Posted on 08/19/2009 5:53:00 AM PDT by Kieri
Chris Gautz column: Yes, some were bused in for health-care rally in Jackson last week by Chris Gautz | Jackson Citizen Patriot Tuesday August 18, 2009, 11:46 PM CHRIS GAUTZ
Several readers have criticized the Citizen Patriot's coverage of last week's health care rally outside U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer's office, where hundreds came out both to support and oppose President Barack Obama's reform plan.
The chief criticism was that we failed to mention that some supporters were bused in from around the state.
It is true, and it wasn't included in the original story, but not because we were trying to slant coverage. The simple truth is it was a difficult fact to nail down.
You're reading this story today because Tuesday I was able to confirm with the Service Employees International Union that it rented vans and encouraged people to carpool to the event. About 100 SEIU members attended, from as far away as Muskegon and Detroit, said Zac Altefogt, a spokesman for SEIU Healthcare Michigan.
While covering the rally last Thursday, myself and another reporter were told by several opponents of the reform plan that supporters were bused in. But we did not see the buses that night and were unable to pose the question to the supporters' organizer before our deadline.
We left it out of the Friday story because we cannot print speculation as fact.
On Friday, we followed up with Organizing for America, which put out the call for supporters to attend the event. OFA state director Aletheia Henry assured us that her group had not bused people to the rally.
We wrote a short follow-up Saturday and thought it was resolved.
Then this week, some readers e-mailed us photos of supporters standing in front of a bus from Trinity Transportation parked several blocks away near Family Video, 1111 W. Ganson St.
My colleague followed up with Henry. We told her we understood OFA hadn't chartered the buses, but we wondered if she knew who had. She refused to answer the question and then hung up the phone.
Seems like an overreaction to a news organization simply looking for a straight answer.
I give credit to SEIU for not being ashamed to let the community know they used mass transit to get their members to the rally.
As Altefogt pointed out to me, health care is not just a Jackson issue. His union has members statewide, and they wanted to participate.
In the end, it doesn't matter if participants walked, drove or took a bus. Everyone has the right to come to a rally and express his or her views.
Earlier this month, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said some of the anger demonstrated at congressional health-care town hall meetings was manufactured by groups who oppose reform. He went on to say he thought Republican operatives were attending these meetings to give the appearance of widespread outrage.
So I can understand why local Republicans were upset that we "left out" any mention of Democrats busing people here to give the appearance of widespread acceptance of health reforms.
But in such a politically charged debate, we have to be careful about printing anything we cannot confirm.
I'll always opt for being right, rather than being first.
That’s why I put (MI) in the title. ;-)
If the SEIU didn't want the community to know they were bussing in these people, why part several blocks away? Why give them "credit" for admitting it once they were caught?
Let me put this through my media lib-speak transmogrifier...
Hmmm...
Here’s the translation now...
“We lied for our friends on the Left, we got caught, our fig-leaf of journalistic objectivity was laying flat on the ground in the face of the strong wind of citizen outrage, so here’s a little obscure correction we hope no one will read. But, it really doesn’t matter. The Left was right anyhow.”
So, we are to believe two reporters failed to notice a caravan of busses in Jackson?
I have issues with suspension of disbelief.
They are grammatically challenged for the same reason that they are liberal. It's because they are not too bright. That's just between "you and I." (sic)
“If the SEIU didn’t want the community to know they were bussing in these people, why part several blocks away?”
They don’t want them anywhere near a camera.
Remember, it’s ALL about Kubuki theater. Once the show is over, the meme is set, and it’s time to move on. Who cares what you see, then. It’s NOT like the national media is going to cover this story....
Speculation, innuendo, and outright misrepresentation is all fine if it’s against republicans.
No one in the msm noticed the busses in PA either when they arrived at the Specter rally.
It is true, and it wasn’t included in the original story, but not because we were trying to slant coverage. The simple truth is it was a difficult fact to nail down
Really?
If there are supporters for a Government take over at a Government rally/dog and pony show, you might be able to ASSUME that they have been bused in..................
More than two reporters failed to notice. I saw TV 53, 6 and 10 down there.
Wait - you were able to notice the TV trucks? You must have x-ray vision, or something.
In post number 12 you can look at my photos and see that my x ray camera works pretty well too.
It says volumes about the media of this country when people like myself are actually shocked when a reporter tells the truth (but of course he then had to put his own “spin” on it)
That particular misuse drives my wife bonkers. And you hear it all the time.
Hey - that is on my old street, about ten blocks from my house!
LOL. Sorry I missed it.
Corner of Ganson and West Ave.
Here’s the comment I posted on that article:
Chris,
Thank you for following up and getting the facts out.
Just one important correction:
It wasn’t just the White House saying the protesters are “organized”, “bused in”, and “astroturf”. Unlike you, your fellow journalists embraced those charges and ran with it the entire first week of town-hall coverage. They hung onto flimsy evidence to tarnish countless self-motivated Americans as partisan hacks.
All the while, they ignored massive evidence of actual “organized” efforts by Democrats and their supporters. Where was the wall-to-wall coverage of a black conservative beaten by union thugs in St. Louis? They also called him the n-word. Can’t remember the last time the media passed on a story like that.
So I wish you had included the “context” in which conservatives were so determined to see this story completed. You did your part. Pat on the back to you. But I wish you’d taken your own profession to task for failing to do what you did.
Here in Indiana, Rep. Mark Sauder said SEIU and ACORN were bused in for his townhalls. They were from Chicago and Detroit.
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