Face the State quoted Wadhams attacking Post articles on Schaffer, but did not provide substance of those reports

Summary: Face the State reported in a "Fact Check" the claim of Dick Wadhams, campaign manager for U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer (R), that several Denver Post articles reporting on ties between Schaffer and jailed former lobbyist Jack Abramoff are " 'insidious innuendo' that failed to provide any real connection." But Face the State omitted the content of the Post's reporting on the controversy.

In an April 17 "Fact Check," the "news" website Face the State reported that the campaign manager for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer, Dick Wadhams, called recent articles published by The Denver Post " 'insidious innuendo' that failed to provide any real connection" between Schaffer, a former U.S. representative, and now-jailed former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. While it reported that, according to Wadhams, "Schaffer spent two hours on the phone with a Denver Post reporter, yet very little of what he told them (sic) was used in the story," Face the State did not provide the content of the Post articles, the information Schaffer purportedly told the reporter that was not used, or any substantive response from the Schaffer campaign aside from Wadhams' statement that "Bob Schaffer has never meet (sic) Jack Abramoff and never been involved with him."

As Colorado Media Matters has noted, controversy over Schaffer's 1999 trip to the Northern Mariana Islands as a U.S. congressman arose after an April 7 Post profile in which Schaffer "pointed" to the islands "as a successful model for a guest-worker program that could be adapted nationally." Follow-up Post articles on April 10, April 11, and April 13 have raised questions about Schaffer's trip and its purported connections to Abramoff. Face the State did not report any of the substance of the Post articles, stating only that they "attacked [Schaffer] for his loose ties to the disgraced lobbyist."

Face the State's article followed April 17 reports in the Post and the News that Schaffer's Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, accepted "$1,500 in contributions from two firms that once employed disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff."

From the April 17 Face the State "Fact Check" article, "Udall took Abramoff-related donations; shift on legislation questioned":

A Face The State Fact Check has revealed that U.S. Senate candidate and Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, accepted campaign contributions from jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff -- contributions that correspond to Udall's change in position on Internet gambling legislation.

[...]

According to Taylor West, Udall's communications director, "At no time was there any indication that these two contributions were connected to Jack Abramoff's operations." West says that Udall will be donating that $1,500 to Karidat, a Saipan-based nonprofit organization that helps victims of human trafficking.

This revelation comes on the heals of a series of Denver Post articles that attacked Udall's rival for Senate, Republican candidate Bob Schaffer, for his loose ties to the disgraced lobbyist.

Dick Wadhams, Schaffer's campaign manager, called the Denver Post stories "insidious innuendo" that failed to provide any real connection. Wadhams says that Schaffer spent two hours on the phone with a Denver Post reporter, yet very little of what he told them was used in the story.

"Bob Schaffer has never meet Jack Abramoff and never been involved with him," said Wadhams.

Face the State did not mention, as Colorado Media Matters has noted, citing the April 10 Post article, that according to archived meeting agendas, during the trip Schaffer "met with clients of Preston-Gates, Abramoff's firm," and that notes indicate Schaffer attended a lunch meeting "with several current or former clients of the firm, including the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association and the Western Pacific Economic Council."

Further, Face the State omitted the Post's April 13 reporting that "Schaffer was one of the key players" in a hearing of the House Resources Committee that "provides a key context for a trip to the islands that Schaffer had taken a month before, partly arranged by Abramoff's lobbying firm and now an issue in Schaffer's campaign for the U.S. Senate." The Post reported that in a "secret memo" to a "textile tycoon on the Northern Mariana Islands," Abramoff had "mapped out" a strategy for congressional oversight hearings on labor issues in the Northern Marianas.

The "Fact Check" also failed to address the Post's April 11 report that after the trip Schaffer was "among several Republican U.S. lawmakers who stepped in to lend their support" at key junctures to Benigno Fitial, "governor of the Northern Mariana Islands and a powerful former ally of now-jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff." The Post further claimed that "Schaffer was part of a concerted and public campaign by Republicans on the House Committee on Natural Resources to boost Fitial's public career when he became key to extending a multimillion-dollar lobbying contract for Abramoff from the island's government."

Additionally, continuing its frequent past practice, Face the State provided a misleading headline on its website to link to the April 17 News article about Schaffer and Udall's connections to Abramoff:

"Boulder liberal Mark Udall should be ashamed of himself" RMN

Face the State's headline link did not reveal that the source of the "ashamed of himself" quote was Wadhams, who was responding to Udall campaign communications director Taylor West's remark that "the issue is Abramoff's attempt to thwart reforms and Schaffer's willingness to assist him":

Schaffer visited the U.S. territory in 1999 as part of a fact-finding trip arranged in part by Abramoff's lobbying firm. The territory had hired Abramoff to fight congressional attempts at worker reforms.

Schaffer said he complained about a garment factory he deemed a sweatshop and was told it had been closed, but critics disagree.

"Bob Schaffer took an Abramoff-sponsored trip and turned a blind eye to forced abortions and human trafficking of guest workers, while Mark Udall was co-sponsoring three pieces of legislation to fix problems in the Marianas," West said.

West said the issue is Abramoff's attempt to thwart reforms and Schaffer's willingness to assist him.

"That is a bald-faced lie and Boulder liberal Mark Udall should be ashamed of himself," Wadhams said.

Face the State describes itself as "the 'go-to' news resource for Coloradans interested in state and local politics." The website's founder and managing editor, conservative political activist Brad Jones, defended Face the State's journalistic practices in a February 6 News guest editorial and in an article published in the February 7 issue of the weekly Westword, which stated, among other things, that "Jones resents the insinuation that he'd sacrifice accuracy and journalistic credibility if given the chance to spatter political opponents."

—E.B.