Ex-WSJ reporter says he was framed in elaborate 'hack-and-smear' operation

A former Wall Street Journal reporter has sued a multinational law firm, some of its attorneys, and others for allegedly stealing his emails and spreading the messages to wrongly discredit him, leading to his firing. In court documents, Jay Solomon, who was the newspaper's chief foreign affairs correspondent until he was axed …

[Neil Barnes]

What's the old saw?

It's not whether you did it or not, it's asking the questions that does the damage...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What's the old saw?

An old Turkish saying: Throw mud at a wall, even if it slides off it will leave a mark.

[Dave314159ggggdffsdds]

Re: What's the old saw?

Read the AP article linked above. The questions which did the damage here were things like 'why did you tell him “Our business opportunities are so promising”?'

There really is no doubt that there were career-ending ethical breaches by the 'journalist'. It seems unlikely it matters how that information came to light, when he was caught doing such obviously unethical things. The only reason he never got any money for it was that he was caught before he got paid.

Frankly, that the hack in question now claims to have been innocent is just further evidence of his flagrant dishonesty. We have documentary evidence - again, how it was obtained is irrelevant as far as knowing what he did goes - which proves he did in fact do what he was fired for.

[Dave314159ggggdffsdds]

Re: What's the old saw?

Wow, Jay. Did you really sign up 6 separate sockpuppets to downvote me for pointing out you're a liar?

[Potemkine!]

He was lucky, he could have been kidnapped, killed and dismembered, with the sponsor getting rid of it.

We let all these despots doing these dirty tricks just for oil. I hope there will be a backlash when we will stop using fossil fuels.

== Bring us Dabbsy back! ==

[Missing Semicolon]

If we used our own instead of buying from such regimes, we would not have this problem.

[VoiceOfTruth]

Who is this "we"? We in the UK do not have sufficient oil so where do we buy it from? Don't say the USA, because that is overpriced.

[amanfromMars 1]

Re Black Market Spivs and Suchlike

Voice of Truth,

If the oil for sale is purchased in dollar$, one is buying it from Uncle Sam albeit via a collaborating proxy.

[MachDiamond]

"Don't say the USA, because that is overpriced."

Oil is market priced based on its characteristics. It's also not all the same stuff as some people seem to believe. When I hear questions about why the US exports oil, I know the person doesn't understand the subject. Many times the problem is there are no refineries set up to handle the type of oil that is being exported. In the US, it's been decades since a new refinery has been constructed. The long process to get one permitted, designed and built is riskier than many oil companies wish to take on. With some US states enacting laws to prohibit new petroleum fueled cars in the future, there's even less incentive to build anymore refineries. Some byzantine laws in the US also add to the issue.

[Missing Semicolon]

Don't forget that at one point, the USA nearly bankrupted Opec by driving the price down to $30/bbl. Don't forget that we have quite a lot of gas.

Even if our gas was as expensive as the world market, at least it will be available. Such local-supply-first clauses could be written in to the exploitation licenses.

[Aitor 1]

Cheap natgas

And Opec+ gave back the favour by almost bankrupting all the tight oil companies by lowering prices..

US gas is expensive to produce.

[Noodle]

We buy it mostly from Norway, Russia (up until this year anyway) and the Netherlands. USA is actually also a significant supplier.