WaPo Relies on Pew-funded Source

Today's Washington Post carries an article on the FEC and bloggers. That's good news, both since it gives the story wider play, and since it may serve to alert some bloggers who have dismissed the threats posed by the FEC's need to implement last fall's ruling by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, which held that Internet publications must be subject to the same regulatory rules as print journalists.

It also contains this forboding quotation from an FEC commissioner:

The Post's Brian Faler writes a pretty balanced account, I think, until the conclusion, where he quotes Larry Noble of the Center for Responsive Politics. Hold your cursor over that link and you'll note that the CRP's web address begins with "opensociety." [see Update II below] The Open Society, of course, is funded by George Soros, and it's one of the eight major liberal foundations that Ryan Sager exposed on March 11 as funding, along with Pew, the astroturf movement for campaign finance reform.

In fact, CRP lists Pew as having given $500,000; the Ford Foundation gave $1m; and Carnegie $450,000.

Noble, former general counsel for the FEC, teaches federal election law at George Washington University Law School. CRP's bio of him says that he "served as the president of the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws from 1997 to 1998 and received the 2000 COGEL Award for his “efforts to promote the highest level of ethical conduct amongst governmental officials and candidates…."

COGEL, in turn, is "a professional organization for government agencies, organizations, and individuals with responsibilities or interests in governmental ethics, elections, campaign finance, lobby laws and freedom of information." It's a government employee out fit, and membership is available to anyone with what could be called a professional interest in the regulation of political speech:

By the way, anyone who favors regulation of political speech might want to polish their resume and send it off to the Center for Responsive Politics, because they're looking to hire a Director of FEC Watch:

The reform lobby is very displeased with the FEC whenever it acts to curtail that lobby's power to reign in political speech. So keeping a "watch" on it isn't surprising. Also, Noble has been a speaker at the Western Knight Center for specialized journalism, where he may have run into Sean Treglia, who has also spoken there (scroll down). Nothing wrong with that, to be sure, but it does show some of the circles the reformers move in.

The Post could have found a far less partisan voice for what is billed as expert (but not biased) commentary. There's nothing wrong with quoting Noble -- if he's identified as an interested party with a long history of pro-reform activism. He wasn't, and he should have been. But the days are gone when the Post, or any other entity, could quote from such experts without being watched over themselves. Call it a new kind of reform.

Update: Captain Ed has some thoughts on Ellen Weintraub, who's quoted in the Post article, and her efforts to assure everyone that we can trust her.

Update II: In my second paragraph above, following the quotation from the Post, I say that a link has the words "open society" in it. I erred and should have written "open secrets." But the main point is accurate: the organization that Noble runs is indeed funded in part by Pew, and it is openly pro-campaign finance reform. Using Noble as an expert in such a story is fine, IF he is identified as a partisan who has accepted funding from liberal foundations which, in this case, created an "Astroturf" movement and advised grantees to be tight-lipped about the source of their cash.