Blunt accuses Missouri media of “deliberately” misleading
Boxes of e-mails from the administration of Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt
On Saturday, the Post-Dispatch, Kansas City Star and Associated Press reported that e-mails from the Blunt administration showed that a former deputy counsel had offered advice on the subject of public records retention shortly before he was fired.
The governor’s office has consistently denied that fired deputy counsel Scott Eckersley ever offered the advice on e-mail retention.
The three news organizations had intervened in a lawsuit filed by special assistant attorneys general appointed by a Cole County Circuit Court judge in an attempt to protect records that had been sought in Sunshine Law requests. The Blunt administration had stymied attempts to obtain the records by trying to charge tens of thousands of dollars for them.
On Tuesday, the governor’s office for the third straight day issued a news release calling Eckersley a liar and suggesting that there were errors in the reporting of the e-mail flap. In a news release titled “Truth check” the Blunt administration offers its interpretation of several statements in Post-Dispatch stories that ran in Sunday’s newspaper. None of the statements in the news release actually suggest any factual errors in the Post-Dispatch’s reporting.
For instance, the governor’s office labels as “false” this sentence from Sunday’s story: “The administration contended that a fired staff lawyer never offered advice about the governor’s polity requiring public records, including e-mails, to be retained.”
The news release then labeled this statement, from a governor’s staffer, as true: “TRUE: Rich Aubuchon stated last year, ‘Mr. Eckersley never once voiced a concern, never once wrote an e-mail, never once talked to other employees in the office evidencing any concern that the governor’s office was not complying with the Sunshine Law or any record-retention policies.’”
The Post-Dispatch actually relied on that identical Aubuchon quote in its reporting about the administration’s contention. The governor’s office has now termed the e-mails that show Eckersley did voice such concerns as “communications advice.”
The governor’s news release also labels this sentence from a Post-Dispatch story as false: “And the governor’s then-chief of staff denied the existence of e-mails showing he had engaged in political activities on state time.”
The governor’s news release denies that the then-chief of staff, Ed Martin, was engaging in political activity. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with communicating with coalition groups on issues of public policy,” says the release.
For its reporting, the Post-Dispatch relied on a variety of e-mails from Martin that had a decidedly political tone to them, such as: “We need to beat the living heck out of him,” in an e-mail from Martin referencing Blunt political rival Attorney General Jay Nixon.
The governor’s office also labeled this sentence as false: “Whistleblowers in the Office of Administration had told Nixon’s office that Blunt staffers tried to order that backup tapes be scheduled for destruction.”
According to the governor’s office, “This assertion has been proven untrue in depositions in this case.”
Court documents show that whistleblowers in the Office of Administration have testified in depositions under oath that they believe they were told to schedule backup tapes for destruction.
Blunt administration official Rich AuBuchon has testified in another deposition that he believes those Office of Administration employees misunderstood the directions. The statement in the Post-Dispatch story made no determination as to which position was true, only that the allegation has been made.
Finally, the governor’s office labels this sentence as false: “The e-mail records portray Eckersley as a loyal but sometimes tardy Republican foot soldier.”
In the news release, under the heading “True,” the governor’s office doesn’t dispute any fact in the sentence from the Post-Dispatch story, but says that the story should have said that “the former employee was not only tardy, he was reprimanded for his tardiness.”
The governor’s office has not responded to requests for an interview with Gov. Blunt.
Another hilarious photograph of ‘boxes of emails’ to go along with the earlier one showing the numerous reporters around the table analyzing these email documents on their screens.
It reminded me of the ‘aerial shot’ of Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffmann (as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein) pouring over library check-out cards looking for clues in the Library of Congress. I think the P-D and KC Star reporters desire DESPERATELY to be like their heroes.
Of course, ALL of these reporters spent countless hours investigating ALL of the emails/correspondence/meeetings of Senator Barack Obama with his countless associations - like William Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn and Tony Rezko….
Oh, I’m sorry- how silly of me…
There weren’t ANY stories or interviews with these people in the PD (and other papers) who were such a strong part of the Senator’s life. I guess none of the reporters had any interest in seriously investigating the Democratic nominee who was running to be the President of the United States.
One would think at least ONE of these ‘investigative reporters’ would have fulfilled their job duties. How naive of me to think so…
John, still smarting over the election results, are ya? Time to move on, bud.
Karen, the PD doesn’t seem to be able to except on things that are of non-importance.
John has a great point which you Obamaniacs don’t want to acknowledge. Had the PD and others put in half the effort to do as John and others have mentioned it may or may not have affected the outcome of the election but at least they would have some semblance of credibilty.
