Veteran Kansas City Star editorial writer and columnist Lewis Diuguid wrote a scathing column today attacking Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Romney’s former company Bain Capital for shutting down companies.
Unfortunately, Diuguid, who was demoted from a vice president position at the Star in 2009, simply took Democratic talking points as fact without checking. In the process, he ended up with egg on his face.
“Democrats tried to show Wednesday what a Mitt Romney presidency would look like when they brought onto the stage of the convention in Charlotte, N.C., people who had been laid off from Bain Capital firms,” wrote Diuguid. “One included David Foster who was let go when GST Steel in Kansas City was shuttered in the Northeast area. The speakers told how the workers were devastated.”
Unfortunately, as ABC News pointed out, Foster never worked at GST Steel in Kansas City.
“But Foster, according to a former spokesman for GST Steel, never actually worked for the company,” noted Jonathon Karl at ABC News in a story titled “Steelworker Featured at DNC Didn’t Work for Bain.”
“David Foster was never an employee of GST Steel’s Kansas City plant. He was employed by the United Steelworkers of America as their regional union director to represent GST Steel, but was not employed at our facility,” according to BC Huselton, who was head of HR at GST.
“To criticize Bain for the companies they couldn’t save is no different than criticizing a hospital because they had patients who died. Healthy people don’t check into a hospital and healthy companies are not purchased by turn around specialists.”
A BELIEF IN ACCURACY
I wholeheartedly believe in accuracy whether it’s a columnist discussing a matter in an editorial or a political candidate laying out a case for his or her election/re-election, focusing, it is to be hoped, on his or her own record as opposed to his or her opponent’s record.
PENN
If he plagiarized Dem. talking points, will he get fired like Steve Penn?
FOSTER NEVER LIED
Faulting the columnist is one thing but leaving the impression that Foster somehow lied is another. I come down on the side of those who believe Bain hurt workers in Kansas City.
I would be careful in saying that the columnist copied the Democrat talking points. Daily Kos, a liberal entity, had another take on this story. And this is it:
Found this on the front page of Yahoo, linked from ABC. Steelworker featured at DNC didn’t work for Bain
The premise of this article, and the reason for the front page status, would have to make you think wow, the guy didn’t work for Bain and was up there making stuff up. And Karl would like you to believe that too.
“But it turns out one of those employees never actually worked for a company controlled by Bain Capital. David Foster was supposedly one of those former employees on the convention schedule.”
Ouch, that is sinister. I’m all for not going up on stage on National TV and claiming you’re something you’re not, and if I’m going to fault Paul Ryan for it, I have to be consistent. But wait.
“David Foster was never an employee of GST Steel’s Kansas City plant. He was employed by the United Steelworkers of America as their regional union director to represent GST Steel, but was not employed at our facility,” according to BC Huselton
Oh, this is more interesting. Let’s look at the speech itself, which at least the hack Karl placed in the article.
I also led the steelworkers in the upper Midwest, including GST Steel in Kansas City, a 100-year old company bought by Mitt Romney and his partners at Bain Capital in 1993.
Weird, looking through the whole speech, not once did he claim to work at that one facility. I would think this sentence here would be clear to any thinking person that he was leading multiple steelworkers groups, that’s usually what “including” would indicate to those not privy to the English language used by our political media. The story goes on to let us know that this story was generated by Huselton’s interview (of course it doesn’t say that, but it’s pretty obvious again to those who can connect the dots), a campaign surrogate to Romney. It was a short speech and article, but it’s very telling how our MSM is playing this election. And somehow this is front page news on Yahoo for hours with the headline it has, leaving the impression that a bunch of falsehoods will be contained. Of course, the author Karl cannot point out one falsehood in this private citizens speech, but of course, does that matter when you can leave the impression there was? So we’re not just going to be outspent, we’re also going to have to deal with this type of journalism, where a bald face lie machine like Ryan, who is running for office, is being put on par with a private citizen convention speaker who did not tell one falsehood but they want you to think he misled you. Makes it easier to make all attacks on Bain seem “suspect”. this on the front page of Yahoo, linked from ABC. Steelworker featured at DNC didn’t work for Bain.
A MOMENT OF YOUR TIME…
Bob, the only thing missing from your reply is: ” A moment of your time, please! ” at the beginning
EARLIER REPORT ON BAIN
Gee Bob, too bad you didn’t listen to our report in 2000-2001 why GST closed. For the record, the series of reports we produced over six months showed the sale of Far East steel imports were under the wholesale cost of US producers. And we didn’t just report about GST closing. We reported 16 other steel companies also closed their doors within 18 months, including Bethelem Steel, the nation’s #2 producer at the time.
I guess Bain hurt the workers at those 17 plants as well.
Scott Simon
Former News Director
Business Radio 1190 KPHN
OBLIGATION TO CHECK FACTS
This is a article about how a columnist asserted aN objective fact that wasn’t true. Lewis Diuguid wrote that David Foster was let go when Bain closed GST Steel.
I doubt that Diuguid intentionally lied when he wrote it. The point is he has an obligation to check his facts before drawing a conclusion from them.
I expect more from a columnist than I get from a chain email. In this case I didn’t get it.
STAR MAKES CORRECTION
The Star has now removed the portion of the article claiming that David Foster was an employee of GST Steel.
NOT REALLY A CORRECTION
“… has now removed the portion of the article”
This is merely a coverup of a blatant falsehood, but it is not a correction.
A correction – when used within the context of a newspaper – is a separate story, noting the original story, the errors, and offering other comments. In this case the writer accepted political talking point as fact, made no effort to verify, and published. Low energy, low intellect.
I don’t believe the Star issued a correction. They merely covered up for Diuguid.
Please, please KCSTAR. Next round of layoffs, put Diuguid on the list.