John DiStaso

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John DiStaso is a newspaper journalist who is currently the senior political reporter for the Union Leader, a daily published in Manchester, New Hampshire.

[edit] Early life

DiStaso was born in New Jersey and moved to New Hampshire with his wife in 1979. There he began his career with the Union Leader first as a stringer before becoming a staff reporter in the early 1980s.

Today DiStaso writes the paper's weekly political column, "Granite Status" and was one of the moderators for the 2004 Democratic presidential candidates debate held on January 22, 2004 in Goffstown, New Hampshire. DiStaso is credited with coining the phrase, "Republican in Name Only" or RINO, in 1992.[1] DiStaso has also been described as the "The Dean of the New Hampshire Press corp" by greenmountainpolitics.blogspot.com.

[edit] Criticism

Distaso has been accused of Republican bias by the Columbia Journalism Review. The criticism came from a long interview with George W. Bush presidential adviser Karl Rove. The Review's Zachary Roth wrote this:

"As Rove no doubt expected, DiStaso -- who was singled out by Campaign Desk back in January for distorting a quote by Democratic candidate Wesley Clark during a televised debate -- dutifully transcribed Rove's words and presented them as a full news story, under the title, 'Presidential Adviser Defends Decision to Liberate Iraq.'"[2]