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Erik Wemple
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Posted at 05:20 PM ET, 05/11/2012

What’s a hit piece?


(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson) (Elaine Thompson - AP)
The Post’s blockbuster story on Mitt Romney’s high-school days: Conservative media critics at NewsBusters and Big Journalism concur that it’s a “hit piece.” Andrew Beaujon at Poynter.org calls it “a remarkably nuanced portrait of the presidential candidate as a young man.”

So there’s a difference of opinion here. There are indeed negative aspects of the story by Jason Horowitz, most notably its lede, which narrates a horrifying episode of bullying led by Romney at Cranbrook. Yet “hit piece” connotes intent, a plan to go out and get the subject. That’s a tall evidentiary threshold. What evidence can the hit-piece proponents marshal on this front?

By  |  05:20 PM ET, 05/11/2012

Tags:  mitt romney, cranbrook school, washington post, newsbusters, big journalism

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