Reporters Have Sex With Members of Congress, Obama Admin Senior Official Reportedly Claimed
[Spoiler alert: A minor plot point from season one of Netflix's "House of Cards" is revealed in this article.]
Reporters have had sex with members of Congress who are also their sources for news articles, an unnamed senior official in the Obama administration reportedly told actress Robin Wright as she was asking about her role in Netflix's "House of Cards."
In an interview with Capitol File Magazine, Wright says she spoke to a senior Obama administration official at the White House Correspondents Dinner about the accuracy of the show. According to Wright, the official revealed that, like in season one of "House of Cards," reporters have had sex with government officials who are also their sources for news articles.
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"We spoke to a senior person in the Obama Administration at the White House Correspondents' Dinner last spring," Wright said, "and he said everything is accurate in this show – [except] you'd never get an education bill passed that fast."
The reporter then asked if that official thought "reporters sleeping with sources and members of Congress was factual?"
"Oh yeah," Wright answered. "… DC is more corrupt than Hollywood. It really is. It's more sleazy than Hollywood … how much infidelity goes on."
On Fox News' "The Five," Bob Beckel, a columnist who worked in the Carter administration, said he knows of specific cases where reporters had sex with members of Congress and other government officials.
When asked if he believes reporters have sex with their sources, Beckel answered, "Are you kidding me? I was in Washington for 30 years. I can tell you. I don't have to guess. I can tell you specifically."
He then recalled one female reporter who "slept with at least two members of Congress" and a female lobbyist who "slept with probably eight members of Congress."
He started to recall another incident, but then cut himself off: "When I was in the [Carter] administration ... well, anyway."
Beckel also noted that it is not just female reporters. He also knows of male reporters who have had sex with female members of Congress.
On the same show, Dana Perino, who was press secretary for George W. Bush, said she had "no personal knowledge" of a reporter having sex with a government official. But when she asked some of her friends about it, they told her, "That happens all the time."
In 2012, there was a similar scandal involving CIA Director David Petraeus. He was having an affair with journalist Paula Broadwell, who was writing a biography of Petraeus at the time.
