How a Mother Jones reporter pursued the Romney ‘47 percent’ story

Source: washington post

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Corn, the Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones magazine, on Monday wrote one of the most-talked-about stories of the 2012 presidential campaign about a video of Mitt Romney telling Republican donors at a May 17 fundraiser, among other things, that President Obama’s supporters constitute the “47 percent” of the nation who are “dependent upon the government, who believe that they are victims.”

Corn, 53, spent about four weeks coaxing the person who had surreptitiously shot the footage to hand over the full, undoctored video. It was recorded, apparently without Romney’s knowledge and via an unknown device, at the fundraiser at the home of a wealthy private-equity investor in Boca Raton, Fla.

In the end, Corn said, getting the story came down to trust.


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At roughly the same time, Huffington Post Washington bureau chief Ryan Grim was doing his best to coax the source out of the shadows.

The source, whom Corn will only identify as a “he,” had apparently tried to provoke interest in the Romney recording by posting a brief clip, in which Romney describes the appalling conditions inside a Chinese factory, on YouTube shortly after the May 17 fundraiser.

In a further bid to attract attention, the source apparently posted links to some of the clips and anonymous comments about them in the message sections of Huffington Post and DailyKos, a liberal commentary site.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/how-a-mother-jones-reporter-pursued-the-romney-47-percent-story/2012/09/18/c6dc17e8-01d1-11e2-b257-e1c2b3548a4a_story.html