(It IS March…so a basketball reference seems appropriate.)<\/p>\n
Like basketball referees…reporters covering a campaign expect to be “spun”. That is to say…coaches and players often talk to a referee during a game to get an official to see things their way.<\/p>\n
“That’s a foul, ref!”<\/em><\/p>\n “Did you see the travel?”<\/em><\/p>\n “My team is getting elbowed out there!”<\/em><\/p>\n Same thing for us in the news media. We are called and e-mailed and tapped on the shoulder about this poll…that column…or some piece of opposition research (dirt) we should do a story on. It’s okay. News outlets want an open dialog with campaigns and candidates. Reporters know what they’re up to. Generally…news organizations don’t mind when they try<\/em> to spin <\/em>the coverage in their favor this way.<\/p>\n What reporters do mind…is when campaigns spin a reporter’s story<\/em>. That’s a foul. This one’s on the Dan Coats campaign.<\/p>\n Coats is running to get his seat in the US Senate back. He was appointed to the post when then-Senator Dan Quayle vacated the job to be George H.W. Bush’s Vice President. Coats gave up the seat and in 1998…the job went to Democrat Evan Bayh. Now…Bayh doesn’t want the post any longer…and Coats is after it.<\/p>\n Saturday, Coats entered potentially hostile territory…a Tea Party debate<\/em> in Warsaw IN. All five Republicans running for the GOP nomination were there…including Coats. It was a dicey venue for Coats because Tea Party folks generally don’t like people in office. They see elected officials as the problem with government. Tea Partiers have similar opinions about lobbyists. Coats has been both an elected official…AND a lobbyist.<\/p>\n So…as a reporter…I was VERY interested in how he would be received. I was there and posted a brief account about Coats reception. Generally, Coats was politely received by the Tea Party group. So today…the Coats campaign used portions of that ‘blog post in a press release today.<\/p>\n They got the quotes right. Here’s the exerpt:<\/p>\n Fox News’ Steve Brown:<\/strong> “Through it all…Coats kept his cool. He talked about his faith. He talked about freedom. He talked about eliminating federal ‘earmarks’. He talked about abolishing the US Department of Education. All met with approval of the Tea Partiers gathered.” Brown added, “Afterwards…Coats told Fox News he was ready to talk to Hoosiers anywhere in the state…and that includes Tea Party folks.” (Fox News, Facing the Tea Party<\/em>, 3\/6\/10)<\/em><\/p>\n It’s the last line which is…at best…incomplete. It’s the one that reads:<\/p>\n “Afterwards…Coats told Fox News he was ready to talk to Hoosiers anywhere in the state…and that includes Tea Party folks.”<\/em><\/p>\n The line suggests that if there were more Tea Party debates…Coats would likely be there. Except THIS is the three sentences which closed the story:<\/p>\n “Later this month…there is another Tea Party debate. This time in Huntington. To that event, Coats is the only candidate yet to confirm he’ll be there.”<\/em><\/p>\n And I just checked with Cindy Gamrat of the Huntington Tea Party group. Gamrat says on Saturday at the Warsaw event she asked Coats personally to the debate. Prior to Saturday…she had phoned and e-mailed the Coats campaign. So far…no commitment to take part in the March 26th Huntington Tea Party debate.<\/p>\n So…in this referee\/reporter’s opinion…that’s a foul.<\/p>\n Now…I did contact Pete Seat…the communications director for the Coats campaign. It’s his\/the-campaign’s position that their use of portions of the story was not misleading or inaccurate.<\/p>\n We at Fox News like to remind viewers that ultimately you decide<\/em>. If you think there’s a foul here…that’s your call.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (It IS March…so a basketball reference seems appropriate.) Like basketball referees…reporters covering a campaign expect to be “spun”. That is to say…coaches and players often talk to a referee during a game to get an official to see things their way. “That’s a foul, ref!” “Did you see the travel?” “My team is getting elbowed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4732,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-404106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4732"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}