Star-Tribune editor sheds light on negative Cubin ad
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Oct 3, 2006 Posted by Bill Luckett
Casper Star-Tribune editor Clark Walworth recently offered this explanation for how Gary Trauner said something in July, the newspaper printed its version of his comments, and the Cubin campaign has misconstrued them (I found this online here but not in the actual pages of the paper):
A July story in the Star-Tribune regrettably has lent confusion rather than clarity to the U.S. House race. TV ads from Rep. Barbara Cubin accuse Democratic challenger Gary Trauner of advocating higher taxes and lower military spending. Trauner's campaign says that's not accurate. I wish I could give you a definitive explanation. But, like so much in politics, this issue swims in nuance. And our story, I'm sorry to admit, was less clear than it should have been.
According to our story, Trauner held a press conference in which he called for making taxes "fair" to all economic classes. The story continued, "He said reversing a tax cut is not increasing taxes if the cut 'shouldn't have happened in the first place.'" What tax cut did he mean? His campaign insists he meant the estate tax, but our story didn't specify. That leaves the candidates to present dueling interpretations.
Also, according to our story, Trauner said some U.S. military spending might not be necessary. Did that mean Trauner wanted to short-change our troops? Or did he merely want to trim waste? Again, the story is regrettably unclear. The candidates can spin the words as they choose.A Trauner aide told me on Friday that Trauner's people had misgivings about the story at the time. They didn't complain then because they didn't want to whine.
Walworth concludes that reporters should avoid ambiguity, politicians should immediately ask for corrections or clarifications of stories about them that are incorrect or unclear, and voters should be skeptical of any interpretations of politicians' past statements. "Assume spinmeisters are at work," Walworth suggests. Indeed, based on Cubin's track record in the business, people should know by now not to take her at her word.
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Re: Star-Tribune editor sheds light on negative Cubin ad
Oct 4, 2006 | Tim | gaughan7601@msn.comCNN is reporting that a $20 million appropriation for a 'victory celebration' for winning the war in Iraq was included in a recently passed military appropriations bill in the House. Did that one slip by Babs too?