More biased attacks on conservative legal movement by Politico.

Corporate Media’s Coordinated Campaign to Delegitimize the Court

Every day, the corporate media publishes a new hatchet job aimed at conservative justices, judges, and the legal movement. The purpose of this coordinated campaign is to delegitimize the court and intimidate jurists.

While activist groups have always shopped oppo research to journalists, these days, a person without journalistic ethics can probably build a career on spreading false partisan attacks.

Heidi Przybyla’s Hit Piece

Heidi Przybyla’s new piece at Politico, “Leonard Leo used Federalist Society contact to obtain $1.6 billion donation,” is her second hit piece in a week. The article insinuates that some unscrupulous behavior will be exposed, but all we learn after reading the 1700-word piece is that a bunch of normal Washington, D.C. fundraising stuff is happening and that no one broke any law or did anything unethical.

The point of the piece, as it is with the recent spate of these stories, is to create the impression of unethical behavior. Specifics aren’t important. That’s why the story is padded with journalistic-sounding red herrings and a string of scary words like “dark money.”

• Przybyla insinuates that it’s illegal for one-time employees of 501(c)(3)s to interact with any prospective political donors they meet through old acquaintances.
• She thinks prospective donors to tax-exempt groups are forever prohibited from speaking or giving to any political operatives.
• She thinks there are a special set of rules only conservatives must follow.

Sorry, but the real crimes here are that conservatives are raising money and that a “conservative” legal movement has experienced some success and stands in the way of unconstitutional, progressive policy goals. That makes leftists angry. That’s the story.