Talent For Deception
Missouri Sen. Talent’s attacks share a simple, misleading strategy:
false attribution
October 21, 2006
Summary
In four separate TV spots Republican Sen. Jim Talent of Missouri
falsely attributes several unflattering quotes about his opponent to
the Kansas City Star. Our examination reveals that the quotes actually
come from rival Claire McCaskill’s political opponents and critics,
not from the Star’s reporters or editors.
In another case, where a Talent ad uses a phrase that actually did
come from a newspaper, it is out of context and misleading. The
negative remark was in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial that was
endorsing McCaskill for election.
Political campaigns often quote newspaper stories and editorials
because voters tend to give them greater weight than the
self-interested statements of office seekers. There’s nothing
misleading about that if the quotes are accurate, in context and
properly attributed. But these Talent ads deceive voters by
misappropriating the newspapers’ credibility.
Analysis
The four ads in question are titled “Certain,” “Fighting for Seniors,”
“Failed Seniors 1,” and “Failed Seniors 2;” all released over the past
three weeks. Throughout these ads fragmentary quotes about McCaskill
appear, superimposed over the banner of the Kansas City Star. The
quotes include: “spreading untruths,” “exaggerating,” “false,”
“embellished” and “clearly violated ethical standards.” But none of
these were the words of the Star’s reporters or editors.
We were able to document the Talent ads’ deception using a database
search of the Star’s news reports and editorials, despite the fact
that the ads give no dates for most of the supposed quotes. The Talent
campaign did not respond to our repeated requests over several days to
document the source of the quotes.
“Spreading untruths.” This quote is shown in two ads. Neither gives a
date. However, our database search found only one Star story naming
McCaskill in which the phrase “spreading untruths” appears. That is a
March 14, 2004 article, in which the Star quotes complaints about
McCaskill from a political opponent, then -Lt. Gov. Joe Maxwell, who
was chairman of the re-election campaign of then-Gov. Bob Holden, whom
McCaskill was challenging in the Democratic primary. (She went on to
win the nomination but lose in the general election) McCaskill, the
state auditor, had issued a critical audit of the state’s prescription
drug plan. The Star quoted the governor’s campaign chairman as saying:
“I will not stand by and allow you to demean this prescription benefit
by spreading untruths.” The Star reported Maxwell’s statement and
McCaskill’s rebuttal without any comment of its own.
“Exaggerating” state audits . This quote is used five times in the
four ads. Only once is the date given: July 17, 2004. The article is a
profile of McCaskill, and contains the sentence: “Critics accuse
McCaskill of sometimes exaggerating her audit results.” The ad falsely
implies that the words are the newspaper’s judgment of McCaskill,
rather than unnamed “critics.” The article goes on to quote one of
those critics, her political opponent Maxwell.
“False” and “Embellish.” These two words are quoted together in the
most recent Talent ad and “embellish” appears in a second ad on its
own. Neither ad gives a date for the quotes. However, in the same July
17 profile just mentioned, the Star quotes Maxwell - him again -
as saying her comments on the state drug plan “not only embellish the
audit, they are downright false.” Maxwell’s?? statement also was
quoted in the earlier March 14 Star article as well, but we found no
instance in which the Star itself used those words to describe
McCaskill, either in a news report or an editorial.
“Clearly violated ethical standards.” One ad says that “The Kansas
City Star wrote that as Jackson County Prosecutor, McCaskill violated
ethical standards, and misled a Special Prosecutor investigating drug
use by her employees.” That’s false. The Star reached no such
conclusions.
The words are based on a June 29, 2004 article in the Star reporting
on an investigation by a special prosecutor into the handling of a
drug case by McCaskill’s office in the early 1990’s. The special
prosecutor cleared McCaskill of obstructing the investigation of an
underling, saying her behavior “does not demonstrate, in my opinion,
an intent to obstruct an investigation but rather misplaced trust.”
However, the Star contacted a Pace University law professor, Bennett
Gershman, who offered a dissenting view, saying “she clearly violated
ethical standards for attorneys and prosecutors” by communicating with
a staffer who was under investigation.
Other misleading quotes
One Talent ad uses a newspaper quote that is properly attributed, but
naked of context. It quotes a July 25, 2004 editorial in the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch as saying McCaskill “Used this office transparently for
political gain.” Not mentioned is that the words are taken from an
otherwise positive endorsement of McCaskill in her 2004 race for
governor:
Post-Dispatch : As state auditor, she has emphasized performance
audits that look beyond just dollars and cents to see how effectively
state offices work. Ms. McCaskill has used this office transparently
for political gain and sometimes overstated the potential financial
savings of an audit finding. But the job gives her a good idea of
where the state can save money.
The Post-Dispatch also praised McCaskill’s “unbridled drive, sheer
determination, and intellectual energy,” and called her a “promising
and dynamic leader.”
Another Talent ad uses the words “The situation is worse” to describe
conditions in nursing homes. The words are again attributed to the
Star, but actually come from McCaskill herself. Furthermore, she was
criticizing the handling of nursing-home inspections under Republican
Gov. Matt Blunt, and not her own performance as auditor. In a Sept.
15, 2006 Kansas City Star article, describing what her latest audit of
nursing-home inspections had found, she says:
McCaskill: What is depressing today is not only have we not made
progress, but the situation is worse that it was when the first audit
was released in 2000.
McCaskill concluded that state officials were not inspecting nursing
homes frequently enough, and that inspections had declined since her
earlier audit in 2003 had found improvement.
The Talent campaign ends two of the ads with the tagline, “but there’s
more to the story.” We find that “the story” so far has been filled
with misinformation.
- by Justin Bank
Sources
Hood, Rich, “Ready, Fire, Aim,” Kansas City Star. 1 Oct. 2000.
Lambre, Joe, “Civility takes a blow in prosecutor race,” Kansas City
Star. 31 Oct. 1992.
Lambre, Joe, “McCaskill urges rural development,” Kansas City Star 15
June 2004.
McGraw, Mike, “Report on McCaskill leaves questions: She says she
never interferred in drug case involving friend,” Kansas City Star. 29
June 2004.
Murphy, Kevin, “State Audit faults Missouri nursing home inspections,”
Kansas City Star. 15 Sept. 2006.
Wagar, Kit and Hoover, Tim, “Democrats fighting over who’s better for
seniors,” Kansas City Star. 14 March 2004.
Wagar, Kit, “Audits are raod map for candidate,” Kansas City Star. 17
July 2004.
Young, Virginia, “Missouri nursing home reviews lacking, audit finds,”
St Louis Post-Dispatch. 14 Sept. 2006.
“For Governor 2004,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 25 July 2004.
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