White House Has Reuters Reporter Fired?

Earlier this week, Reuters published a story under the headline Backdoor taxes to hit middle class. The link is now dead. Reuters replaced it with this:

The story Backdoor taxes to hit middle class has been withdrawn. A replacement story will run later in the week.

No replacement story has emerged. Instead, the reporter is no longer with Reuters.

Now comes word from former Editor & Publisher editor Greg Mitchell that Cullen is now no longer working at Reuters, though the circumstances of her departure remain unclear.

What brought about this retraction and loss of employment? Only Reuters and the former reporter, Terri Cullen, know the full truth, but the retraction took place after the White House complained.

Obama administration aides appealed to the Reuters White House reporting team to kill a story by another reporter of the news service that suggested the president's new budget blueprint included "backdoor" tax hikes.

The story claimed President Obama planned to let some of the Bush tax cuts expire and this was a backdoor tax increase on the middle class. Project World Awareness has a copy of the retracted story here.