Blog Said it Misrepresented Quotes By a GOP Official; Raises Serious Questions About Similar Reporting in Michigan
LANSING, Mich. – A liberal blog with close ties to Democrat political operatives has been forced to pull-back claims that a local Republican official said the party would use lists of foreclosed homes to challenge voters on Election Day, saying it misrepresented quotes the officials made to an Ohio newspaper.
On Friday, the editor of MichiganMessenger.com issued an online retraction and correction over its reporting that Franklin County (Ohio) GOP Chairman Doug Preisse said his party would use foreclosure lists to challenge voters. In its reporting, the Michigan Messenger cited the chairman’s comments to the Columbus Dispatch as proof of such a plan. But on Friday the blog admitted Preisse never said such a thing and its claim that he did was wrong, after more than a week of full-throated protests that its reporting was solid.
The Michigan Messenger’s retraction of its allegation about the Ohio county chairman’s comments intensifies questions about the blog’s reporting of a similar plan in Michigan. The reporter for the Michigan Messenger cited the now-retracted claim of Ohio plan to use foreclosure lists to buttress its claim that Macomb County (Mich.) Chairman James Carabelli said his party would use such a plan. Carabelli said the Messenger’s reporter fabricated a quote attributed to him that such a plan was in the works and said he would sue for libel unless the blog retracted its story.
“We’ve maintained since day one that the Michigan Messenger made up this story and now, by its own admission, the rest of the world is finding that to be the case,” said Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saulius “Saul” Anuzis. “We stand one-hundred precent behind Jim Carabelli and are awaiting the Michigan Messenger’s retraction of this false story about him and Republicans in Michigan.
“The Michigan Messenger is a liberal blog with identified ties to Democrat political operatives. Its scurrilous reporting has been drug into the light of day and shown to be false. We said the Michigan Messenger fabricated this story when it first came out and it seems, according to its own editor, we were right.”
Anuzis said the Messenger’s story is part of a larger and coordinated plan by the Democratic National Committee, the Obama Campaign and Left-leaning special interest groups to cast fear among the voting public by making unsubstantiated claims against Republicans. The discredited Michigan Messenger story was cited as th
e sole example of proof Republicans planned to use foreclosure lists in a federal lawsuit filed last week by the DNC and the Obama Campaign.
“This is right out of the Democrat’s play book,” Anuzis said, citing a 2004 DNC/Kerry-Edwards training manual that encouraged supporters to make up examples of voter intimidation if none existed.
Almost immediately questions arose about the Michigan Messenger’s reporting and its claims that it is an “independent” news organization.
With the publication of the story, Anuzis and Carabelli immediately disavowed such a plan ever existed and said the Messenger fabricated the quote it attributed to the Macomb County GOP chairman. For nearly a week, Michigan Messenger’s editorial director Jefferson Morley stood by the blog’s story, even giving vociferous defense of it on the NPR-syndicated show “Democracy Now” on Thursday.
But the Messenger’s story – and the credibility of its reporter, Eartha Melzer – began to unravel almost as soon as it was published.
First, the Associated Press took notice of the reporting discrepancies between the Michigan Messenger’s allegations in its story and the actual quote it was citing from the Columbus Dispatch. Then the Michigan Republican Party released research it uncovered – here – that show the Michigan Messenger was not the independent news site it claimed, showing a direct link with a controversial Democrat political consulting firm. And on Friday, MI GOP reported that the Messenger’s reporter was listed – here – as a contributing writer for a partisan newsletter published by the Grand Traverse County (Mich.) Democrat Party.
