Alleged and Not Fact. In Fact, Denial.

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Almost two months ago, I wrote and published a post titled "The Alleged Contents of a Letter." The post involved rumors surrounding a mysterious letter sent to every single member of the General Assembly containing criminal accusations against a certain elec. ted Sussex County official. I received a tip from a source that is known to me that alluded to the contents of the letter and who was behind it. I decided to go ahead and publish the tip as a rumor, and I went out of my way to specifically state, repeatedly, that I had no idea whether any of the story is true. Most of the tip from the source was confirmed in later news stories from WGMD, WDEL and the News Journal, specifically about what the allegations were and who the elected official was. What was not confirmed, and what remains unknown to us, is who was behind the letter. This brings me to Mr. Doug Beatty, who this year arrived on the scene that is Sussex County politics. He contemplated races against the Governor and then for the General Assembly before demurring. He contacted me yesterday issuing a strong denial, saying that he was not involved in any way in writing or sending the letter. It is only fair and responsible that I report that. Mr. Beatty felt that I had irresponsibly and unethically reported as true fact that he was indeed behind the infamous letter. I disagreed, saying I thought I had been very careful in the post to repeatedly state that I did not know for a fact whether any of the allegations were true, as you can see above. Alas, since Mr. Beatty was left with that impression, I apologize to him.

Thursday Open Thread [8.9.12]

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So Mitt Romney has decided to go all Culture War on the President, issuing outrageous and racist lies about the President and welfare, and now issuing ads about a "War on Religion." Do you know what that means? It means Romney has lost the election. Already. On August 9, 2012.

POTUS As Press Critic

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This is an article close to my news junkie heart: President Obama is an Avid Reader, and Critic, of the News. This is worth reading for the whole (short) thing, but I was intrigued that he read his news mostly via iPad (where you really could read all of the newspapers -- take that Sarah Palin!) and that he watches very little TV news. And I admit intrigued because this is largely how I get my news -- I can wade through the information, get a sense of the narratives out there without having to sit through the dumbed down shoutfests. But that's just me. And the President.

The Romney Campaign Goes Old School — Here Come the Welfare Queens!

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One of the signature dishonest (of many) tales told by Ronald Reagan was one of some Chicago woman who was able to put together enough fraudulent participation in enough government programs to net more than $100K per year. Even as Reagan never named this woman and no one could find a public record of anyone who was that productive in getting government assistance. Certainly no one who was caught and tried for the fraud that this would have represented. This exaggerated tale was often repeated, never substantiated but it did its job -- tap into existing resentments and stereotypes of welfare cheats -- even though the typical welfare recipient never looked the way the stereotype had it. It was more dogwhistle politics from the ultimate dogwhistler -- one who kicked off his campaign at the Neshoba County State Fair (county where Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman were murdered), calling for a reinstatement of "state's rights". This was,of course, a coded message promising these folks to roll back the rights the Feds were giving to minorities. And now that he is cornered on the issue of his tax releases, Mitt Romney has decided that the Gipper's dogwhistles can work for him too.