A Washington Times reporter mentioned in Media Matters for America's December 21 item about news coverage of a client represented by lobbyist Jack Abramoff responded to the item in a comment posted on Media Matters' website and on her personal weblog. The Media Matters item noted that Abramoff, in representing the Northern Mariana Islands, wrote a memo outlining a strategy to attack an Interior Department official; it also pointed out that two columnists known to have taken money from Abramoff wrote columns about the Northern Mariana Islands that also criticized the Interior Department official. The item further noted that those columns were relatively unique: The Northern Mariana Islands matter received little other media coverage, the bulk of which consisted of an op-ed and seven news articles in The Washington Times.

The journalist who wrote those seven news articles, Audrey Hudson, responded on her blog and in a comment posted on Media Matters' website, which appears at the end of the original item:

APOLOGY DEMANDED

IN MY ENTIRE CAREER AS A REPORTER, I HAVE NEVER BEEN OFFERED, NOR WOULD I EVER ACCEPT MONEY OR A BRIBE TO WRITE A STORY, NOT FROM JACK ABRAMOFF, NOT FROM ANYONE. THE INSINUATION IN THIS REPORT THAT I DID IS WRONG AND LIBELOUS. MORE INSULTING, I WAS NOT EVEN CONTACTED TO RESPOND TO THIS “REPORT.” I DEMAND AN APOLOGY OR CORRECTION IMMEDIATELY. IF YOU WISH TO VERIFY THIS POST IS FROM ME, I SUGGEST YOU CALL THE CONTACT INFORMATION YOU SO HELPFULLY SUPPLIED AND ASK ME! AUDREY HUDSON THE WASHINGTON TIMES

On her blog, Hudson asserted that Media Matters' item accused Hudson “of getting money for stories (other than my employeer [sic]).”

We have no reason to doubt Hudson's statement that she has never been offered or taken money from an outside group to write a story. For the record, Media Matters did not and does not suggest that any specific reporter or columnist, other than Peter Ferrara and Doug Bandow, took money from Abramoff or anyone else. As we wrote in our original item:

We do not know at this point [who else took money for columns]. And that is precisely why full, immediate disclosure -- by those who were paid for writing columns as well as those who paid for them -- is necessary: to help ensure that readers know what interests are behind the opinions they read and to help ensure that honest columnists have their readers' trust. Neither readers nor columnists are well-served by continued secrecy.