News-Argus responds to mailer
By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on November 2, 2012 1:46 PM
The News-Argus recently received a copy of a mailing created by Wayne County Commission candidate Republican Joe Daughtery.
The mailing makes comments regarding current commissioner Democrat Jack Best and implies several statements about Best's fitness for office. Along with those statements are three references to specific newspaper coverage as a seeming endorsement of the statements recounted there.
The references, which were not quoted or cited properly, incorrectly imply the newspaper made the assertions Daughtery uses in his campaign advertisement.
Two of the three references were to coverage of statements made by a third party at a commission meeting, which were reported in news stories. When asked, the attorney who made the assertions against Best could provide no specifics or details to substantiate his claims of conflict of interest. The third reference is loosely and creatively based on an editorial offering commentary on a specific incident that occurred regarding the proceedings leading up to the appointment of a school board member. It was not a commentary on Best's overall performance, nor does it draw broad conclusions regarding his character as the letter in today's paper and flier imply. It is cherry-picked and does not accurately represent the body of the newspaper's commentary on the commission in general and Best in particular.
The flier also uses the newspaper's logo, which is copyrighted, and implies that the newspaper endorses the comments made on the flier. The logo, which is the newspaper's signature, was used without permission or endorsement.
Daughtery's campaign materials in no way represent the newspaper's position on Commissioner Jack Best's performance, nor do they represent the newspaper's position on the District 6 race.
They should be evaluated with those statements in mind.