Free Elections
18 January 2008 9:38 am by Taylor Marsh
Free Elections
reported from Las Vegas, Nevada
The Las Vegas Sun has called into question a post I wrote regarding union
intimidation. Being a strong believer in freedom of the press I would normally
not respond to such an article. However, they have called into question my credibility
and I feel compelled to respond. Under no circumstances did I receive any money
from AFSCME prior to posting the blog about union intimidation, nor did money
have anything to do with it. It was about free elections, fundamental to our
American way of life. I was told a union had intimidated one of its members
and I posted on it. People are free to express their opinions and
support whomever they choose. However, if their support is gained by intimidation,
that crosses the line, in my opinion. We each should have the right to make
our voting decisions without intimidation by anyone and cast that vote based
on our personal belief about the individual candidates. Hopefully, no one disagrees
with that. That the Las Vegas Sun chose to couch their attack on my
credibility by accusing me of taking money in the form of a question shows how
far they were willing to go to target me without any evidence whatsoever. It’s
through that prism you should view their entire piece.
Second, the story on the worker intimidation at Paris was an important story.
The woman to whom I spoke would not allow me to use her name and would not give
anyone else’s name to me either. My post came out before the Sun’s piece, and
since the woman would not give names when asked, I covered the story as given.
Union intimidation is a serious charge. Whether someone is supporting Clinton
or Obama does not change the facts. I believed the woman’s story after talking
to her and decided to post on it. Period. I followed it up with an update of
someone who saw the event, which was put in the comment section of the Sun’s
article.
I did not call the Culinary union, because as is shown in the Sun
piece, they’re not going to admit intimidation. Anyone who has ever covered
issues like this or has any experience knows that unions answering questions on the record will never
admit such coercion or intimidation.
I didn’t respond to the Sun’s request to talk because I simply didn’t
get the email, which ended up in my junk mail folder. Simple as that, though
I realize people want another explanation more involved, but hey, it’s the truth.
Obviously, Obama’s fans across the web are attacking the messenger, me. It’s
been going on for a very long time. They need to attack my credibility because I’ve
obviously hit a nerve. It’s also not the first time the Obama camp decided to target a progressive voice. They attacked
Paul Krugman on a “fact check” page when Krugman dared to criticize
Obama’s policies, never mind that Krugman is one of the only leading progressive
voices in traditional journalism today. There were also rumblings that the Obama
camp was readying an attack against one powerfully effective blogger during
the Donnie McClurkin dust up.
Chris Bowers wrote:
It is certainly disturbing that Obama is attacking a leading progressive
voice in a media system where progressive opinion journalists are few are
far between. What is even more disturbing is that this is not the first time
the Obama campaign has considered doing this. Back during the Donnie
McClurkin fiasco, it has been confirmed to me from multiple sources that the
Obama campaign was preparing opposition research papers of this sort against
some one of the progressive bloggers who were speaking ill of him at the time
(Update: I have edited the previous sentence for the sake of clarity and accuracy.
I know two separate things, and conflating them is a bit of speculation on
my part. First, I know that about a year ago, someone was conducting oppo
research on most major progressive bloggers, but I don’t know who. After I
heard about oppo being prepared against one blogger a couple months ago, I
speculated that meant the earlier oppo was conducted by the Obama campaign
as well. That is purely speculation on my part. Take it for what it is worth).
The “speculation” Bowers is talking about is just that, but
when you combine it with the continual attacks on me and others, it’s clear the truth isn’t the target, dissent is.
Today, the Las Vegas Sun took it a step further by impugning my credibility through question marks and by insinuating
I not only might have taken money from a union that supports Clinton,
but that if I did so I wouldn’t disclose it. And they did it without one single shred of evidence.
The message is simple from the Obama camp. They want to intimidate and silence
me, because I’m effective. They are now willing, using Markos’s site and the
diaries at DailyKos, to call me a liar. This is what Obama’s supporters do whenever
anyone dares to print critical pieces on Obama’s record or stories they don’t like. Today, the Las Vegas
Sun played along.
