Good news: Six Ohio state agencies now accused of snooping on Joe the Plumber

posted at 6:19 pm on November 14, 2008 by Allahpundit
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Via Ace. You guys are always complaining how the media doesn’t do enough fact-checking. Well, cheer up: Apparently, the government’s doing it for them.

The [tax] department’s first search of the day was unsuccessful because of incorrect information about the individual, Kohlstrand said. Ohio Attorney General Nancy Rogers’ office then contacted taxation because it was having difficulty accessing the database, Kohlstrand said. After the two agencies talked, taxation completed a successful search.

Kohlstrand said that the AG’s office wanted access to the records so they could turn over to the national media lien information that was a public record in Lucas County. He said the national media did not have reporters in Toledo, so the attorney general’s office was helping them out with public records…

Rick Anthony, deputy tax commissioner, said there are times when a payment can be in the pipeline so a lien appears unpaid when in fact the taxpayer or business has repaid the state.

Anthony said the database searches on both days were conducted to ensure that the information in Lucas County was being properly reported by the media.

”Wouldn’t that have been a disaster if the lien had been paid,” Kohlstrand said. ”The responsible thing for us to do would be to take prompt steps to make it right.”

Oddly enough, the state’s inspector general finds all this curious. Golly, if only the FBI had been as forthright and thoughtful in investigating The One’s attendance at Trinity, his connections to Ayers and Rezko, his mysterious college years, etc etc. Wouldn’t it be a disaster if the smears were allowed to persist without being debunked? The responsible thing for them to do would be to take prompt steps to make it right.

Exit question one: Assuming that these were in fact public records, why was the media reporting on the liens before they’d double-checked to see if they’d been paid off yet? Exit question two: Why was the AG’s office “helping them out”?

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