As it is and their demonstrated failure to take credible investigative reporting actions, they have zero credibility. Another poster somewhere else aptly pointed out that they and other liberal “I’ll decide what you need to know” papers are losing subscribers faster than Carl Edwards on the track.
Oh yeah, it might help if reporters and especially editors really read and followed the “scripture” on the wall in the photos they show. If they did, most of them would either quit or have a life changing experience.
Another sore loser heard from.
Karen,
No, not a ’sore loser’…simply interested in the TRUTH - and seriously wondering why boxes of emails of an outgoing governor are of such interest to reporters who possessed not a scrap of interest in investigating someone who, inevitably, was elected to lead our nation.
Sadly, ideology and worldview prevented this from happening…
I’d think, Karen, that YOU would think this is a more important story - wouldn’t you?
No John, sadly she doesn’t.
To say that it doesn’t matter what the outgoing governor’s staff emails say is missing the point. The whole thing happened because news outlets made a request for information which all citizens are entitled to. The Blunt administration, who had not yet announced the governor was stepping down after this term, fought at every turn the right of Missouri citizens to see what their elected officials talk about. It’s the same principle that made us vote for English as the official language of state meetings - so we know what they’re talking about and can verify that they are acting on our behalf.
The Blunt administration lied about the existence of the emails requested, then said they weren’t covered under the law, and then tried to charge tens of thousands of dollars after a judge said the law applied. And then they fired the guy who told them that those were acts forbidden under the law and tried to deny he had ever said that.
I don’t care which party you’re for or against - you should be outraged that the Blunt staffers (or Blunt himself, we don’t know yet) would treat a media outlet’s legitimate request for information. How do you think they would treat you as a private citizen without the resources to fight them?
If you or the Republican Party or whoever feels that the relationships between Obama adn Ayers, Rezko, and Dohrn weren’t fully investigated you’re confusing me. At what point did the Republican Party, the “Swiftboat” type PAC’s, or you get blocked from finding the facts on your own? What actual facts are there that didn’t come out- that Barack has met on several occasions with people that committed crimes, have been dealt with by our criminal justice system, and are attempting to contribute to society in legal ways? Scooter Libby, Oliver North and G. Gordon Liddy fall into that description and we don’t seem to have a problem with people associating with them.
I am life long Republican who is frankly disappointed by some of the comments by my fellow Republicns on this blog over the last few days.
As much as I hate to admit it, the Post was dead on with their coverage. Dont get me wrong. The Post is reliably a Democratic newspaper. I think they were the only newspaper to endorse Koster over Gibbons for instance.
But you just can’t defend not complying with the sunshine law. It is the law and it should have been followed. To not produce e-mails as requested by a reporter is wrong. To say that the employee never advised on the sunshine law when in fact he did is also wrong. My strong educated guess is that the employee was fired because he dared to complain. Tht is also wrong. Ed Martin, whom I know personally and used to respect, really disgraced himself. There is no other way to spin it.
When you mess up it is always convenient to blame the press. The press didn’t violate the sunshine law. The press didn’t fire the young man. Look in the mirror, please.
Denial gets us nowhere. Blunt made ton of mistakes. The sooner we realize what the truth is the better off we are.
The good news. Help is on the way. The paint isn’t dry on the 2008 election and Mr. Nixon is already back tracking on his campaign promises. Ms. Young did a good story pointing this out yesterday. Don’t you think it is odd that just now Mr. Nixon is relizing he can’t do what he said he would. When Mr. Hulshof said repeatedly that Mr. Nixon can’t honor his promises. The truth is this that Nixon misled voters into thinking he could do something he couldn’t. He said over and over again that his promises didn’t require a tax increse. Right up to election day. That is the truth. Let’s make the man pay for deceiving the voters.
Let’s not defend what only partisan over the top people think can be defended. That is the conduct of the Blunt administration in e-mail gate. That conduct was deplorable, threatens the very idea of an open government and should be criticized by both parties.
I fail to see how Missouri’s Sunshine Law could be used to investigate Barack Obama. That is really what this is all about - Missouri Law. Bringing up Obama is a complete distraction from the case at hand, whether you’re Democrat, Republican, or a third party person.
Blunt and his group clearly ignored Missouri’s rules and they got called on it. That’s a victory for free press. I don’t know why that’s so hard for anyone to see. Try to examine a few things without that partisan lense every now and then, will you?
Boxes of emails from an outgoing Gov tracked down and examined like they may contain the secret to the fountain of youth! Indeed, a sad day in politics. William Ayers, Tony Rezko, Rev Wright, the list is too long to name. Not one bit of media interest on these folks and their association with BHO during the medias campaign to get Hussein Obama into office. A sham and a shame.
