The president of a shadowy liberal dark money group accused the Washington Free Beacon of practicing "journalism" in a Wednesday Politico story on the group’s recent conference.
The Free Beacon on Monday published a list of new donors to the Democracy Alliance, a secretive network of liberal donors that does not disclose information about its finances.
The donors were none too happy, Politico’s Ken Vogel reported. The group’s president was also peeved, and accused the Free Beacon of engaging in "journalism" (scare quotes included).
"Have you found the conspiracy?" Michael Vachon, an aide to billionaire financier George Soros, said he asked Free Beacon reporters Lachlan Markay and Alana Goodman after approaching their table at the hotel lobby bar.
The Beacon may have gotten the last laugh, though, publishing a story Monday based on a document Markay wrote that he found "on the floor of a publicly accessible area of the conference," listing new members of the secretive group including real estate heiress Amy Goldman and Philip Munger, son of a top Berkshire Hathaway executive. […]
The story prompted Democracy Alliance staff to reach out to the named donors, some of whom were "not wild about it," according to the group’s president, Gara LaMarche. He said the donors are "determined not to be distracted by sideshows," and explained they "knew the Free Beacon was sniffing around at our conference, and they are under no illusions about what kind of ‘journalism’ they practice. It’s annoying, but unfortunately that’s the world we live in."