The Self-Effacing Geithner: An Invention at the Post?

The Post began an article on Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's political troubles by telling readers that: "When Timothy F. Geithner emerged as the leading candidate for Treasury secretary in late 2008, he privately urged Barack Obama to think twice about whether to hire him. Geithner had been a key architect of the government's bailout of Wall Street and would carry that history into the new job, he reminded the incoming president." While this assertion appears at the very top of the article, framing it as a piece about a hard-working public servant, it is only near the end of the piece that we discover that the source of this information was Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Given that the article's only source was a person who had a strong motivation to paint himself in a positive light, it would have been better judgment not to feature his alleged warnings to President Obama so prominently in the article.

--Dean Baker