Kimberly adds quite a bit to my post yesterday on Gregg Phillips and his self-enriching tendencies. She’s got a lot of good insight there, so check it out.
Something I want to clarify: I thought the story that RG Ratcliffe wrote was a very good one, and for sure it’s not one that could have been written in June of 2003. My point was that while couldn’t know at that time for sure what Phillips was going to do as the HHS boss, we did know what he had done in basically the same job in Mississippi. That quote Ratcliffe used about “the appearance of impropriety” was known in 2003. I spoke to Chron reporter Polly Ross Hughes, who had written the original piece on Phillips, on the phone about it, and sent her the relevant links via email. My complaint is that this aspect of Phillips’ record was known at the time, but not reported on. As such, however good a job Ratcliffe did in this Sunday’s story, it feels like locking the barn after the horse was stolen to me.
Am I being churlish? Maybe. But I really feel annoyed when it seems clear to me that a few minutes with Google could have produced a better story.
That’s because you should have given it to the Quorum Report. (ha)