As you may have noticed, Big Head DC sometimes comes down hard on Wonkette, and for that we’re sorry. We only hold Alex Pareene and Ken Layne to the same standards that we hold ourselves (must drink 1 bottle of Pinot in morning followed by Jell-O shots all afternoon).

But we’d be remiss if we failed to point out their lovely post last night on Josie Hearn, one of Politico’s star reporters. That blond-haired beauty (she was nominated as a hottest journo by FishbowlDC, after all) seems to have e-mailed a bunch of her non-all-star colleagues (who would dare to write for other publications), asking them to give her credit for a story that someone else had already broken:

From Wonkette: 

Subject: Loretta Sanchez story
From: “Josephine Hearn”
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2007 16:24:40 -0500
To: [Redacted]

Hi all,

If you are working on a story about Loretta Sanchez and the CHC, please credit Politico.com for breaking the story.

Below I am including stories I have written over the past year on the CHC rift. They may be of use to you.

Thanks,
Josephine Hearn

Unfortunately, one of the recipients had already kinda broken the story too. Full, cranky e-mail exchange…

Subject: Re: Loretta Sanchez story
From: “Patricia Guadalupe”
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2007 17:07:00 EST
To: “Josephine Hearn”

Hi Josephine,
Here are some stories that I have written about it, going back to November for The Capitol Standard (www.thecapitolstandard.com, which comes out every Monday) and Hispanic Business Magazine (daily on the web and monthly on newstands). There have been other stories about this in the Spanish-language press dating back to last fall.

Thanks,
Patricia Guadalupe

[Attached: piece featuring this graf:

Sources familiar with the closed-door meeting said the female legislators consider Baca “disrespectful” of women’s issues, adding that he once said one of the Latina legislators was also a member of the world’s oldest profession.from the November 30 Capitol Standard.] 

Subject: RE: Loretta Sanchez story
From: “Josephine Hearn”
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2007 17:35:28 -0500
To: “Patricia Guadalupe”
RE: Loretta Sanchez story

Hi Patricia,

I’m not saying I’m the only one writing on this topic. I’m just saying I’m the first to write on it and that in these three instances I broke the news. Nothing you’ve sent here seems to suggest otherwise. The LA Times and other papers have credited me on some of these and I appreciate it. But some outlets, especially La Opinion and AP, sometimes follow the story without credit. That may be their practice. I’m just putting my contributions out there.

Thanks,
Josie

Subject: Re: Loretta Sanchez story
From: “Patricia Guadalupe”
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2007 17:45:33 EST
To: “Josephine Hearn”, [Redacted]
CC: [Bruce Drake, Jim VandeHei, John Harris]

Hi Josephine,

The previous stories that we have done were done with our own sourcing and our own reporting, as you can see by the quotes in just the two stories I sent you, so I beg to differ that you were the first source to break this in previous ocassions.

You may want to recheck whomever is telling you La Opinión and others are not crediting you for yesterday, because it is credited and that here is highlighted for your convenience.

Patricia

Subject: RE: Loretta Sanchez story
From: “Josephine Hearn”
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2007 18:30:08 -0500
To: “Patricia Guadalupe”

You’re misunderstanding my point and then ccing my editors. This is becoming ridiculous. Have a good day.

Subject: Re: Loretta Sanchez story
From: “Patricia Guadalupe”
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2007 18:32:55 EST
To: “Josephine Hearn”
CC: [Bruce Drake, Jim VandeHei, John Harris]

It was ridiculous for you to start this in the first place. I am cc’ing your editors because you cannot make baseless accusations that question my work or the work of my colleagues in the Hispanic press who have been working on these stories since time immemorial before the mainstream “discovered.”

Have a great evening