D&C editorial board prints lies
The D&C ran an anti-Massa letter today that contains an outright lie. Whoever okayed this letter at the D&C should certainly apologize, though I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for either (in fairness, the person I’ve dealt with on LTE’s, Max Anderson, seems like a reasonable guy). The letter is mostly criticizing Spitzer (we’ll have more on that later), but here’s the part about Massa:
The new attorney general finds Democratic Gov. Spitzer’s top aides pressured the New York State Police to create documents to damage a political opponent, Sen. Joseph Bruno, a Republican. This reminds one of Democrat Eric Massa’s staff securing sealed court documents to embarrass Republican Randy Kuhl during the last House election.
In fact, Eric Massa has never mentioned Randy Kuhl’s ugly divorce records. His staff had nothing to do with the release of sealed court documents. Randy Kuhl’s divorce records — which contained allegations that Kuhl abused his ex-wife — came to light in 2004, long before Eric Massa entered politics at all. Massa ran for Congress in 2006, not 2004. I’m having a difficult time finding a live news link that describes what happened in 2004, but here’s links (MyDD; SoxTalk) that reproduce the AP article that describes it all.
So here’s we are now: either the D&C is too lazy to fact check its letters or the D&C is complacent in a Swift Boat campaign of lies aimed at advancing their parent company’s Republican agenda. Which is it?
This is simply unacceptable. I encourage everyone who cares about the truth to contact the D&C Editorial Board here (you should phone if you can):
Phone: (585) 258-2641
Update: A commenter points us towards another news article on the 2004 Kuhl divorce kerfuffle, which involved Kuhl’s 2004 opponent. Massa did not run for Congress until 2006.
Related posts:
Exile,
Thanks for getting this up so fast. I had just read that LTE about 15 minutes ago and couldn’t believe the audacity of it–especially the part about Massa. LTEs are different than op-eds in that they are more opinion-based than factual, but this was way over the top. This leads me to wonder what the LTE policy is in terms of correct facts and venom-spewing. I’ll call.
Just left an irate message on somebody’s voice mail. I really cannot bellieve this!
D&C Letter to the Editor…
Rochesterturning reports that today’s Democrat and Chronicle printed a letter to the editor with a major error. The letter accused Eric Massa’s staff of using sealed court documents to embarrass Randy Kuhl. Of course, the staff of Sam Barend, Kuhl’s…
I just spoke with Henry Beetz. I started my conversation by acknowledging his right to express an opinion about Eliot Spitzer. Then I admonished him for writing lies about Eric Massa. He replied that the D&C checked the facts and printed his letter.
I assured him he was totally wrong about Massa campaign staff obtaining and using the Kuhl divorce documents and that it actually happened in 2004 with Sam Barend’s staff. He then repeatedly used the term “my recollection”. To the best of his recollections, the information in his letter to the editor is correct. Then he mentioned that if Massa staff wasn’t involved in obtaining the sealed divorce papers, then at least he is correct in saying that Massa used the information against Kuhl.
I got Mr. Beetz’s email address and sent him links to everything I could find showing that this information was released in 2004 during Sam Barend’s campaign.
The only actual news source I found was this http://rochestercitynewspaper.com/archives/2004/10/29th+Congressional+District and this only briefly touches on the basics of the divorce papers.
[...] of our commenters spoke with the man who wrote the factually incorrect letter that the D&C published today (I am [...]
Massa absolutely did not use that information against Kuhl. In the Bath debate, the topic came up obliquely with a question about the candidates’ positions on domestic violence. Massa knocked it down, said that it wasn’t a proper topic for debate, and left it at that. I have yet to see or hear a word from Massa or his campaign on this topic, for the simple reason that it is political dynamite.
In the Bath debate, the topic came up obliquely with a question about the candidates’ positions on domestic violence.
This turned out to be because it was Domestic Violence Awareness month or week or something like that, so the questioner probably didn’t mean to bring it up either.
I overheard some people talking about this at the pool today, the word that got my attention was “shotgun”
DEEP IRONY:
I was the Communication Director on the Eric Massa 2006 campaign, and indeed, as everyone in this thread has indicated, the facts in the LTE are flat-out wrong.
IN FACT, what actually happened in 2006 was exactly the opposite. Near the end of the 2006 Massa/Kuhl race, a messy news story broke about a business dispute between Eric and Sanford Dickert, his one-time Campaign Manager. About 5 days out from the election we learned that apparently, the court papers that ultimately triggered the news break were initially obtained from the County Courthouse (and most likely slipped to the media) by none other than James Kuhl, Randy’s son and then Campaign Manager, who personally signed the Court Clerk’s logbook.
Of course, this is exactly the opposite of what happened in the 2004 Kuhl/Barend race. This was the Kuhl Campaign doing to the 2006 opponent what he (RK) complained bitterly about being done to him in 2004 by a different candidate.
[...] wrote about the LTE that slurred Massa by stating, as fact, his campaign had something to do with [...]
[...] is reminiscent of the D&C Editorial Board’s claim that Massa was involved in the release of Kuhl’s divorce… (Massa wasn’t even running in [...]