WaPo's Ezra Klein Briefed Senate Democrat Staffers About Super Committee

November 24th, 2011 5:14 PM

Washington Post columnist and JournoList creator Ezra Klein actually briefed a group of Senate Democrat chiefs of staff last Friday about the Super Committee.

Fishbowl DC reported Wednesday:

From JournoList to activist, it appears that WaPo‘s liberal blogger Ezra Klein is once again blurring the lines between being a journalist and trying to sway politics. In what appears to be at a minimum a breach of journalism ethics, Klein spoke to a group of Senate Democratic Chiefs of Staff last Friday about the Supercommittee, just days before the Committee announced its failing. “It was kind of weird,” said a longtime Senate Democratic aide, explaining that while people “enjoyed it” and gave it “positive reviews” this sort of thing is far from typical.

A longtime Washington editor who deals with Capitol Hill regularly also said this is not the norm: “”I have never heard of a reporter briefing staffers. It’s supposed to be the other way around. This arrangement seems highly unusual.”

Highly unusual indeed.

FBDC has emailed Klein as well as the Post's publicist about this, but hasn't heard back from either yet.

It certainly will be interesting to see what the Post thinks about its columnists briefing Senate staffers.

Stay tuned.

(H/T Weasel Zippers)