When it comes right down to it, former Missouri Governor Matt Blunt has been unfairly maligned over the non-existent email scandal. And while former Attorney General Jay Nixon deserves much of the blame for his role in the process, the bulk of the blame lies with the Missouri media.
Like leeches looking for a home, the media grabbed on to one former staffers version of events, knowing they couldn’t possible have the whole story, but not seeming to care.
One of the worst of the leeches was the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch’s Tony Messenger. Perhaps it was that Messenger was at a new gig, and trying to impress his bosses, but he went off the deep end in helping create a controversy where none really existed. What’s worse, when the news came that the investigation was basically closed and no report would be issued, it wasn’t Messenger that reported it. Retired political analyst Jo Mannies did the honors on the Political Fix blog, and the AP fielded the best version of the news, although that doesn’t seem to appear in the Post-Dispatch. Messenger should be ashamed that the mess he started went as far as it did.
Another leech was The Star’s Kit Wagar. Wagar was since bounced in The Star’s staff reductions. Wagar wrote like he worked for a liberal think tank, and he zeroed his bias in on Matt Blunt whenever possible. Wagar, who was the Star’s Jefferson City reporter, also used the Star’s blog to publish things the paper would never print. All we can say is, good riddance.
One of the worst bi-products of the media’s lust for blood was a series of completely unfounded and sensational rumors in Missouri blogs about what was in the emails. Everyone who had no journalistic credentials, but an internet name to hide behind, wanted to speculate what Matt Blunt was hiding. Now that they know there was nothing to hide, we don’t see any of them apologizing.
The Source hits on the media on a regular basis for biased or inaccurate reporting. Here they went beyond inaccuracy and helped create a story. That is shameful. Once created, they couldn’t contain the consequences. That is unforgivable.
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