Yesterday, Media Matters highlighted a report from Foreign Policy's Josh Rogin that the "Washington Times owes the State Department more than $15,000 in long-overdue travel expenses."
Well, it looks like the Times has made arrangements to pay its debt. As Betsy Rothstein notes on Mediabistro.com's FishbowlDC blog:
Foreign Policy Magazine's “The Cable” Blog, in a story by Josh Rogin, is reporting this afternoon that TWT owes the State Department $15,000 in fees. TWT says it is already taking steps to pay its bills.
TWT Editor Sam Dealey told FishbowlDC: “This just came to our attention and we are making arrangements with State to settle this account immediately. I guess the only remaining issue is whether Jack Lew will pay back the taxpayers for his million-dollar bailout-bonus from Citibank.
Yep, the Times couldn't respond to the story without attacking Lew and Rogin:
”It's some pretty sloppy reporting. Rogin told me, for instance, that it was an Obama/Lew loyalist who fed him this story. That seems pretty relevant. And if Rogin would return phone calls and emails he'd know that we've already made arrangements to pay this off. But that wouldn't help his story either. This kind of nonsense wouldn't fly in my newsroom."
Stop laughing. I realize that it is the height of hilarity to see anyone from the Times talking about “nonsense” that “wouldn't fly in my newsroom.”
Rogin maintains he gave Dealey and other TWT employees in the story ample time to respond to the information he had gathered. He had no comment beyond what his story reports. Update: Rogin said he in no way identified his source to Dealey in any of what he said were several interactions by e-mail and phone he had with him before publishing the story.
Previously: