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October 08, 2006

Alan Fine Vs. The Strib

Alan Fine answers yesterday's Strib article with a news release which raises serious questions about the Strib's story and, if true, the character and "journalistic ethics" (if, indeed, such a thing truly and significantly exists) of Strib reporter Rochelle Olson . I've added emphasis as needed:

Minneapolis, MN, October 7, 2006--This is a response from the Fine for Congress campaign regarding the current StarTribune article "Candidate had Record Expunged" written by Rochelle Olson and Paul McEnroe on October 7, 2006. The Fine campaign does question the use of certain language and feels that there is strong misrepresentation of Mr. Fine's marriage and relationships and character by Rochelle Olson and Paul McEnroe. Specifically, the misrepresentation of the use of an expunged document and at least 25 additional court documents provided by Mr. Fine to the StarTribune on July 10, 2006. The statement by Rochelle Olson and Paul McEnroe in the article citing "The newspaper obtained the expunged record detailing the arrest two weeks ago" is false.
The news release [which I'll reprint in its entirety in the extended entry] relates the various interviews between Fine and the various Strib reporters.
It was Mr. Fine's understanding in statements made to him by writer Rochelle Olson that the StarTribune was already in possession of the documents that Alan Fine presented to her. The Fine campaign is calling for a retraction of the entire article based on the vast number of inaccuracies and the misleading nature of the article which is a defamation of Mr. Fine's character and a misrepresentation of Alan Fine's previous campaign comment that "character matters." Further proof of their intent can be found in their quote at the end of the article, "After state Rep. Keith Ellison won the DFL nomination, Fine launched an attack on his character, focusing on his past ties to the Nation of Islam. Fine has repeatedly said "character matters.'" Rochelle Olson and Paul McEnroe, StarTribune, October 7, 2006.
The cynic in me says it was payback for actually going against the Mother Party and the Father Paper, and for dissing the Strib.

The idealist in me is finding harder and harder to shush the cynic.

The following statement was issued by Alan Fine earlier today, "The StarTribune failed to report in this article that I have primary custody of my 12-year-old son."
Snap!

As a general rule, an average guy in Hennepin County has as much chance of getting primary custody of his kid as he has of getting a called third strike past Joe Mauer. Having an abuse rap on their record makes it well-nigh impossible. Which is, indeed, why so many women bring false charges of abuse; it is the nuclear option, the trump card in custody cases. And fraudulent charges are never prosecuted, because women's advocates claim that to prosecute a cynical fraud committed to destroy a father would cause a "chilling effect", so they say, to women who are being abused.

Mr. Fine continued to state his concerns regarding the truthfulness of the article overall. "The StarTribune has mislead the public about my campaign, my personal relationships, my character and about my relationship with my son. It is disappointing that the StarTribune shows a blatant disregard for the truth. This should be a 'red flag' of caution for readers of the StarTribune."
Given the Strib's "go-soft" policy on DFLers and their "no-quarter" tack against Republicans (who have any chance of impacting DFL control), the readers' "red flag" should, in fact, be the Star/Tribune masthead.

In fact, if you read the Strib, your policy should be to assume anything the Strib writes about Republicans is a lie until proven otherwise.

Alan Fine also said, "As a candidate in the 5th District, I am campaigning against Keith Ellison and Tammy Lee... not the media, specifically, the StarTribune newspaper."
Idealism? Naivete? Bad advice? We don't know. I'm sure Alan Fine will never make that mistake again.
Alan Fine also said, "My divorce occurred in 1995. I don't dismiss this as old news. This is a part of my life and my past and I believe that if the public were to know the truth of the whole story, they would see a story of strength and triumph and not one of abuse and disregard." Alan Fine also said, "I value my former wife as the mother of my 12-year-old son, who we both love dearly."
This story needs to come out - both to vindicate Fine (assuming he's telling the truth - and I do) and to repudiate the Strib's claims of objectivity and fairness (again, assuming Fine is telling the truth - and again, I do).

But why would the Strib - whose motivations Eric Black so eloquently and capably defended on the Hewitt show on Friday - do something like this?

Fine has a theory:

In closing, the Fine campaign calls to remove falsehoods by retracting the entire article immediately and issuing apologies to the Fine for Congress campaign and to Alan Fine, candidate for U.S. Congress in Minnesota's Fifth Congressional District. We are deeply concerned about the apparently strategic release of this story due to the close proximity of the general election on November 7 and following the critical campaign mailing to 100,000 voters in the 5th district regarding factual information which specifically connects Keith Ellison to a questionable organization. We also feel that this story was written in retaliation to Alan Fine's making public his displeasure that the StarTribune refused to publish his recent Op-Ed submission (which can be found at www.fineforcongress.org) and to mute the claims made in this latest mailing piece. It is our hope that we will have a response from the StarTribune in a timely manner regarding this demand of apology and retraction. "It is my hope, that this kind of abuse of the power of the Minnesota media would not become the norm or politics as usual fof future candidates."
But it is. And it will be. IIt's the DFL's last, best hope for maintaining its stranglehold in the metro, which is the only thing keeping it relevant in Minnesota politics.