This issue deals with many people, not just the immediate Blunt staff (most of whom have been fired over this ordeal). It extends to his office of administration, his computer department (ITSD), in addition to other state agencies who continue to be under investigation because of bad behavior by Blunt staffers, many of whom need to begin stepping down from their posts. The principle of this particular situation is that Blunt’s chief of staff openly lied about why he fired Eckersley, just like other staffers lied about firing other people. Nobody believes any of the weak and ridiculous excuses given regarding this investigation or any other Blunt witchhunt, for that matter. Sadly, Blunt has learned the hard way (through blogs, elections, gossip, etc.) that you reap what you sow. Handling situations using diplomacy, maturity, and intellect are some of the reasons Nixon just got elected to replace Blunt. Nixon is smart, while Blunt was very unwise. Life sure teaches painful lessons when one refuses to do what is right.
Ed Martin hasn’t a shred of credibility left.
He lied.
He got caught lying.
He squealed and fumed and stomped in protest.
He posted many hollow protestations under many pseudonyms.
He lied. He got caught lying.
He is a disgrace and he disgraced the Governor’s Office, where once ethical occupants including John Ashcroft and Mel Carnahan would have sacked his sorry lying ass and had the Highway Patrol toss him down the front steps to land in a heap at the feet of a disdainful Thomas Jefferson.
The circle of justice is closing on Ed Martin.
It cannot happen soon enough.
John C, surely you are kidding. Tony Messenger investigated every little detail of Obama’s life — including his country of birth. They have a copy of the actual original certificate in the PD vaults. The only problem is that PD reporters are Democrats, so they are not going to release any information that hurts their candidates. They benefit financially from an Obama Presidency. It’s all about power and greed — not about finding out the truth.
Think, Obama’s birth certificate in the PD vault? Sounds like you spent too many oxygen-deprived days in that vault.
Mark, Tina, and Karen, you are not understanding that comments made regarding the Post Dispatch’s failure to do their homework on Obama ties directly in to this story, as it leads many of us to believe the story may not be truthful. The Post Dispatch proved to be a campaigner for Obama with it constant gloss-over of Obama’s past, Biden’s gaffes, and continous drill-down on McCain and Palin. I did an informal study of the Post for six months and found that most of the stories it had in the POLITICS section showed McCain/Palin in a negative light and generally showed Obama in a positive light. As some of the bloggers have mentioned here, the Post gave scant information on Ayers, Rezko, and Wright. Their omission in itself proved a bias and, frankly, a lack of fair reporting.
This lack of fair reporting lends those of us to believe that the Post will do what it can to discredit Republican candidates. While the story on Blunt is in-depth, most of us take it with a grain of salt since it’s just more partisan politics.
Obama won, we get it. However, in this era of “change” and “hope”, I would think that you and other Obama supporters would want the divisiveness that both parties have been responsible for to go away. In order for the “healing” to begin, it should start with fair and balanced reporting. We should see in-depth stories written on Nixon, McCaskill, and other Democratic representatives, showing the various skeletons in their closets.
As far as the email ’story’ there is no ‘there’ there. If there were… a Grand Jury would have it as we speak. The Post knows this… and is doing everything they can… to make people think there is. This is politcs pure and simple.
As to Karen and ‘just get over it’
Sorry, no can do. As I have said in these pages before, I’m giving Obama and Nixon the ’same’ honeymoon Bush and Blunt got… which is to say none. No Rodney King going to happen here.
We Republicans are too nice… what did we learn these last four years in Missouri politics? Pound our opponents, early, often, and keep at it… no quarter asked or given… keep it up, vilify them every step of the way. Both Nixon and Obama get only the back of my hand these next four years.
NO PRISONERS!
This whole story is a waste of time, money, and exasperation. Where was this kind of “investigation” when the ACORN mess hit our state? What about the “truth squads?” So, in the eyes of the PD, democracy is under attack over some emails, but it wasn’t under attack when ACORN turned in 38,412 voter cards for Donald Duck, the Artist Known as Prince, and Millard Fillmore? And again, where’s the outrage over McCaskill and Nixon not releasing their emails? Seems pretty hysterical and one-sided to me.
what did the Governor know and when did he know it?
sqarehead, (don’t)thinkj and the other neocons…
deny…
deflect…
delay…
delete…
rush and sean are so proud of you…
keep up the good work…
i’m sure you’re helping the repuplikan cause…
just look how sucessful you’ve been the last 2 elections.
llbean, what is your definition of a “neocon”?