alt Hacker News> Joachim himself declined to provide his last name or workplace because his employer does not want to be associated with the campaign. POLITICO has verified his identity. Joachim said his employer has no commercial interest in the legislation, and he alone paid the costs associated with running the website.
This type of approach from the journalist always confuses me. Why would his employer matter? What does that have to do with anything?
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Because there is a difference in optics between a guy doing something and a company (with likely much larger resources) doing the same thing.
A person speaking up is cool. A company speaking up is lobbying.
Even before journalism was under a sustained assault from the right, clarifying potential conflicts of interest was fairly standard practice. Now, I see journalists more frequently bending over backwards to (futilely) preempt criticism.
Because astroturfing is a real thing and because finding hidden loyalties is frequently a good indicator that the source has been lying.