Does the Post Really Know That Timothy Geithner Threw a String of Obscenities at Bank Lobbyists?

Readers might be asking that question. In a front page article on the Obama administration's financial reform proposal the Post told readers that:

"On May 8, lobbyists representing many of the nation's banks and hedge funds huddled with senior White House advisers in the Roosevelt Room, seeking to snuff out an administration plan to increase the Fed's authority to regulate them, when Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner stuck his head in the door.

Fresh from meeting with Obama, Geithner asked the lobbyists what they were up to. When they explained they preferred that a council of regulators, rather than the central bank, safeguard the financial markets, Geithner silenced the discussion with a string of obscenities, according to people who were present."

It might be helpful if there were some names associated with "people who were present." Presumably this group would be bank lobbyists and Obama administration officials. Both sets of people have an interest in making the reform proposals seem harsher on banks than may actually be the case. Hence, it would be very beneficial to them to have the Post write on the front page that Geithner threw a strong of obscenities at bank lobbyists, whether or not it was true.

The likelihood of spreading self-interested falsehoods is substantially reduced by associating names with such statements, which is why most newspapers try to avoid anonymous assertions of this sort.

--Dean Baker