Thibault/Independent Tribune Caught in Blatant Lie
Last week, the Independent Tribune published a featured piece by Justin Thibault that essentially said that Representative Pittman and I bribed the Cabarrus County GOP with $200. The piece explicitly referenced the payments as part of a “dirty deeds done cheap policy.” This is a BOLD-FACED LIE and Justin knows it and Lee Buchanan, the editor of the Independent Tribune, knows it.
The $200 payment was for tickets to the annual Reagan Day dinner, held every April. They were $50 each and I purchased a half-table sponsorship (four tickets and an ad in the program). In addition to my payment for tickets, ALL of the following candidates/office holders paid for tickets to the event: Fred Biggers, Carolyn Carpenter, Judge Brent Cloninger, Representative Carl Ford, Oddy Christ, Ben Franklin, Judge Billy Hamby, David Harrison, Senator Fletcher Hartsell, Judge Marty McGee, Blake Kiger, and Andrea Palo. In an ironic twist, the man Justin used his column to endorse, Mike Tallent, also paid $100 for tickets to the same event.
Seriously, were all these people, many of whom vociferously disagreed with me, all paying to be part of the same “dirty deeds done cheap policy?” Of course not! We simply bought tickets to a dinner. Here is a link to the report referenced in Justin’s column. A high schooler would immediately see that all the payments with a deposit date of 4/12/2014 were payments for tickets to the event (note that all of them are $50 increments).
Could it be more obvious that the Independent Tribune has zero journalistic integrity left? Who is in charge over there that a smear column like this could be published without even a basic fact check? All of our campaign finance reports are public records easily accessible. Below is my finance report showing the $200 payment for “Reagan Day Dinn Sponsorship.” Also, Senator Hartsell’s financial report showing $150 with an almost verbatim description: “Reagan Day Dinner Table/Tickets”. Representative Pittman’s shows the same (also below).
Certainly any editor that cared about the reputation of his paper as a trustworthy and credible “news” source would have easily figured this out. Instead, the Independent Tribune allowed its featured columnist to misrepresent an ordinary expense incurred by many as part of a slimy “dirty deeds done cheap policy”. I personally brought all of these documents to Lee Buchanan on Thursday and he has refused to retract their column.
Representative Pittman is one of the finest, Bible-living men that I know. To accuse a sitting representative and the entire local GOP executive committee of participating in a “dirty deeds done cheap policy” without even doing a basic fact check is OUTRAGEOUS. I let a lot roll off my back, but the Independent Tribune is not going to publish a baseless, malicious accusation of bribery.
Here is a screenshot from Senator Hartsell’s report (Note-I include this because the senator and I have almost the same entry and it would be absurd to allege that he was part of a “dirty deeds done cheap policy”).
Here is Representative Pittman’s report:
*Originally published at http://jasonoesterreich.com/category/life-in-cabarrus/
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