Let's talk about the Strib for a moment. Their coverage of Fine has been...enigmatic? No - predictable. Up until about a month ago, Fine was the sort of Republican that every DFLer loves; moderate (Fine is a mild-mannered fiscal conservative and a social moderate), conciliatory, personable, and heading for maybe 40% of the vote. The kind of Republican the Strib just loves.

And they showed it; the Strib's Lori Sturdevant, as reliable a DFL flak as the Strib has, wrote an article entitled "GOP Might Learn From 5th District Candidate Fine" last June.

Then, two weeks ago, Fine started getting uppity, questioning the Strib's policy of passing Keith Ellison's evasiveness on his Nations of Islam past off as truth, with nary a followup question. And then the gloves came off.

Rochelle Olson, one of the writers of yesterday's October Surprise hit piece, now seems to be either working as a tacit adjuct to the Ellison campaign, or at least have a dog in the race. Fine related a story this past Thursday at a campaign event in which Olson called him (according to Fine) after Fine direct-mailed a stack of proof about Ellison's Nations of Islam connections to the voters. According to Fine, the conversation went like this:

Olson: "You're a hatemonger, aren't you?"

Fine: "Why?"

Olson: "Because you're trying to blacken Keith Ellison"

Again, that was taken from Fine's account. But nothing in the account is against type...

...for the past month, anyway.

Rochelle Olson - I'd love to talk with you on the NARN next weekend. We have so much to discuss.

UPDATE: Elder notes:

Saturday's Star Tribune slag piece on Alan Fine? Front page of course.

Sunday's story on how Fine is demanding a retraction of the story? Page B7.

And Swiftee tees up what promises to be an interesting couple of day's coverage.

Here's the entire press release:

Minneapolis, MN, October 7, 2006--This is a response from the Fine for Congress campaign regarding the current StarTribune article "Candidate had Record Expunged" written by Rochelle Olson and Paul McEnroe on October 7, 2006. The Fine campaign does question the use of certain language and feels that there is strong misrepresentation of Mr. Fine's marriage and relationships and character by Rochelle Olson and Paul McEnroe. Specifically, the misrepresentation of the use of an expunged document and at least 25 additional court documents provided by Mr. Fine to the StarTribune on July 10, 2006. The statement by Rochelle Olson and Paul McEnroe in the article citing "The newspaper obtained the expunged record detailing the arrest two weeks ago" is false. It is the understanding of the Fine campaign, that Mr. Fine presented these documents voluntarily to the StarTribune upon their request on July 10, 2006 in an extensive interview with Erik Black at the request of the editorial staff of the StarTribune regarding this issue. In attendance at this interview was also Fine for Congress Campaign Director, Jenny Sliwinski. This was a follow-up to an extensive interview with Eric Black in May following Alan Fine's endorsement in which Erik Black raised questions about these same issues. Following this interview, Erik Black released an article on May 16, 2006 in the StarTribune titled, "In DFL-dominated Territory, GOP Candidate Sees Opportunity." Again, Jenny Sliwinski, Campaign Director for the Fine Campaign was witness to this interview in which the issues raised were fully discussed. These documents were also presented to Rochelle Olson and Paul McEnroe this past week. Joe Weber, Fine for Congress campaign consultant, was in attendance at that meeting. It was Mr. Fine's understanding in statements made to him by writer Rochelle Olson that the StarTribune was already in possession of the documents that Alan Fine presented to her. The Fine campaign is calling for a retraction of the entire article based on the vast number of inaccuracies and the misleading nature of the article which is a defamation of Mr. Fine's character and a misrepresentation of Alan Fine's previous campaign comment that "character matters." Further proof of their intent can be found in their quote at the end of the article, "After state Rep. Keith Ellison won the DFL nomination, Fine launched an attack on his character, focusing on his past ties to the Nation of Islam. Fine has repeatedly said "character matters.'" Rochelle Olson and Paul McEnroe, StarTribune, October 7, 2006.

The following statement was issued by Alan Fine earlier today, "The StarTribune failed to report in this article that I have primary custody of my 12-year-old son." Mr. Fine continued to state his concerns regarding the truthfulness of the article overall. "The StarTribune has mislead the public about my campaign, my personal relationships, my character and about my relationship with my son. It is disappointing that the StarTribune shows a blatant disregard for the truth. This should be a 'red flag' of caution for readers of the StarTribune."

Alan Fine also said, "As a candidate in the 5th District, I am campaigning against Keith Ellison and Tammy Lee... not the media, specifically, the StarTribune newspaper."

Alan Fine also said, "My divorce occurred in 1995. I don't dismiss this as old news. This is a part of my life and my past and I believe that if the public were to know the truth of the whole story, they would see a story of strength and triumph and not one of abuse and disregard."

Alan Fine also said, "I value my former wife as the mother of my 12-year-old son, who we both love dearly."

