Petrelis Files

New Yorker Omission:
Author of Palin Stories Gave Obama $250

Philip Gourevitch, editor of the Paris Review and staff writer for the New Yorker magazine, has written a medium-length "Letter from Alaska" article about his visit over the summer to Alaska, and his chats with Gov. Sarah Palin, appearing in the current issue. In last week's edition, he penned a short piece for the "Talk of the Town" column, about her nice comments towards Barack Obama. From the column:

Before she was running against him, Sarah Palin—the governor of Alaska and now the Republican candidate for Vice-President of the United States—thought it was pretty neat that Barack Obama was edging ahead of John McCain in her usually solidly red state. After all, she said, Obama’s campaign was using the same sort of language that she had in her gubernatorial race. “The theme of our campaign was ‘new energy,’ ” she said recently. “It was no more status quo, no more politics as usual, it was all about change. So then to see that Obama—literally, part of his campaign uses those themes, even, new energy, change, all that, I think, O.K., well, we were a little bit ahead on that.”

Excellent reporting in both Gourevitch pieces that told me things I didn't know before reading the New Yorker. However, the magazine failed to disclose that Gourevitch donated $250 to Obama's campaign back in December 2007. Click here to read the info from the FEC about this gift.

You decide if the donation clouded or influenced in any way what was reported in the two pieces, or Gourevitch's outlook on Palin and her policies.

Over the weekend, I sent email to Gourevitch, his boss David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, and a spokeswoman for the publication, asking why the donation was not revealed to readers, and as of noon today, I haven't received a reply. If they do write back, I'll share their comments.