Tuesday, March 18, 2008

C-J's Bogus McConnell Quote

The Courier-Journal contains a piece by Joe Gerth on the U.S. Senate race that attributes a quote to Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell. The only problem is that McConnell did not say those words. In fact, the C-J neither sought nor received any quote regarding the AFL-CIO endorsement of W. Bruce Lunsford.

The printed version of the C-J erroneously quotes McConnell regarding Dr. Mike Cassaro, who is running in the Democratic primary to challenge McConnell:

"'Mike's campaign has been warmly received by the rank-and-file membership of most unions in Kentucky. We are continuing to work with a number of independent labor organizations,'said McConnell, the Senate minority leader, is seeking his fifth term."

To be sure, Cassaro is one of the weaker Democrats seeking to run against McConnell. Nonetheless, it's hard to imagine McConnell commending Cassaro's campaign as "warmly received." And in fact, McConnell said no such thing.

The C-J's online edition attributes the quote to Dan Coleman, Cassaro's campaign manager -- though the C-J fails to mention that the online edition corrects a mistake that appeared in print. We wait with baited breath to see if the C-J will run a retraction.

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