In closing, the Fine campaign calls to remove falsehoods by retracting the entire article immediately and issuing apologies to the Fine for Congress campaign and to Alan Fine, candidate for U.S. Congress in Minnesota's Fifth Congressional District. We are deeply concerned about the apparently strategic release of this story due to the close proximity of the general election on November 7 and following the critical campaign mailing to 100,000 voters in the 5th district regarding factual information which specifically connects Keith Ellison to a questionable organization. We also feel that this story was written in retaliation to Alan Fine's making public his displeasure that the StarTribune refused to publish his recent Op-Ed submission (which can be found at www.fineforcongress.org) and to mute the claims made in this latest mailing piece. It is our hope that we will have a response from the StarTribune in a timely manner regarding this demand of apology and retraction. "It is my hope, that this kind of abuse of the power of the Minnesota media would not become the norm or politics as usual fof future candidates."

Note that I provide this not to serve as a press outlet for Fine - I'm not - but to ensure the reader can get the entire context of his response.

Posted by Mitch at October 8, 2006 10:31 AM | TrackBack
Comments

Mitch, I contacted Rochelle yesterday regarding this.

I've posted my overall take today, and will follow up with the (now) obvious lie Rochelle responded to me with tomorrow.

Posted by: swiftee at October 8, 2006 11:55 AM

We will learn from Alan Fine. But not what Lori Sturdevant wants us to learn. We will learn that the Star and Sickle will tar and feather any Republican including the Rino's that they "support".

Posted by: jay at October 9, 2006 06:33 AM

Criticism of a published article normally concerns things such as misquotations, inaccurate descriptions of events, misdating of events, or factual errors. Fine apparently didn’t identify any such errors in the article (not mentioning that he has primary custody isn‘t a factual error); rather, he disliked the content and timing of the article, and called for its retraction because of his intense emotional reaction. No commercial publication in the U.S. would comply with such a request.

SRS

Posted by: Steven R. Stahl at October 9, 2006 09:16 AM

"Criticism of a published article normally concerns things such as misquotations, inaccurate descriptions of events, misdating of events, or factual errors. Fine apparently didn’t identify any such errors in the article (not mentioning that he has primary custody isn‘t a factual error)"

It is an omission which, combined with the anti-male bias of Hennepin County's family court system, would tend to debunk the impression that the original article gave, that he was an "abuser".

In an legalistic sense the Strib may not have erred by ailing to report that. To say that it wasn't a fact material to the overall impression of the article is obtuse.

"rather, he disliked the content and timing of the article, and called for its retraction because of his intense emotional reaction"

One which is, I believe, thoroughly justified. And he's not the only one deeply suspicious of te article's timing, to say nothing of Rochelle Olson's stated timeline.

"No commercial publication in the U.S. would comply with such a request."

Perhaps not. But they shouldn't be surprised when we mere peasants criticize them for it.

Posted by: mitch at October 9, 2006 09:24 AM

The gist of the Star Tribune article was actually the belated expungement of the arrest record, and Fine’s inability to explain the delay. The interviews with the Wexlers provided background for the incident causing the arrest; the 911 calls were background related to the expungement.

From a PR standpoint, the expungement was a mistake. The arrest had no evident effect on his teaching career, and didn’t prevent him from gaining primary custody of his son. All the expungement did was to make it appear that Fine was attempting to conceal the incident from the public. That move was useless, since the expungement didn’t erase personal knowledge of the arrest; had the expungement not occurred, there still would have been articles (arguably, “he said, she said”) about the arrest, but everything would have been out in the open, and Fine wouldn’t appear to be trying to hide anything.

Reporters practically always have more material, in terms of quotations and background material, than can appear in print. Complaining about material that was omitted from the article is useless, unless one can demonstrate that the entire thrust of the article would have changed. Fine couldn’t do that, since the article wasn’t a profile—the focus was on the expungement and the arrest—and his memory failed him when he was asked for details about the arrest, as it related to the divorce.

In those circumstances, demanding a retraction could be considered childish. Since Fine can’t wish away the arrest, or have the Star Tribune or other commercial publications produce glowing profiles on demand, he’ll just have to deal with the consequences of the arrest, favorable to his political aspirations or not.

SRS

Posted by: Steven R. Stahl at October 9, 2006 02:28 PM

The real thing I want to learn about Alan Fine is what his real politics are. In 2002 he ran with the Independence Party for US Senate on both a fiscally and socially liberal platform. I'm not all that concearned about who Alan has gotten in a slapping match with, as cronic liars tend to find themselves in those sorts of situations.

Posted by: Mike Grimes at October 21, 2006 06:27 PM

The real thing I want to learn about Alan Fine is what his real politics are. In 2002 he ran with the Independence Party for US Senate on both a fiscally and socially liberal platform. I'm not all that concearned about who Alan has gotten in a slapping match with, as cronic liars tend to find themselves in those sorts of situations.

Posted by: Mike Grimes at October 21, 2006 06:27 PM
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