Nixon's last desperate attempt to route the E.Coli-Gate story is a campaign of disinformation. Information he supplied to the AP can only be described as misleading:
To put this in perspective, consider a few things. DNR protocol under the Nixon administration was to send all press releases through one Nixon aide for approval. That aide was Jeff Mazur, who learned about the test results the day after the results were concluded. Jeff Mazur is in Nixon's top echelon of aides, and according to Susanne Medley, "He was the communication contact I had and kept him updated on everything or any issue that might garner media interest or be of concern."
In other words, he was Nixon's point man during E.Coli-Gate. There's a reason why virtually every media outlet covering the story in detail has called him a "top aide." You can't get any closer and still have your feet on the ground.
Apparently his conduct during the crisis was so fantastic that Nixon felt he deserved a promotion, and on September 10 he was made the full liaison for DNR affairs. This is just one of several suspicious promotions for aides and appointees who bungled E.Coli-Gate.
The question of Nixon's personal knowledge also fails the sniff test. Joe Bindbeutel told Lake of the Ozarks Watershed Alliance that Nixon was aware of the situation. Nixon's constant attempts to obstruct the investigation and kill the story aren't consistent with the behavior of someone who didn't know what was going on.
The sorry thing is that this new tale doesn't even agree with what Nixon was telling reporters five hours earlier. When pressed on E.Coli-Gate, he changed his story from "No one in my administration knew" to "I'm not sure". He got sure pretty quick.
"Nixon said Monday that someone in his communications office may have been informed shortly after the Department of Natural Resources received results of the water tests.
However, the governor said the information wasn't passed on to him or other high-ranking officials in his office."
To put this in perspective, consider a few things. DNR protocol under the Nixon administration was to send all press releases through one Nixon aide for approval. That aide was Jeff Mazur, who learned about the test results the day after the results were concluded. Jeff Mazur is in Nixon's top echelon of aides, and according to Susanne Medley, "He was the communication contact I had and kept him updated on everything or any issue that might garner media interest or be of concern."
In other words, he was Nixon's point man during E.Coli-Gate. There's a reason why virtually every media outlet covering the story in detail has called him a "top aide." You can't get any closer and still have your feet on the ground.
Apparently his conduct during the crisis was so fantastic that Nixon felt he deserved a promotion, and on September 10 he was made the full liaison for DNR affairs. This is just one of several suspicious promotions for aides and appointees who bungled E.Coli-Gate.
The question of Nixon's personal knowledge also fails the sniff test. Joe Bindbeutel told Lake of the Ozarks Watershed Alliance that Nixon was aware of the situation. Nixon's constant attempts to obstruct the investigation and kill the story aren't consistent with the behavior of someone who didn't know what was going on.
The sorry thing is that this new tale doesn't even agree with what Nixon was telling reporters five hours earlier. When pressed on E.Coli-Gate, he changed his story from "No one in my administration knew" to "I'm not sure". He got sure pretty quick.
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