We've just gotten confirmation that the Winona Daily News printed Rosemary Zemlo's error-ridden letter to the editor twice, once on July 26 and again on Saturday, August 9, in the dead tree edition of the newspaper.
As we noted in Isn't that special: Winona Daily News reruns Davis supporter's false claims about fundraising, the letter also appeared online, but the July version was scrubbed from the paper's archives. Such scrubbing is not a standard practice at the paper, which maintains extensive archives. Now we know the exact same letter was printed twice in the print edition as well.
We can understand the paper--which has a very open letters policy--printing the letter once.
We do not understand why the oped page editor chose to print the exact same letter twice. Nor can we fathom what led the paper to scrub the link to the original online posting. Perhaps the Winona Daily News has an explanation for this.
Why should readers care? One reason is that the editors chose to reprint a letter that was in response to one from a Walz supporter. The original letter--to which Zemlo was responding--was not printed twice in the Winona Daily News.
Second--the editors choose to reprint a letter by a Davis supporter which contains claims that Brian Davis's campaign raised more money in Q2 2008 than did Tim Walz's committee, and that this fundraising is evidence of greater grassroots support in the district than Congressman Walz is receiving.
Neither claim is true. As we have noted before:
The facts speak otherwise (we've posted the detailed summaries from the FEC here, along with links to the FEC reports).
Davis was not the strongest fundraiser in MN-01. Walz raised $438,086.97; Davis raised $291,601.05 ($2070.50 of which he contributed), then loaned his campaign $100,000 on the last day of the quarter.
Walz was also the champ in individual contributions, both in total dollars and numbers of contributors. Among those giving contributions over $200, more people living in the First Congressional district gave to Walz than to Davis.
Period. This is a matter of public record.
Congressman Walz's campaign raised more than $306,000 from individuals, of which $97617.24 came from individual contributors who gave under $200. Davis only received $29,709.55 total in small contributions.
When we took our glance at the contributor lists, this is what we found from analyzing the FEC reports:
[Walz] bested Davis by $38,000, but the giving behind those figures reveals an important, wider gap in terms of grassroots support. Walz's total take of large, itemized contributions, $209,103.35 is smaller than Davis's, but Walz's haul came from over twice the number of transactions, 500.
"Transactions" don't equal number of individuals, but it's clear that more people are giving to Walz in this category. There also look to be more First District residents on Walz's list of large contributors than on Davis's.
This difference is far more striking in what we can extrapolate from Walz's small contribution total: $97,617.24,over three times the amount of small contributions that Davis took in ($29,709.55).
Walz can rightfully claim the grassroots advantage in this race, both in terms of total dollars and total donors.
Did Walz receive more PAC money? Yes--but at $124,000.00, the sum was less than half of the money for individuals. Put simply: Walz outraised Davis in money received from individuals and from PACs. Davis got more money from his party (biggest check from the NRCC in Washington DC) and from himself.
Does everyone who comes into close contact with Davis lose the ability to state simple facts?
So what's up at the Winona Daily News? Will it issue an explanation? A clarification?
We'd like to contrast the WDN's behavior with that of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. In mid-July, when the paper published a story that had mistakenly reported that Davis topped Walz's Q2 2008 fundraising, the online version was immediately changed, and a correction was printed in the next day's dead tree and online versions. That's professionalism.
Admittedly, the Zemlo missive is a letter to the editor, and papers generally don't issue statements clarifying misinformation or misunderstandings on the part of the letter writer.
Generally.
We know of at least one recent letter to the Winona Daily News, Start eliminating nuisance cats, to which the editor attached a note clarifying the practices at the local humane society with regard to feral cats.
Thus, we can conclude that the WDN editors are not adverse to setting the record straight.
At least when it comes to stray cats. For a Davis supporter who wanders off into Planet Brian's alternative universe, they'll post the letter twice.
Since the August 20 fundraising pre-primary report deadline is fast approaching, we urge readers to send a contribution to Tim Walz's campaign. Faced with this sort of malarky from Davis supporters--and the papers that enable their distortions--Walz is going to need funds to get his message--and the facts--out to voters in the First.
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