As we just mentioned in another post today, early this month the Detroit Lakes Tribune ripped Rep. Steve Green and Sen. Paul Utke over vaccine misinformation.
That Detroit Lakes Tribune editorial was reprinted in another Forum Communications newspaper in the Senate District, the Park Rapids Enterprise as Other Views: Leaders promoting vaccine misinformation is dangerous and divisive.
Unke didn't appreciate the newspaper chain's opinion whatsoever, firing back with a letter, Sen. Paul Utke rebukes Detroit Lakes Tribune for editorial.
The paper prefaced the letter with this introduction:
The following was submitted by Sen. Paul Utke, R-Park Rapids, in response to a Detroit Lakes Tribune editorial, published on Nov. 10. in the Park Rapids Enterprise. We have published the senator's response in its entirety.
Unke's letter:
It is time the newspapers stop printing false information and censoring the public's free speech. Did you know that the Park Rapids Enterprise will decline your letter to the editor if their fact-checkers don’t like the content? Interesting considering what we just witnessed in the Nov. 10 Park Rapids Enterprise.
The Enterprise printed a guest editorial written by the Detroit Lakes Tribune Editorial Board. (This editorial was also inserted in the Detroit Lakes Tribune a few days earlier). It was titled “Green, Utke should quit spreading misinformation.” It is interesting how the editorial board can write something like they did and the reporter (from the Detroit Lakes Tribune) that actually attended the town hall wrote a nice recap of the event, and it was published Oct. 30.
Let’s look at what the editorial board (EB) published versus the truth. The EB refers to a room full of people. I believe there were 8 to 10 people in a room that would hold hundreds of people! The EB prints “Adding his thoughts on vaccine mandates, Utke said, this whole thing is criminal.” That supposed quote is completely false. Yes, I am against vaccine mandates, not the vaccine itself, because we have personal freedoms in our country and people have a right to determine for themselves what is proper for them to put into their bodies. That was said many times throughout the town hall. We do not tell anyone what to do when it comes to the vaccine. We tell everyone that they need to educate themselves on the vaccine and then do what is best for them.
And then the EB goes on to say, “But that’s because public health officials have consistently pushed back on these fringe treatments, like hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin and a regimen of zinc, due to the fact they are not drugs proven to treat a viral respiratory infection.” Why is the EB inserting their own commentary into an editorial that is supposedly written about the town hall Rep. Steve Green and myself held?
The EB didn’t like my comment on the COVID death counts. It is true that our medical providers were given special instructions on filling out a death certificate, which was outside the normal training and procedures they were used to doing and were taught in medical school, but for COVID our state health department was changing what they would report. This increased the number of reported COVID deaths when in reality the person died from something else. There is a difference between dying with COVID versus dying from COVID.
Again, the EB goes off on their own commentary and talks about AIDS and HIV in relation to COVID. The EB continues with “Here’s the truth: Public health officials have been doing their best over the last 20 months to keep as many people as safe as possible from a deadly novel virus, and part of that is trying to persuade residents to take COVID vaccines to decrease their chances of severe illness and death. But, with placebo-questioning from leaders like Green and Utke, it has made the persuasion practically unattainable.” I never said one word about the placebo – a totally false statement by the EB.
In the last couple paragraphs, the EB accuses Rep. Green and myself of “spreading vaccine misinformation,” plus “approach to politics has become constituent confirmation bias in the absence of true, independent leadership. They have shown there are no longer Republicans who would defend an incorrect statement about Barack Obama being an Arab, which is an incident that occurred in Minnesota in 2008; instead, they would choose to cheer them on, sharpen their pitchforks and light their figurative torches just to send them toward the nearest state official.”
What? Unbelievable! How did the EB come up with something like this and attach it to our town hall, which was a discussion related to our current political climate and topics.
The Park Rapids Enterprise and the Detroit Lakes Tribune have now reached an all-time low in journalism when writing and printing something like they did concerning a legislative town hall that did not even include many of the topics the EB writes about and tries to attach to Rep. Green and myself. This was a slanderous, false attempt to totally discredit our town hall meeting in Frazee.
The editors respond:
Editor’s note: Utke represents Minnesota Senate District 2, which includes most of Becker and Hubbard counties.
For clarification, if a reader submits a letter to the Park Rapids Enterprise making medical claims about COVID or vaccines, those claims will be verified by medical professionals.
Further, the Detroit Lakes Tribune stands by its editorial, which was published on its website on Nov. 6 and as a guest editorial in the Park Rapids Enterprise on Nov. 10.
Mark Anfinson, attorney for the Minnesota Newspaper Association, explains, “Slander, libel and defamation all mean basically the same thing – the dissemination of false facts that have the potential to seriously harm a person’s reputation. In the case of public officials, like Utke, the U.S. Supreme Court has erected significant barriers against legal claims they might bring for defamation. In order to succeed, they would need to prove that the publisher knew the harmful facts were false, or had a high degree of awareness of their probable falsity.”
The "EB" then posted an audio clip of the exchange in question and one of the entire town hall. We can't embed it here, so go check it out at the Enterprise. We can embed the transcript of the shorter audio clip in which Green and Utke answer an audience member's question--the material that prompted the editorial. Here it is:
Transcript of Audio Clip - ... posted on Scribd by Michael Achterling
The newspaper is doing its best to shift through misinformation. On November 15, the Park Enterprise Editorial Board published An Enterprise editorial: Combat the infodemic during this pandemic:
Newspapers aren’t obligated to publish someone’s opinion if it is false or misleading or widely debunked. Citizens should apply the same rigorous fact-checking to what they see.
Perhaps social media is to blame for the notion that all opinions are of equal value, that opinions aren’t subject to scrutiny and that listening to information from people with expertise, knowledge and training makes you “sheep,” “propagandists” or “fearmongers.”
. . . As journalists, it’s our duty to verify statements before we publish them, particularly if they're false or misleading statements that could cause harm. Especially during a pandemic where our community is rife with false information that is dangerous. It affects our readers' health.
Our reporter did his job as a news reporter by checking a parent’s comments at a school board meeting against those of a county public health official.
The Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics tells us “to seek the truth and report it. Take responsibility for the accuracy of your work. Verify it before releasing it.”
That is the core of news reporting.
When covering the news, journalists verify, double- and even triple-check sources.
Newspapers aren’t obligated to publish someone’s opinion if it is false or misleading or widely debunked. While freedom of speech is a fundamental right, it is not absolute and it is subject to restrictions. As courts have ruled, you don't have the freedom to yell "fire!" in a crowded movie theater. . . .
There's more, including some pretty groovy infographics. Hats off to the Park Rapids Enterprise.
It's not unusual for Forum Communications chain papers to reprint copy published by other papers in the chain, from Rochester, Duluth and Worthington in Minnesota, to Grand Forks, North Dakota and Mitchell, South Dakota. Frequently in election years, endorsements for statewide offices are distributed to all chain papers for use on the op-ed pages.
Related posts:
- LTE: Detroit Lakes Tribune thanked for spanking state representative Green for misinformation
- Detroit Lakes Tribune ripped Rep. Steve Green and Sen. Paul Utke over vaccine misinformation.
- DFL candidate Suby: Green should find facts
- No, Antifa and Muslim Groups Aren’t Policing Minneapolis Under ‘Muslim Rule.' (Snopes)
- Too cute: if only Steve Green could have come up with a real defense against feral swine
- The unbearable lightness of Steve Green's sourcing for problem wildlife removal
Photo: Minnesota state Sen. Paul Utke, R-Park Rapids, picking and grinning.
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