Yesterday, we took a peek at MSNBC’s failure to properly report data about Joe Biden beating Sarah Palin by 26 points in favorability ratings after Thursday’s debate. Today, MSNBC continues to mislead by posting an AP article with the headline:
Todd Palin will talk to Troopergate investigator
Probe examining whether Alaska governor improperly fired commissioner
Sadly, a more accurate headline would read:
Todd Palin still refuses to testify in Troopergate probe
Will only speak to second probe run by political appointees answering to Gov. Sarah Palin
The AP article correctly notes that after refusing to testify in the Alaska Legislature’s Troopergate probe, Todd Palin has agreed to talk with a separate investigation conducted by the Alaska State Personnel Board. But the article fails to properly explain the difference between the probes.
First, the article uncritically repeats the McCain-Palin campaign’s claim that “the Legislative Council’s investigation is being manipulated to damage the governor before the Nov. 4 election.”
Second, the article omits the critical detail that the Alaska State Personnel Board investigation is being run by Republican political appointees who, as Time Magazine notes, “ultimately answer to [Governor Sarah Palin] herself.” From the September 23 Time article:
Instead, [Sarah] Palin plans to cooperate with an investigator from the state personnel board. That investigator is a Democrat, but the board’s three members are political appointees who ultimately answer to the governor herself. (One was appointed by Palin, the other two by her predecessor.) They got involved only after Palin took the unusual step of filing an ethics complaint against herself in early September to spark an investigation that her lawyers hoped would overshadow — and effectively kill — the legislature’s inquiry.
So the real story is that Todd Palin is only cooperating with the investigation that’s run by Republican political appointees who answer to his wife.
Just keeping track here, folks.