Any Idiot with a Blog…

The Internet is great. I couldn’t do what I do at the Rio Grande Foundation without it. Nonetheless, as Thomas Friedman rightly pointed out in his book “The World is Flat,” technology levels the playing field for EVERYONE regardless of the merits of their work or their arguments.

And, while I am used to being attacked by those who disagree with me and the Rio Grande Foundation for believing in smaller government, my personal integrity has never been attacked…until some guy named Christopher Dudley came along.

Dudley posted a bunch of accusations that mostly centered around two alleged points:

1) I lied about my background and resume;
2) RGF is a membership organization that has little support except from corporate sponsors.

The second argument is just silly. As this article points out, 501c3 non-profits are not really “membership” organizations. So, we don’t have “members” at all. His corporate sponsorship number is also completely fictional as that information is simply not available for 501c3s. The best financial information on non-profits is contained in a group’s 990 form and is available online at www.guidestar.com.

Now, to his claim that I am a liar. Here is my bio. It mentions that I have published in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and US News and World Reports.

In some cases, there are more than one, but here is more than ample evidence to illustrate that I have not misrepresented myself.

Here is one from US News.

Here is one from the Washington Post (by no means the only one, for more, go to the Post’s advanced archival search page and type in “Paul Gessing”).

And here are a few from the Wall Street Journal, here, and here.

Anyway, I’d never have responded to this jackball because I have more important things to do, but mainstream news outlets inquired and I felt the need to respond. So, be careful out there and don’t believe everything you read online.