Well, that was quick.
After we directed Tucson Association of Realtors President Lisa Suarez to a post on the Gila Courier that purported to be her unedited op-ed that the Arizona Daily Star didn’t have the guts to print, Suarez wrote to let us know: “Not only did I not authorize that version, those are not my words.”
Perhaps the reason the Arizona Daily Star did not print that version is that they never reviewed that version. This much I can say: Editorial Page editor Ann Brown told me tonight that she had no recollection of any reference to Mike Letcher’s vodka budget in any drafts of Suarez’ op-ed.
At any rate, shortly after we revealed that Suarez had nothing to do with the editorial at Gila Courier, the post was removed from “Arizona’s leading political news site” with no mention that they had either fabricated a column or been the victim of a hoax from someone with the pro-Prop 200 campaign.
If you want to see the version that ran on Gila Courier, you can find it way down in the comments section on this post. Given that it was not a column by Suarez, Nate1980 (who posted the bogus column here) will perhaps withdraw his request that I respond to its content?
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2009.
I doubt the Gila Courier will take responsibility for their mistake, if indeed that’s the case. They make up fake quotes, fake statistics and now a fake column. If they got punk’d, it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving set of jokers.
So Gila Courier, do you have the guts to admit your mistake?
So I picked the wrong op-ed piece Mrs. Lisa Suarez issued. However, she did issue an op-ed piece correct?
I posted a false article and I apologize to Mrs. Lisa Suarez. I jumped the gun and I am glad you clarified which article is the correct one. The Gila Courier should be ashamed to jump the gun also and especially not to apologized for it. Especially since they are supposed to be a news media outlet.
So when are you going to apologize to the Goldwater institute for your inaccurate title of blog? Since the Goldwater Institute requested “Don’t Handcuff Tucson” to take down their name for organizations that have officially opposed Prop 200.
So you basically jumped the gun with your title “More Opposition to Public Safety First Initiative: Goldwater Institute Says Prop 200 “Won’t Put Public Safety First, It Will Just Bloat City Government”
You either did not research the whole issue of who opposed what or you wanted to slant your blog to sound like Goldwater was taking an official stance on Prop 200.
I would have apologized sooner but I was working my 11 hour shift and do not have the resources a entire new media outlet have at their disposal to find out Lisa Suarez did not write this article.
OK, Nate: Other than sending out Nick Dranias’ op-ed that said the initiative “won’t put public safety first, it will just bloat government,” encouraging reporters to interview Nick about his opinion that the initiative was wrong-headed, sending out the editorial itself to everyone on their e-mail subscriber list and posting it on their own Web site, the Goldwater Institute did nothing to encourage people to vote against Prop 200. My apologies for suggesting otherwise.