Both BusinessWeek and the NYT detail how Jack Abramoff paid certain think tank analysts to mention and praise his clients in their placed op/eds.

The NYT ran their piece on Friday - and BusinessWeek on the 16th.

Responses to the accusations were posted online at one think tank the very same day.

While this issue is interesting on its own, there is a dialogue developing in the comments on the BW website, where one of the individuals quoted claims Eamon Javers, the author, ” … misquotes both myself and Peter Ferrara, in that it omits distinctions made in the interviews.”

The decision to comment directly upon a web-published article marks a distinct shift in our relationship with reporters - a shift underlined by a comment filed by Javers the same day.

I can see how one of the authors might feel exposed by his quote:

“Peter Ferrara, a senior policy adviser at the conservative Institute for Policy Innovation, says he, too, took money from Abramoff to write op-ed pieces boosting the lobbyist’s clients. “I do that all the time,” Ferrara says. “I’ve done that in the past, and I’ll do it in the future.” (BW)

Here’s Ferrara’s counter-argument, published online in response to this article.

If the allegations are true, that sure sounds like astroturfing on Abramoff’s part - and intellectual flooziness on the part of the writers involved.