Hiatt Dismisses Criticism Of His Publication Of Misleading ‘Czars’ Op-Eds: ‘I Did Question It’

In July, the Washington Post published an op-ed by Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), in which the House Minority Whip claimed, “At last count, there were at least 32 active czars that we knew of, meaning the current administration has more czars than Imperial Russia.” “Vesting such broad authority in the hands of people not subjected to Senate confirmation and congressional oversight poses a grave threat to our system of checks and balances,” wrote Cantor.

At the time, ThinkProgress pointed out that several of the “czars” named by Cantor were in fact confirmed by the Senate. Noting that White House Communications Director Anita Dunn recently criticized the Post for running the op-ed without even questioning Cantor’s facts, The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz asked Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt to explain how Cantor’s column got published:

Post Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt tells me: “Actually, I did question it. The senator’s staff responded that the 32 number was based on research they had done at the Commerce Committee, and they backed it up with various media reports (they cited a Politico report of 29, but said there were three unfilled), some of which we also found.

“We also ran a piece shortly after this one, by David Rivkin, challenging the criticism and saying there is nothing unconstitutional about having ‘czars.’ “

Considering that Cantor is in the House, not the Senate, it appears that Hiatt is referring to the other factually-challenged “czar” column by a GOP member of Congress. Even though people publicly pointed to inaccuracies in Cantor’s article, the Post nevertheless allowed Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) to publish a piece in September making almost the exact same claims. “A few of them have formal titles, but most are simply known as ‘czars,’” wrote Hutchison, which is not true.

In her comments to Time, Dunn specifically griped about the Post running the claim that all the so-called “czars” bypassed Senate confirmation, despite the fact that many of them did go through that process or hold positions statutorily created by Congress. In fact, the Politico list that Hiatt cites in his defense makes this issue clear.

This isn’t the first time Hiatt has stood by columns that he’s published despite their serious factual flaws. When Post columnist George Will included multiple errors about climate change in a column, Hiatt defended Will, saying that “in general we do careful fact checking.”