What Vetting Means to MinnPost and PIM
David Brauer's blog last week at the Dayton-funded MinnPost had me snickering:
Let’s just call it “Personal Attack Week” in the governor’s race.
The week began with Minnesota Democrats Exposed blogger Luke Hellier alleging Mark Dayton’s lawyer pulled documents from a 1999 divorce file. On Tuesday, rightblogger Sheila Kihne trumpeted newsthat New York City turned up no records of Dayton teaching there, though it’s been a part of the DFL governor candidate’s biography for decades. Finally, this morning, City Pages — no friend of GOP gubernatorial nominee Tom Emmer — revealedthat Emmer's 20-year-old son Tripp had pleaded guilty to a petty misdemeanor for underage drinking in July. For good measure, CP published Facebook photos of the younger Emmer partying.
Hellier's and Kihne's pieces amount to insinuations. Hellier turned out to be wrong about who pulled the documents; it was Dayton’s ex-wife’s lawyer; conservative compatriots Power Line were more up-front about correcting the miscue. Kihne’s digging was incomplete; Dayton’s campaign quickly produced a teaching certificate and a program from a city school.
City Pages’ story wound up being confirmed, but it involved the candidate’s kid, not the candidate himself.
Nevertheless, MinnPost amplified Heller’s accusations in a Doug Grow story; Politics in Minnesota and other outlets vetted Kihne’s charge. City Pages’ allegation was recounted on Minnesota Public Radio, but only after the Emmer campaign released a statement acknowledging the incident..
Yes- it's true, my digging is incomplete. I'm a blogger....or "rightblogger" if you're a lib.....you see....I don't publish complete investigations. I post what I investigate and share with my readers what I find when I find it. I hope to pique the curiosity of those whose jobsit is to vet and investigate candidates. It's sort of a hopeless cause though, isn't it? So, my secondary motive is to embarrass the Minneapolis media establishment when needed.
The City Pages/Tripp Emmer party pic story has been EVERYWHERE from KARE 11 to KSTP news. These are the places where most people get their news (how sad,) so if you are watching those news outlets you're going to know that story...you won't know if Mark Dayton has been lying all these years about how long he taught or how he used teaching to dodge the draft.
The Brauer piece dismisses my story with this simple statement: "Politics in Minnesota and other outlets vetted Kihne's charge."
Really? Politics in Minnesota simply posted two documents given to them by the Mark Dayton campaign, (at lightning speed I might add.) This isn't vetting, it's lazy. Vetting would require actually asking questions of the campaign in order to verify facts. Facts.
Here are the facts we now know because of my story:
Mark Dayton has always stated that he taught for two years in New York Public Schools after he graduated Yale from 1969-1971
Mark Dayton wasn't certified to teach in New York Schools until 10/21/69
Mark Dayton was listed as a teacher or advisor on a June, 1970 Commencement program
There is no record of Mark Dayton teaching in the New York Public School System
The other "vetting" was done by a nasty left wing blogger who contacted a left wing former boss of a left wing former Senator to ask: "Did he teach for two years?" Answer: "Yes he did." This Is considered vetting? Okay. I'll remember that one.
I've been taken to task by some for not simply contacting the Dayton campaign asking him to-- to what exactly? To send me a copy of his teaching certificate and a copy of a commencement program? Aren't the media-types just a tad bit curious as to why the Dayton campaign would jump so fast on this story of a little-known suburban blogger?
It's clear to me that the "narrative" of Mark Dayton's noble early years teaching in a "ghetto school" is B.S. Dayton didn't simply get a student deferment while he was teaching, he taught to get a deferment, and there's a difference.
I've now taken the step of calling the Dayton campaign for questions on other stories I'm working on....I've also had others call too...so the next time the media wants to accuse me of not asking questions, I'm covered.
More on Dayton soon. I have some vetting of my own to do. Thanks to the MN media establishment for keeping me motivated (and laughing.)