| QUOTE (earthmother @ Aug 10 2004, 10:36 AM) |
| Bluebutterfly posted this . . . ahem . . . let's just say, somewhere else. I don't know why she didn't post it here, but I thought our members should see it, so I'm posting it here. :P http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php...5b986eaccd17444 The Truth Behind Shove-It-Gate There was a whole unreported history behind Teresa Heinz Kerry's intemperate remark. by Steve Volk The recent Teresa Heinz Kerry "shove it" controversy looks awfully different through the eyes of those who reside in the western part of our state. Only a Pittsburgher can appreciate the irony of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review having a prominent role in anything--let alone a national dustup. Colin McNickle, the man Heinz Kerry told to "shove it," makes his living offering up mind-numbing editorials for Trib owner Richard Mellon Scaife, the 65-year-old billionaire great-grandnephew of Andrew Mellon and the leader of what Hillary Clinton dubbed the "vast right-wing conspiracy." McNickle's greatest hits include assertions that Rick Santorum isn't conservative enough, FDR's New Deal hampered the nation's emergence from the Great Depression and Democratic filibusters are acts of "war." Republicans have portrayed Heinz Kerry's "shove it" quote as a sign of volatility, the aggressive act of a woman too impolitic to be first lady. The national media have replayed the exchange with McNickle almost as much as they did Dean's overhyped scream--without once putting the moment in full context. So here goes: Colin McNickle writes for perhaps the most strident and myopic editorial page in the country--the product of one man's blurry vision. And that paper--Richard Mellon Scaife's paper--has a long history with Heinz Kerry. Give The New York Observer's Joe Conason credit for chronicling some of that history in a recent column, where he explained that Scaife and Heinz Kerry's first husband, the late Sen. H. John Heinz III, ran in the same ultra-rich circle of Pittsburgh. While Scaife skipped into the la-la land of conservative conspiracy theories, the late Sen. Heinz remained on terra firma. In the years since, Conason writes, Scaife's papers have been none too kind, even printing a non-bylined piece some years back that suggested Heinz Kerry's new husband John was enjoying a "very private" relationship with another woman. Unsigned gossip is typical of the Trib, and Heinz Kerry's reaction to seeing a Trib reporter at the Democratic Convention could be related to that history. Pittsburgh City Paper managing editor Chris Potter calls the whole brouhaha "ridiculous" and cites a recent Trib investigation as a possible contributing factor in Heinz Kerry's exchange with McNickle. In mid-July Trib reporter Carl Prine wrote a piece suggesting Heinz Kerry took advantage of county tax laws to reap a big ill-deserved tax break. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the city's paper of record, ran an article a couple of days later in which Heinz Kerry's spokesperson produced a copy of a letter she said Heinz Kerry sent to the county in March 2002. In that letter, Heinz Kerry asked that her land be taxed at the appropriate rate. According to spokesperson Marla Romash, Heinz Kerry paid the higher rate. A search of the Trib archives reveals the newspaper never followed up Prine's original piece--either to refute Heinz Kerry's response or to admit they'd screwed up. This kind of unprofessional behavior from the Trib is nothing new. "They aren't very consistent about running corrections or retractions," says Potter. "People from outside Pittsburgh need to understand that as much as the Trib hates liberals, they hate moderate Republicans even more. So they had it out for [Sen. John Heinz]. Teresa Heinz Kerry has a longstanding grievance with the Trib, in my opinion a justified grievance, which explains her behavior. We're just not seeing that reported." Longtime Post-Gazette writer and onetime Trib reporter Dennis Roddy has long enjoyed pointing out the Trib's foibles. He wrote about the time Scaife ordered Trib reporter Joe Mandak to the Allegheny National Forest to follow up on a tip that the Russians had invaded. He also pointed out a McNickle goof during the 2000 election. The occasion for Roddy's news feature was a McNickle column headlined "(Mis)Speaketh Al," in which McNickle attributed to Gore a series of verbal blunders: "I stand by all the misstatements that I have made." "I didn't live in this century." "I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have was that I didn't study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people." Funny stuff. The problem? The quotes had previously been attributed to Dan Quayle. Roddy generously buried the revelation that McNickle had reprinted these errors--waiting until the 19th paragraph of his news feature to introduce the Trib columnist at all. Reporters sometimes make fact errors, but the kicker was McNickle's reaction to seeing his pointed out: "I'll stand by where we got the information from," Roddy quoted McNickle, who further said he believed the quotes were accurate "as far as we can determine." In the wake of Shove-It-Gate, it's now clear Heinz Kerry should have walked right by McNickle, whose only hope of hitting the nation's radar was by baiting someone far more important than himself. Blame the media, however, for telling just half of this story. "This is definitely a case where the shorthand doesn't work," says the Post-Gazette's Roddy. "Viewers look at their televisions and see Heinz Kerry say 'shove it' to this quiet, bearded reporter. But what Teresa Heinz Kerry saw was a reporter from a newspaper that for 25 years had been writing awful things about her and her husbands." |