Politico recently hired Timothy Noah to be the publication’s Labor & Employment editor. Now Noah is a former Slate and New Republic columnist who’s known for being stridently liberal, so if you are an employer or someone who generally just likes reading coverage of labor issues that isn’t slanted toward a pro-union bias, this was a problematic hire.
Noah’s hiring, however, wasn’t nearly as interesting as who he then hired. To help him cover the labor beat, Noah hired Mike Elk, formerly of Huffington Post and In These Times, the latter of which was basically a communist newspaper a few decades ago. I hesitate to call Elk a reporter — he’s really more of a activist who happens to call sources.
In fact, Elk lost his gig at the Huffington Post after he lent his press credentials to a a union activist. The union activist then used Elk’s credentials to gain entry into a mortgage bankers conference and disrupt it. Earlier this year, Elk wrote a long item at Huffington Post where he explained that he’s now evolved on the question of journalistic ethics — he now believes he should have some.
I’ve been following Elk for a couple of years on twitter, and it’s been a wild ride. He describes his style of reporting as “sh-tkicking” and say that he’s prone to outbursts, would be a bit of an understatement. In fact, he’s made headlines for starting pointless feuds with other reporters. This is mostly because Elk feels inclined to defend his anti-Semitic ex-girlfriend Rania Khalek, who likes to spout off about jewish journalists supporting “Israel’s racist ideology” and circulate photos of herself flipping off Bibi Netanyahu alongside Putin propagandists. Whenever these debates get too heated for Elk, he backs off by reminding everyone he has Asperger’s Syndrome and it’s not ok to go after people with mental health issues. Then there was the time that Elk raised eyebrows by asking strangers to pay for his vacation.
So those are the problems with Mike Elk. But before he gets completely dismissed, let me say I’ve covered labor issues a fair amount and… I kind of like the guy. I first encountered him at a union rally in August of 2012, where we were part of a pack of reporters that were trying to get a usable quote out of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Whatever you think of DWS, and these days the dislike seems genuinely bipartisan, I assure you that dealing with her in person is more annoying than you imagine. And yet, Elk managed to grill her about the fact the Democratic National Committee wasn’t using union labor at their upcoming convention in Charlotte. His questioning was dogged, fair, and ultimately humilating for the Chair of the Democratic National Committee.
In fact, if you scrape away the overt sympathies and general level of unprofessionalism — this is admittedly a lot of spadework — you can learn a lot from Elk’s writing on labor issues. He comes from a union family in Pittsburgh and is for better and for worse all about solidarity. He spends a lot of time with Union sources that might not otherwise trust reporters, because he speaks their language. If he gets his issues under control and is given a firm editorial hand, there’s a possibility he could become a great labor reporter.
Having said that, I seriously doubt that Noah will rein in Elk’s poor instincts. On twitter last week, Noah was asked what he was going to do to “ensure some balance of perspectives” and Noah responded, “We’re going to do straight news right down the middle.” Three days later, Elk was on twitter crowing about handing out Steve Early books to colleagues in the newsroom at Politico. Early is the Noam Chomsky-approved author of Save Our Unions: Dispatches From A Movement in Distress, so color me doubtful about Noah’s ambition to do straight news. But hey, this is America. I believe in second chances. And fourth and fifth chances, if they’re sincere. Honestly, I’m hoping Noah and Elk surprise me.
I only mention Elk’s hiring for one reason. Yes, I am as tired of writing about media bias as you are of reading about it. But Elk’s hiring is truly remarkable. What would be the equivalent of Elk’s hiring from the other side of the aisle? Could you, say, imagine Politico hiring Charles Johnson to cover the Tea Party? Hell will be a skating rink for disadvantaged youth long before that happens. And yet, there’s nary a peep about a decidedly left-wing columnist and an egregious union activist with an extensive history of unprofessional conduct and outbursts being hired to do “straight news right down the middle.”
