BY MIKE CETERA
If I was working for the Jim Oberweis campaign, I'd consider sending a thank you note to the New York Times, for waiting to publish its hit piece on presumptive GOP Presidential nominee John McCain until after he touched down in Aurora on Wednesday.
Oberweis got both the fundraising boost and the positive press coverage without having to get tied up in this brewing story about McCain's ethics (a story largely focused on things that happened 10 years ago, by the way).
McCain this morning denied any wrongdoing.
John McCain denied a romantic relationship with a female telecommunications lobbyist on Thursday and said a report by The New York Times suggesting favoritism for her clients is ''not true.''''I'm very disappointed in the article. It's not true,'' the likely Republican presidential nominee said as his wife, Cindy, stood alongside him during a news conference called to address the matter.
My guess is this will not reflect poorly on Oberweis. And Bill Foster would be smart not to try to make anything of it, because there's also a hit piece on him floating about the Internet.
Foster has consistently maintained that Jim Oberweis and John McCain will continue the same old failing strategies in Iraq. He said this before the visit, and continues to say it now.
As a journalist, I should think you would want to provide a clear distinction between the NY Times and majorityap.com. But I also realize that throwing out a link is effortless…but when you don’t provide context to that link, it’s all too easy for the uninformed reader to equate your two organizations journalistically.
I say let the facts come out and be examined. But in the mean time, I would love to see a comment or update to this entry noting: the allegations against Foster are over 10 years old too, majorityap.com is a right-wing site, do your own story on the majorityap.com charges and post a Foster campaign reaction to this blog entry, and finally make note that Foster hasn’t said a peep about McCain’s alleged improper relationship with a lobbyist).
Ummmm Plainfieldrob if this organization is making stuff up about Foster then I would suspect Foster would have a legal case against him.
If the statements from his wife are true, some would argue they are relevant even 10 years later (ask Blair Hull about that)...
No doubt the allegations are worth examining.
However, let the Beacon News do their own investigation and reporting. Linking off to obscure websites without so much as noting their partisan tilt does little to inform the readers. Majorityap.com makes no attempt to be objective. Readers deserve to know that...
To follow-on to PFRob's earlier post re: Majority AP, the About Us page
on their website gives a clear indication of their bias as prior RNC operatives.
Seems one of these gentleman even had a stint as a Lobbyist...small world ehh?
I'll give the NY Times far more credibility for journalistic standards over the
'hit pieces' being posted by these factions.
Not quite 'good form' especially given there was no direct or indirect linkage
made between Foster's response to last night's event and the NY Times piece
concerning Sen. McCain.
If you don't want to believe what is posted in the link that is mentioned just go to the Kane County office of records and ask for the record of the divorce and you will find the same material that was reported - verbatim. What is the statute of how long after you physically and emotionally abuse your wife that is is considered acceptable?
With all due respect to Plainfieldrob, we make no bones about where we worked. It's kind of funny to me that our critics never question our facts, only our backgrounds (which, as you note, we place right on the website for everyone to see. If only CREW and other left-leaning groups were that transparent).
The big difference is, that unlike the Times report, we can prove every single word that was written - all without using a single anonymous source.
Mr. Foster's wife claimed, under oath, that her husband abused her both physically and emotionally. It is all public record, which we have forwarded to the Beacon. The media, as you may recall, sued to get GOP Senate candidate Jack Ryan's divorce records, since his took place in CA. Over the objections of Mr. Ryan's wife, Jeri, the contents of those once-sealed documents were reported. Extensively.
I would certainly hope the Illinois media show that it is the public's right to know, rather than the political persuasion of those in question, that is relevant. I look forward to that coverage, which will demonstrate that our report was neither unfair nor inaccurate.
--Michael Brady, Managing Editor
Majorityap.com
Mr Brady,
First thanks for a direct response.
I will be posting a reply later in the day, time doesn't permit
it at the moment given the time of day.
Best regards
Come on, if it isn't positive for your guy then it has to be from partisan hacks, don't you know anything?
Here is a question, if is correct (I suspect these guys have more sense than to slander someone who is wealthy enough to sue them) is this something the Beacon should report and is it something that would impact your vote?
To repeat my earlier assertion, I hope Mike Cetra and Dave Parro will make prominent the conservative nature of your site when providing a link to readers. Everyone deserves to know the context of your reporting regardless of the merits of your work.
I think this applies to all organizations both left & right. Perhaps you'll agree with me in principle, or at a minimum, see the labeling of majorityap.com as a right-wing muckraking site in future Beacon News blog entries as cross-promotion of your conservative credentials and which would appear to align nicely with your current marketing strategies.
Plainfieldrob you still neglected to point out where what they said was inaccurate. I do suggest that you go to the records office and get a copy for yourself and point that out. You also neglected to say how long after you have physically and emotionally abused your wife or put at $50,000 bounty on her head because she might flee that it no longer counts? Not a McCain fan but until there is linkage that he traded actual sex for favors there is not much of a story. It does speak to his character but I will leave that to his wife to judge more harshly. A man who abuses his wife I take that as a much more serious character flaw.
I have made no attempt to judge their reporting. Rather, I have asked the Beacon staff to clearly identify for readers the partisan tilt of websites they link to, both left & right.
That way, people don't take for granted they are getting objective journalism simply because the Beacon sent them there.
The link they sent you did not present partisan information. They presented material that is found in the county records of the events that happened. They did not put spin on it or anything else. Foster did present his life on his website as something that it appears to not be.
You made the statement that this happened over 10 years ago and somehow that makes them less important. You were judging what what being presented just because it came from a site you don't agree with. I probably don't agree with many things on that site either but in this case they presented the facts as they appear in the court documents.
Spotlight, is that why you are sending out unsolicited emails with this information? Because you are NOT partisan? Because the information you are promoting is NOT designed to further a partisan agenda? Are we expected to believe you do not have an agenda and that you "probably don't agree with many things on that site either"? It appears to me that you are knee deep in the muck.