Meet Your Liberal Media: The Judy Miller of Defiance, Ohio Edition

Salon reports on a G.O.P. hack masquerading as a reporter, and his alleged attempt to cover up the crimes of the Ohio Republican Party:

But Bush's reelection may have been made possible by a [Toldeo] Blade reporter with close ties to the Republican Party who reportedly knew about Noe's potential campaign violations in early 2004 but suppressed the story.

According to several knowledgeable sources, the Blade's chief political columnist, Fritz Wenzel, was told of Noe's potential campaign violations as early as January 2004. But according to Blade editors, Wenzel never gave the paper the all-important tip in early 2004.

Wenzel says that he heard allegations of Noe's misdeeds only in spring 2004 and that he promptly informed his editors of them.

...

But Blade editors deny that Wenzel ever informed them about the allegations. The Blade's special projects editor, Dave Murray, who was Wenzel's assigning editor at the time, says Wenzel would have come to him with any such information about Noe. But, Murray says, "he never came to me, and, as far as I know, he never came to other Blade editors." Speaking for the other Blade editors, assistant editor LuAnn Sharp says no one recollects Wenzel turning over any such information.

Let's hope the Lucas County Prosecutor is taking lessons from Patrick Fitzgerald.