Fact Check, Please!

My father was in the publishing and newspaper business all his life.

He knew that what he wrote and what news went into the newspaper had the potential to influence people's thoughts and attitudes.

He believed he had a moral duty to his subscribers and readers to explore every aspect of a story, especially a controversial story. He was a strong believer in fact checking.

I used to help him out with the fact checking. In those pre-internets days it was a lot harder to do it than it is now.

A story in today's SN-L demonstrates the need for fact-checking and a red pen.

The story, Billy Long outraises Scott Eckersley six- , attributed to SN-L staff, appeared in today's SN-L. Excerpted below, it appears the reporters made a rookie mistake and the editors didn't catch it:

In the race for 7th District, Republican Billy Long raised six times as much money as Democrat Scott Eckersely, according to reports filed in mid-October.

According to Open Secrets.org Long reported raising $1.3 million. Eckersley reported $201,897. Long has been campaigning about a year and a half, while the Eckersley campaign kicked off in March 2010.

The largest individual expenses listed by the Long campaign in September were to Axiom Strategies for $19,919; followed by $18,000 to Public Opinion Strategies for polling. Axiom got eight payments totalling $51,308. The J. Harris Company, LLC, a consulting firm received $12,494 for consulting and travel.

The largest individual expenses listed by the Eckersley campaign were a $15,005 and a $6,500 media buy, followed by $5,000 for Campaign Strategy Research Services, an Arlington, Va., firm.

OpenSecrets.org said the organization making the largest contribution to Long was Med-Pay, $17,000.

The largest organizational contributor to Eckersley was ActBlue, $10,650.00

Did you catch it?

Federal election campaign limits the amount an individual can donate per election cycle, usually $2400 to a candidate. The chart below is from the FEC website:
The article's reporters said, "OpenSecrets.org said the organization making the largest contribution to Long was Med-Pay, $17,000."

Read the chart above. Medpay's $17,000 contribution exceeds the contribution limit in any category.

Something ain't right here. Let's take the bus over to opensecrets.org and look up Long's top donor list. The chart below is a screen shot of the top half of the page which lists Long's top donors and the amounts given:
Just to be fair and balanced, here is a screen capture of the bottom half of the page which lists Eckersley's top donors (I could not get the entire page in one screen capture but you can see the entire page onOpensecrets.org.

Oh my.

Oh my, my, my.

Look at that disclaimer that is at the bottom of the screen capture of Eckersley's top donors.

Why, parts of it are even highlighted in bold print:

This table lists the top donors to this candidate in the 2009 - 2010 election cycle. The organizations themselves did not donate, rather the money came from the organization's PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.

Open Secrets even explains the statement:Writing on the SN-L boards as 'Busplunge', I left the following comments on this story:

"OpenSecrets.org said the organization making the largest contribution to Long was Med-Pay, $17,000."

Are there any fact checkers at the SN-L?

Contribution limit per election cycle is $2400.00 per election cycle.

How can Med-Pay legally contribute more than $17,000 then?

From the Opensecrets web page: "The organizations themselves did not donate, rather the money came from the organization's PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families."

ah, jeez

Jim Lee
10/30/2010 8:28:59 AM

and a short time later, this comment:

When a donation is made to a political candidate, there is usually a form to fill out listing the donors employer. A lot of employees at MedPay or lots of Gordon Kinney (sp) family members donated to Long.

www.opensecrets.org/races/contrib.php?cycle=2010&id=MO07

Also, Long told Steve Grant this about farm subsidies (Long wants to end them): "They're bringing milk in from out of the area. Our farmers here have to pay to have milk trucked in from other states. So there's a lot of things in the farm subsidies that have to be looked at."

The California Dairies Federal PAC gave Long a substantial donation.

Why is Long accepting money from the California Dairies PAC when he told Grant that "Our farmers here have to pay to have milk trucked in from other states"?

Haliburton, Arch Coal, Exxon, General Motors, Koch Bros, Beer Wholesalers, Great Southern Employees all donated to Long's campaign.

The FEC site: www.fec.gov/DisclosureSearch/HSProcessContributorList.do

Jim Lee
10/30/2010 8:46:03 AM

The "our farmers here are having to pay to have milk trucked in from out of state" can be found here: "There's been many a slip between the cup and the lips"-- Billy Long KY3 News.

The documentation for the contribution from the California Dairies Federal PAC can be found here: "The two sides of Billy Long: "They're bringing milk in from out of the area. Our farmers here have to pay to have milk truckedin from other states." Billy Long accepts California Dairies Federal PAC donation to Long campaign."

Other areas of this story that need explanation to the readers:

Who the Axiom Strategies principals are and their history and why did Long pay them so much money: "Decision awaited on libel suit against Billy Long advisor".

James Harris' connection to the fake Scott Eckersley 'withdrawing from the race' email: "Billy Long consultant James Harris pushes false rumor about Scott Eckersley"