[Vision2020] Will Luna's Defender Come Clean?

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

J.F.- Who's really misrepresenting Luna's federal job?

Jim Fisher, Lewiston Morning Tribune, Dec. 19, 2006

William Hansen, Idaho state school Superintendent-elect Tom Luna's former supervisor at the U.S. Department of Education, says in a letter on this page today that the Associated Press wronged Luna in a story about incorrect claims on Luna's rsum.

What Hansen does not say is how.

Despite Hansen's assertion that the story, which appeared in the Lewiston Tribune Friday, was "sloppy, slanted and much ado about nothing," he offers not a single instance in which AP reporter Jesse Harlan Alderman was incorrect. That is a glaring omission considering the fact that the story centered on the differences between Luna's version of his position in the federal government and Hansen's.

Worse, Hansen charges that Alderman "misrepresents my statements in order to support his faulty premise that Luna 'embellished' his rsum and 'misrepresented his position' with the department."

That is one of the most serious allegations that can be made against a reporter. Accounts of interviews with news sources are expected to be accurate and fair.

But Hansen offers no particulars about where Alderman misrepresented him. Why not?

Did Hansen not tell Alderman that Luna was appointed to his post by Education Secretary Rod Paige, rather than by President Bush as Luna claimed?

If not, let him say so and let Alderman take the blame.

Did Hansen not tell Alderman that he could not recall Luna attending any meetings with President Bush, despite Luna's claim to the contrary?

If not, let him say that as well.

Was Luna's job not that of special assistant in the education undersecretary's office, as opposed to senior adviser to Paige himself, as Luna claimed?

If not, Alderman is guilty of the misrepresentation Hansen accuses him of.

Hansen, however, addresses none of these points in his letter. Instead, he assures us that Luna's version of his job with the government "has been accurate to the letter." And he says Luna "is a man of integrity."

Those are mighty thin reeds on which to base a charge of journalistic malfeasance.

In the wake of Hansen's letter, the Associated Press says it is standing by the accuracy of Alderman's story. It would not be doing that if it believed Hansen's unsubstantiated charges.

That leaves it to Hansen, no longer in government service, to substantiate them. It's time, in other words, for him to put up or shut up. -- J.F.


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