WRAL: Fact Check: McCrory says Cooper ‘fought cleanup’ of coal ash
This one was so egregious that even WRAL called it out but cannot call out the McCrory campaign as outright liars, hiding behind “our lowest category” euphemism.
The short story. Duke Energy has been improperly storing coal ash by its power plants. Duke Energy thinks that the State of North Carolina should pay for this instead of it being the cost of electric production.
Duke Energy got caught with a huge spill of coal ash into the Dan River. Pat McCrory, Duke’s employee in the governor’s mansion, made sure that his employer did not have to pay more than it would agree to to make the story go away.
The Easley and Perdue administrations (Democratic) both were shown in court to have been involved in corruption or using public power and connections for private gain. McCrory is trading on the haziness in people’s memory about this. Can I say once again that the Blue Dog business faction of North Carolina’s Democratic Party have done immense damage to a once progressive-leaning state. Here is a concrete example that is being used to keep an actual corrupt governor in office.
If McCrory craters, GOP legislators down-ticket also are under pressure — where the Democrats have bothered to offer a challenger.
Nonetheless, notice the swiftboating style of the poo-throwing. Cooper comes into the race with a strong reputation for fairness and honesty.
And notice how the media, even in fact-checking it, enables it.
