Bias Promoted: Illinois Political Reporter Natasha Korecki Goes To The White House – Wirepoints

By: Mark Glennon*

It’s emblematic of what’s been happening in the national press.

Natasha Korecki was promoted last week to White House correspondent for Politico. Until 2018, she covered Illinois government for the Chicago Sun-Times and later Politico’s Illinois operation.

During her years covering Illinois politics we consistently singled her out as the most overtly biased and deceitful reporters in the state. Most of the Illinois media, at the time, was far more biased than today, though problems remain. In the meantime, most of the national media descended into something often far more sinister than bias, routinely ignoring and distorting news that doesn’t fit its political narrative.

Korecki’s worst was directed at Bruce Rauner during his campaign and term as governor. It’s not like criticizing Rauner couldn’t have been accomplished with accurate reporting and fair commentary. We, too, quickly soured on him and our criticism was harsh.

But Korecki showed little interest in facts and fairness.

One example from many we wrote about: In 2018 Korecki authored a smear job on Rauner purporting to tie him to inhumane treatment of immigrants crossing the Mexican border. She based it simply on one of the holdings of Rauner’s former investment firm that provided services at the border. It was made to seem heinous enough that JB Pritzker made it into a TV ad in his campaign against Rauner.

The trouble was that it was complete nonsense. Even Rich Miller of Capitol Fax, no fan of Rauner, called BS on it. “I just want to scream at somebody about this whole Kafkaesque nightmare….dishonest,” he wrote. As Miller pointed out, Rauner officially had retired from his firm before the investment was made, and Rauner hadn’t yet directly made any money off it. And what service was the company providing at the border? Healthcare. Yes, healthcare for those detained at the border.

Another example is Korecki’s 2017 column headlined, “How Illinois became America’s failed state.” How did it? You guessed it – Rauner. The bull-headed standoff between Rauner and House Speaker Michael Madigan was responsible for Illinois’ problems, she wrote, though she did blame Madigan as well. Having covered the state for years before that, she knew full well that Illinois faced catastrophic problems long before Rauner showed up.

Over the past year Korecki was tasked by Politico to cover Joe Biden’s campaign. You no doubt remember all the grueling questions and tenacious reporting she and her media colleagues directed at Biden during his campaign such as, um, well, I’m sure there must have been something.

For all that she has been promoted to cover the White House, which is no surprise given what the national media have become. Traditional standards of journalism and simple honesty are history for all but a few outlets.

She got right to work. “MAGA media looks to turn White House briefing room into a battlefield” is her headline on her column from Monday.  But read it and you will find not a single bit of evidence supporting that claim. Twenty additional reporters have recently been added to the White House press corps but Korecki named only two that are right-leaning.

There’s a bright side, however, to this. Given how miserably pernicious most of the national press has become, maybe Korecki’s move from Springfield to the White House means her promotion pulled up the average caliber of the press corps for both.

UPDATE 1/28/21: Korecki’s latest is a doozie, openly cheering Twitter’s ban on Trump because it shields Biden from criticism.

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.