I knew it, I just hadn't gotten around to writing it up yet.
In response to an inquiry from the Free Press, the campaign of Republican Dick DeVos has changed his latest TV commercial, the one that amounts to an attack on Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm for going on the attack against DeVos.
Here's why the alteration is significant. The original ad attributed to the Free Press the words "phony" and "demagoguery," supposedly describing Granholm's rhetoric against DeVos. In fact, those words appeared in a column by Brian Dickerson of the Free Press, which makes them one person's view as opposed to the newspaper expressing an opinion on its editorial page. The revised ad attributes the words only to the generic "press" and to a "Free Press column."
While the distinction may be lost on the general public, it is significant to a newspaper that may hold institutional opinions quite different from those of its columnists.
Even as changed, the ad involves some misrepresentation. The Dickerson column was about Democratic Party attacks on DeVos for building Amway factories in China while DeVos was president of that business. Dickerson actually wrote that "Granholm would be well advised to disavow this phony bit of Democratic demagoguery before it blows up in her face." That's a little different from criticizing the governor for engaging in same.
You calling Dick a liar?
Maybe it's time to investigate the other quotes and put them in context.
Or not. Dick has been "misrepresenting" all along- it gets redundant after awhile. I just wish the media would do more to point it out when it happens.