No journalist has done more to expose Wall Street designs on public pensions than David Sirota.
When I need to make the argument that the assault on public pensions is not just a local Illinois issue, I have Sirota’s work to point to.
He was a staff writer for the Silcon Valley internet web site called Pando Daily.
No longer.
He was fired over the weekend.
Today The Gawker reports:
Over the weekend, Pando fired two of its hardest-hitting editorial staffers, David Sirota and Ted Rall, both nationally syndicated veteran journalists. Sirota recently broke a big story about Chris Christie’s administration awarding pension contracts to hedge funds, private equity groups, and venture capital firms whose employees donated to the governor’s reelection.
In February, Pando raised $1.2 million in financing from some powerful venture capitalists, including Accel Partners and Founders Fund, both of which invested in prior funding rounds.
Sirota’s scoop about Chris Christie breaking anti-corruption laws was shared and liked 10,000 times on Facebook. According to Quantcast, Pando is only pulling in 859,000 monthly uniques globally and 579,000 uniques in the U.S.
An anonymous source alerted Valleywag to the firings. Neither Rall nor Sirota would comment on why they were fired. But there was a consensus among sources that the decision was not related to budgetary concerns. “It was completely from Sarah Lacy. Paul was the executioner. Apparently it came from complaints from investors in Pando,” according to one Valleywag source. “Sarah basically said there was not enough tech and too much politics.”
Too bad.
Fred Klonsky 
Corrupt big money silencing the truth Sayers.
Reblogged this on Reclaim Reform and commented:
David Sirota may be best known for his expose of Gov. Chris Christie, but active and retired teachers know him best for revealing the obscene profits made from pension theft and the wage theft forced upon teachers mandated to pay into pension funds they are assured will not be there if and when they retire. If this doesn’t prove that the power of hedge fund managers and corporations has control over even the “free press”, then nothing will. Sirota’s loss is a loss for us all.
Cowards. I thought you were going to be a source for the truth. Were you intimidated, threatened, what? You certainly have enough money not to be bought off. Disgusting. We finally get someone who tells it like it is, and then they’re gone. We have become a plutocracy.
Outrageous! What can we do> A petition to boycott Pando or whatever it’s called?
Sirotta is so good he willl no doubt land on his feet, but… I hope he has a working wife.
Rolling Stone: we have another hard-hitting expose’ writer available!
I’m getting this don’t shit where you eat feeling.
Comment is meant as a condemnation of Pando. It appears that many of it’s founders/supporters also gained from the very things David exposed. Sorry wasn’t clear in my comment. His being “let go” shows how controlling/vindictive the 1% are.
Fred,
Awarding contracts isn’t the problem, pay to play is. The $ has to be made up somewhere, guess who pays. You don;t have to go to NJ to look for this problem. Teacher pensions aren’t being singled out, look anywhere there is a large pool of $ to manage
And what were are UNIONs doing when this was happening ?????? Oh…collecting dues.
Both reporters should go directly to MOTHER JONES… Pass “go” and collect $2000 !