Political reporting done correctly

This blogger frequently complains about the quality of political reporting done by the mainstream media, so I feel compelled to applaud loudly when I see political reporting done properly. Here's a perfect example from Jim Dwyer in today's NY Times on an attempt by Republican challenger, Tom Kean (former governor's son) to swiftboat Senator Menendez:

Mr. Kean said that while Mr. Menendez now poses as a brave truth teller who helped topple a regime of political crooks, he had actually issued $2 million in public money to a corrupt contractor "as part of a massive illegal kickback scheme." Had Mr. Menendez not cooperated with prosecutors, aides to Mr. Kean said, he might have gone to jail himself.

To a depth unusual for events that are decades old, the Kean campaign's accusations can be measured against a robust historical record — including F.B.I. tapes and volumes of trial testimony — of a roiling human and legal drama between 1978 and 1982 in Union City.

The Kean accusations find no support in those records or from independent authorities of that era.

The four former federal prosecutors who prosecuted senior Union City officials say that, in fact, Mr. Menendez did nothing wrong and much that was right under difficult circumstances.

"It's a sad commentary that Menendez's role in the trial is being used against him," said Samuel Rosenthal, one of the prosecutors, "when it was certainly an act of courage for him to testify against the entire city government, as well as an influential state senator, and people who are accused of being members of organized crime."

[Emphasis mine]

That's the kind of fact checking that all political reporters should be doing. I'm about to draft a letter to the Times in praise of Mr. Dwyer. It's high time the paper starts to encourage this kind of reporting (instead of the pap served up by Bumiller et al).