Friday, December 30, 2005

Birds of a feather

In the otherwise comprehensive Washington Post coverage of the corruption scandal centered around lobbyist "Casino" Jack Abramoff, one little detail didn't make it that does get dropped into an article in Friday's Wall Street Journal (subs. req'd):

Mr. Abramoff was considered the king of the skybox, entertaining lawmakers, staffers and reporters, including this reporter a few years ago when he worked at another news organization. Mr. Abramoff, who is negotiating a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, spent more than $1 million a year on luxury boxes at the MCI Center, Baltimore's Camden Yards and a pair of luxury suites at FedEx Field for [Washington] Redskins games. Mr. Abramoff also had a pair of floor seats for Wizards [NBA] games and rinkside seats for Caps [NHL] games.

While it's nice of the WSJ reporter [Brody Mullins] to out himself as a recipient of largesse, what other reporters also had snouts in the trough?

UPDATE: Reader DM asks a relevant question -- what was the previous news organization at which the WSJ reporter got the skybox ticket? A Google search shows bylines at Roll Call and National Journal.

UPDATE 3 JAN: Followup post on Jack's M.O. with reporters here.

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