AP's John Solomon seems very intent on bashing Harry Reid

[NNN0LHI]

Probably be a good idea if we didn't believe too much of what this guy writes.

Don

http://mediamatters.org/items/200610120001

Drudge misrepresented as "sweetheart land deal" a business transaction by Sen. Reid, described in an article by AP's Solomon

Summary: A Drudge Report headline, which linked to an Associated Press article by John Solomon and Kathleen Hennessey, misrepresented a business transaction involving Sen. Harry Reid as a "sweetheart land deal." Rush Limbaugh read the AP report on his radio program, praising Solomon as "an AP writer that I have trusted. John Solomon's stuff is good." However, as Media Matters for America has documented, Solomon has a history of misleading reporting on Senate Democrats.

In an October 11 headline on the Drudge Report, Internet gossip Matt Drudge misrepresented as a "sweetheart land deal" a business transaction involving Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (NV), as described in a report that day by Associated Press writers John Solomon and Kathleen Hennessey. In fact, far from establishing that Reid benefited from a "sweetheart" deal, the article charges Reid with "complex dealings" and improper reporting of a land transaction in Clark County, Nevada, but acknowledges that Reid paid market value for the land in question in 1998 and sold it to developers in 2004. Additionally, nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh read portions of the AP article on the October 11 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show, pointing to it as evidence of a "culture of corruption."

Limbaugh's identification of Solomon as "an AP writer that I have trusted" notwithstanding, Media Matters for America has previously identified misleading reports by Solomon about Senate Democrats:

In a May 29 article, Solomon suggested that Reid had acted improperly by attending Las Vegas boxing matches as the guest of the Nevada Athletic Commission "while that state agency was trying to influence him on federal regulation of boxing." But Solomon left out important details, as Media Matters noted here and here.

In February, Solomon wrote an article alleging ties between Reid and disgraced former GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff that similarly came under fire, from Media Matters and others, for omitting crucial facts regarding the actions in question. Shortly thereafter, more details came to light undermining Solomon's allegations. But rather than acknowledge the flaws in his article, Solomon wrote a follow-up piece that misleadingly offered the new information as support for his original case.

In November 2005, Solomon similarly alleged connections between Abramoff and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), but ignored evidence undermining his claim that the lobbyist had directed contributions to Dorgan after the senator aided his clients. When Dorgan later returned the contributions he had received from Abramoff's clients, Solomon wrote an article in which he took credit for this development, but ignored the evidence undermining the purported ties between Abramoff and Dorgan that Solomon pushed in his first article.

[enid602]

1. Reid

You couldn't have invested in LV real estate and sold it (when Reid bought and sold it) without making a ton of money.