Reuters Pulls 'Backdoor Taxes' Story

The news service Reuters withdrew a story last night titled "Backdoor taxes to hit middle class" after the White House reached out and pointed out "errors of fact."

The story, which claimed the White House's deficit reduction plan relies on raising taxes against the middle class by allowing tax cuts to expire, was withdrawn at about 8 p.m. Monday, according to Yahoo timestamps. The original story ran at 4 p.m. The withdrawal promises a replacement story later this week.

"The story went out, and it shouldn't have gone out," said Courtney Dolan, a spokeswoman for Reuters. "It had significant errors of fact."


She would not busy on the specific errors, but said Reuters will "address those specific credibility that were incorrect."

"The White House did acquaintance us and point out errors of fact," she added.

The White House did not anon acknowledge to requests for comment. (Update: An administering official outlines the White House's specific complaints.)

The adventure was active at the top of the Drudge Report's advanced folio this morning (here's the archived page) until White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton tweeted about the withdrawal:

FYI - Reuters has aloof the adventure at the top of the Drudge Report. Check it out here: http://bit.ly/cykiPJ

Minutes later, Drudge added a articulation to the withdrawal.

The story, accounting by Terri Cullen, claims that acceptance the Bush tax cuts to expire will aching the average class.

While the administering is absorption its angle on eliminating tax break for individuals who acquire $250,000 a year or more, common families will face a bulk of these backdoor increases.

Cullen was assassin as Reuters' abundance administration editor this month. She had formed for the Wall Street Journal Online for 13 years, allowance to barrage it and again alive as an editor and columnist of the "Fiscally Fit" column.

Her adventure additionally says common families may accept already been hurt.

"Millions of common households already may be adverse college taxes in 2010 because Congress has bootless to extend tax break that asleep on January 1, best conspicuously a 'patch' that bound the appulse of the another minimum tax," Cullen wrote.

"Without anniversary legislation to renew the application this year, the AMT could affect an estimated 25 actor taxpayers with incomes as low as $33,750 (or $45,000 for collective filers)," the adventure continues.

Michael Linden, the accessory administrator for tax and account action at the Center for American Progress, agrees with the White House that the adventure was misleading.

"The president's account keeps about all of these [tax cuts], and no one beneath $250,000 is activity to be adverse a tax increase," Linden said, "and to present any added account is aloof ambiguous and wrong."

It seems that Ms. Cullen had to be instructed that alfresco of the WSJ, she couldn't be so apparent in her political bias. Good for Reuters to abjure the commodity afterwards actuality baffled over the arch with the errors... now about that beat staff...

This allotment reeks of FAIL: "Without anniversary legislation to renew the application this year, the AMT could affect an estimated 25 actor taxpayers with incomes as low as $33,750 (or $45,000 for collective filers)," the adventure continues.

we so rarely get an absolute name to go abaft the bamboozlement ... abiding would be nice to chase the able 13 years of athenaeum for her added 'work' and run it through the veracifier a few times, alike alongside & backwards already or twice

lots of added fertilizer acceptable sown out by this cunt

They affected it was acting because they bare to do it by RECONCILIATION for Christ's sake. They got a huge robbery of the average chic able by the aforementioned adjustment the Dems are abashed to use to save the healthcare bill. The tax cuts for affluent fucks was additionally paid for with loans from the Chinese acclaim agenda the Bush bastards ran to everytime they capital article for nothing. So how does this behavior assemblage up adjoin their absolute abhorrence of an absurdity government? It makes them out to be the lying acquisitive assholes we consistently knew they were.

Lots of questions here.

Where did the reporter get this information? She clearly didn't get it from reading the budget documents herself (and if she did, then she needs to be fired because she's plainly not qualified to understand them). So, where did this analysis come from?

If it was an outside source who was feeding her this analysis, why was this story told from the "objective" perspective, as opposed to being a straight news story on some organization's analysis of the budget and what they found? Which, by the way, is a totally legitimate story to write! ("Organization X claims 'backdoor taxes' in budget")

But now, isn't there a much more interesting story now about whoever fed her this information? "Organization X makes up blatantly false budget analysis." Why isn't that story being reported? You're telling me the press doesn't like process stories anymore?

Furthermore, isn't there a very interesting media story on how this got written? I mean, the way it got pulled is pretty clear: the White House Press office read the piece, said to each other, "are they on crack?" and then called Reuters and said they had a story up that made them look like crackheads. And Reuters editors looked at the story, got really embarrassed that they were reporting night was day (like a crackhead), and they pulled it. But, uh, what made this reporter think the story she had was legit? And what made her editors think so?

source:
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/reuters-pulls-backdoor-taxes-story.php