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http://www.heraldandnews.com/viewpoints/article_8aa49038-6bb6-11df-a857-001cc4c002e0.html#vmix_media_id=13812637

Newspaper tried to steal the election, but failed

May 29, 2010, Herald and News guest writer  FRANK GOODSON  

On May 15, three days before the primary election would be over, the Herald and News published the day's front-page headlines in large bold print: "Election ad stirs controversy."

In the expansive article that followed, the Herald and News tried to steal the election. The opposing candidates, John Elliott and Karl Scronce, didn't try to steal the election.

The Klamath Ag Pac didn't try to steal the election. It was the Herald and News, and it didn't try to "steal it fair and square."

I was brought up the old-fashioned way ... taught that it was OK for a newspaper to state its opinions as long as it did so in the editorial section not in the news section.

When the newspaper "spins" the news to its liking, it is difficult for us readers to know the truth, and eventually it becomes difficult for us to believe anything the newspaper says.

In this case, the subject article was not an editorial, but was in the news section and it purposefully and wrongfully painted the Klamath Conservative Voters PAC as having inadequate leadership tending toward inaccuracies and division. The H&N writer tried to steal the election by painting us, and our ad, as incompetent.

We have acknowledged two errors in our advertisement. Humboldt and Del Norte boards of supervisors should not have been included and we apologize for those mistakes. But the H&N writer failed to mention there were approximately 250 names listed in that ad, all opposing dam removal.

Those two mistakes constituted less than a 1 percent error. That is a far better record than almost anyone has.

Also the ad made important reference to the 138,500 acres of Bureau of Reclamation Klamath Reclamation Project lands constituting only 3.5 percent of the county (possibly benefiting from dam removal) and the 3,788,500 acres of the county (96.5 percent) paying for, but not benefiting from, dam removal. But the H&N writer didn't mention those important facts.

In short, the Klamath Conservative Voters PAC made very few errors in this election, as the results confirm. Look to hear more from us in the future.

The controversy is not the election ad. However, I certainly cannot claim that there has been no controversy at all. The controversy was there, is still there and will continue for years to come. But the real controversy is not the election ad.

The controversy is the fact that important community leaders could conceive of, and then try to get the voters at large to embrace, a plan so extreme that it includes dam removal and that it includes giving 92,000 acres of land to the Klamath Tribes at taxpayers' expense.

The controversy is the Klamath County commissioners did not provide a direct opportunity for us voters to vote on dam removal and the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement.

The controversy is, the H&N is trying to sway the public vote, not through editorial opinions, but through spinning the news.

The controversy is, that neither the county commissioners nor the H&N could "see" that the Whitsett /Garrard Poll (65 percent against dam removal) accurately represented the voters views.

The controversy is, that Bill Garrard and Dennis Linthicum both won the primary election by about 65 percent to 35 percent, the same 65 percent number as the voters against dam removal in the poll.

The controversy is, will the Klamath County commissioners now provide an opportunity for us voters to vote on the dam removal and the KBRA?

The author

 Frank Goodson is a board member of the Klamath Conservative Voters PAC, a past chairman of the Klamath County Republican Central Committee, a resident of Klamath County for 20 years and a businessman residing in Fort Klamath.

 
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              Page Updated: Tuesday June 01, 2010 02:16 AM  Pacific


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