t the real problem with the piece.

Frankly, there’s a lot to criticize in the piece, which paints the VP’s office as a dysfunctional hellscape presided over by stentorian gatekeeper and Chief of Staff Tina Flournoy. There’s this from Josh Barro, not exactly a card-carrying member of the KHive:

And a similar, more pointed critique from Bakari Sellers:

And as Matt Yglesias — also not a Kamala Harris stan by any stretch — points out, this is the second article in two days hitting Flournoy for basically doing her job:

The New York Times’ Nick Confessore was diplomatic in pointing out the lack of “there” there:

Even frequent Harris critic Meghan McCain is defending the VP on this one.

And to Politico’s mild credit, they included on the record comments from senior adviser Symone Sanders that really do put the reporting in context — and could have made a bang-up headline:

Symone Sanders, senior advisor and chief spokesperson for Harris, pushed back against the complaints and defended Flournoy saying she has an “open door policy” and that “Black women like me would not have the opportunity to work in politics without Tina.” Of the chief of staff’s anonymous critics, she added: “People are cowards to do this this way.”

“We are not making rainbows and bunnies all day. What I hear is that people have hard jobs and I’m like ‘welcome to the club,’” Sanders added. “We have created a culture where people, if there is anything anyone would like to raise, there are avenues for them to do so. Whoever has something they would like to raise, they should raise it directly.”

But Sanders didn’t make the headline, and Politico is promoting and bolstering the piece by bragging about the “22 sources” on which their thin premise is based:

Yes, with 22 anonymous sources, how can you go wrong?

The answer is, you really can’t if you know how to read what you’re reading.

Anonymous sources are very important and should not be disregarded out of hand. In fact, our lead story for hours today has been from a Politico story based on an anonymous source. But that anonymous source had very strong attribution — a Trump adviser who was relating what he heard on a conference call.

In Politico’s case, they’re employing what I like to call Pufferfish Sourcing, a new way of conferring credibility by way of the sheer number of anonymous sources. In this case, Politico’s umbrella reads “In interviews, 22 current and former vice presidential aides, administration officials and associates of Harris and Biden described a tense and at times dour office atmosphere.”

Now, sometimes, there’s good reporting in this form, but you have to pick through the sources to see if there are anything but guppies in there.

Take the juicy quote about people being “thrown under the bus” and being “treated like shit,” for example. That one is attributed to a “person with direct knowledge of how Harris’ office is run.”

I mean, that could include me. It wasn’t me.

The bulk of the complaints come from the exact people who are being denied access to a vice president who, nearly everyone agrees, is super-busy working for an administration that has faced monumental and unprecedented challenges.

Which is not to say they should be ignored. The TL;DR headline here might be “Tina Flournoy Doesn’t Think Kamala Harris Has Time for Your Shit,” and maybe there’s a debate to be had over whether the vice president should make time for your shit. In that case, though, it would help to know who “you” are.

And there has been enough of a low hum coming (mostly) from Politico to deduce that maybe there are a couple of disgruntled or quasi-gruntled folks in the administration feeding this narrative to reporters. But not many, and judging by the weak attribution in the reporting, not very high up.

But don’t take my word for it that Politico and other outlets are having difficulty developing high-quality sources to dish on the inner workings of the Biden White House. The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi wrote an entire article devoted to reporters bitterly complaining about just that “problem”:

“No question, the Trump White House leaked a lot, especially in the early days when the tribal rivalries were fiercest,” said New York Times reporter Peter Baker. “The Biden people have come in more disciplined so far, and we haven’t had as much insight into the behind-the-scenes fights and debates inside the White House.”

That is not to say that fights and debates aren’t happening within the White House, he added. “It may just take us a little longer to learn more about them.”

Another White House reporter called Biden’s White House “effectively a leakproof operation.”

Politico did a similar story about the lack of good leaks from the Biden administration. The problem may be even more acute for Politico than for other outlets, as they are viewed by Harris allies as openly hostile to the VP after one Politico reporter posted a misogynistic meme about Harris (he later apologized, and was not disciplined) and another claimed Harris was “focused more often on being the United States’ first Black vice president than the first Asian American one,” among other pettier slams.

There are, no doubt, some administration aides who felt burned over the border trip, as senior adviser Anita Dunn acknowledged in the piece, and that could have made for its own standalone report.

“It was closely held and there may be people whose feelings were a little hurt on her staff that they weren’t brought into the discussion,” Dunn told Politico. “But any suggestion that it was mishandled or kept a secret from people who needed to know about the arrangements or needed to know about it is absolutely not true.”

Imagine spending weeks saying the VP doesn’t do photo ops at Republicans’ behest, only to have a border visit announced shortly thereafter. That could not have been fun, but when the boss decides something needs to get done, that’s that. And as Ms. Sanders made clear, the job isn’t about fun — especially not where a politically stubborn and complex policy issue like the border is concerned.

The moral of the story is that old adage “consider the source” — even if there are 22 of them.

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