PoltickerCO again omitted Post context about Schaffer's Marianas trip in quoting him about Abramoff ties

Summary: Reporting that U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer (R) dismissed accusations regarding his alleged connections with now-jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the political news website PolitickerCO failed to include the substance of any of The Denver Post's reporting that led to the controversy over Schaffer's 1999 "fact-finding" trip to the Northern Mariana Islands and its purported link to Abramoff.

In a May 8 article, the political news website PolitickerCO uncritically reported Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer's dismissal of allegations that as a U.S. congressman he assisted now-jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff in fending off congressional attempts to combat alleged human rights abuses in the Northern Mariana Islands. The article concerned a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee press release that "blasted" Schaffer on the occasion of President Bush's signing of "a bill extending US labor and immigration laws" to the Marianas. Although it reported that Schaffer "has said that he's done nothing wrong and has never met Abramoff," PolitickerCO did not mention or link to reporting in The Denver Post on alleged ties between Schaffer and Abramoff's lobbying agenda on behalf of the Marianas government and garment industry to thwart reforms.

PolitickerCO also omitted Schaffer's comments to the Post regarding the Northern Mariana Islands' previous immigration and labor policies; the newspaper on April 7 reported that Schaffer in an interview "pointed" to the islands "as a successful model for a guest-worker program that could be adapted nationally." PolitickerCo did not provide any comment from Schaffer regarding his past support for those policies, given Bush's approval of sweeping changes in the American protectorate's labor and immigration laws following widespread complaints about labor conditions.

PolitickerCO's May 8 article -- whose author was identified only by the pseudonym Wally Edge -- followed an April 28 interview with Schaffer that, as Colorado Media Matters noted, also distorted issues related to a 1999 trip Schaffer took to the territory. As Colorado Media Matters has documented, controversy over that trip arose after the April 7 Post profile, and follow-up Post articles on April 10, April 11, and April 13 that raised questions about Schaffer's trip and its purported connections to Abramoff.

From the May 8 PolitickerCO report by Wally Edge, "DSCC trumpets Mariana Islands legislation":

As President Bush signed a bill extending US labor and immigration laws to the US-governed Mariana Islands, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in a press release today blasted US Senate candidate Bob Schaffer for his role in allegedly helping a now-jailed former lobbyist prevent such legislation while Schaffer served in the US House of Representatives.

Schaffer campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, countered that Schaffer's opponent never even inquired about labor conditions in the Mariana Islands while serving in the US House at the time.

Schaffer is the Republican candidate running against Democrat Mark Udall to replace retiring US Senator Wayne Allard.

"The exploitation of workers on the Mariana Islands comes to a close today, but only because Congress finally rejected attempts by jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his crony Bob Schaffer to allow the human rights abuses to continue," DSCC spokesman Matthew Miller said in the release.

Schaffer took a fact finding trip paid for by Abramoff in 1999 to the Mariana Islands. Under Congressional rules, such trips are legal. However, a widely circulated picture of Schaffer and his wife on a boat getting ready to parasail during the trip, along with allegations of labor abuse in the islands, has contributed to the impression of complicity by Schaffer in another congressional scandal.

"Now that an overwhelming bipartisan majority and the president have endorsed this reform," continues the DSCC release, "maybe Bob Schaffer will apologize for his shameful assistance of a corrupt lobbyist who was helping the factories exploit their workers."

Schaffer has said that he's done nothing wrong and has never met Abramoff.

The Rocky Mountain News reported that Schaffer's trip included viewing "a number of factories during his four-day free trip" apparently to inspect working conditions and human rights abuses.

"We found varying conditions," Schaffer told the Rocky's Lynn Bartels. "We found some unsafe working environments and some were very well run."

Despite referencing the News' follow-up reporting on Schaffer's trip, PolitickerCO omitted references to any of the Post's early reporting about the trip or Schaffer's citation of the Mariana Islands as a "model" for a national guest worker program. Similar to its April 28 interview with Schaffer, the May 8 PolitickerCO article also reported that Schaffer "has said that he's done nothing wrong and has never met Abramoff," but neglected to report the substance of the connections between Schaffer and Abramoff that the Post reported and that Colorado Media Matters pointed out. For instance, on April 13 the Post reported that according to a "secret memo" sent to a "textile tycoon on the Northern Mariana Islands," Abramoff had "mapped out" a strategy for congressional oversight hearings on labor issues in the Marianas. The article further reported 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."

PolitickerCO also did not 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 Abramoff. The newspaper 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."

—E.B.