Mass. Newspaper Copies And Pastes From GOP Document
Written by Jocelyn Fong
Published
In an editorial denouncing the League of Women Voters for an ad critical of a recent anti-EPA vote by Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), the Cape Cod Times uses language that is strikingly similar to a document released by the Massachusetts Republican Party.
The table below illustrates the similarities between the May 11 editorial and the May 9 Republican document (the nearly identical phrasing is bolded):
From the Cape Cod Times: |
From the Massachusetts GOP: |
| Brown has worked across the aisle on legislation to protect our communities from harmful pollutants. | Senator Brown supports a clean environment and has worked across the aisle on legislation to protect our communities from harmful pollutants. |
| Last year, Brown worked on bipartisan legislation that would have restricted emissions of such harmful pollutants as mercury from power plants. He worked with Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, on the bipartisan Oil Spill Prevention and Mitigation Improvement Act that would require oil companies to have peer-reviewed and tested plans for responding to an oil spill before getting an offshore drilling lease. | Last year, Senator Brown worked across the aisle with Tom Carper of Delaware and others on bipartisan legislation targeted at keeping our air clean by restricting emissions of harmful pollutants like mercury from power plants. He worked with Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) on the bipartisan Oil Spill Prevention and Mitigation Improvement Act that would require oil companies to have peer-reviewed and tested plans for responding to an oil spill before getting an offshore drilling lease. |
| This year, he introduced legislation that promotes energy conservation in vehicles and homes that would help the environment and start to wean us off foreign oil. | This Congress, he introduced legislation that promotes energy conservation in our vehicles and homes that would both help the environment and start to wean us off foreign oil. |
The editorial also refers to “the Democrat Party.”
The LWV ad responds to Brown's vote for an amendment that would have blocked the EPA from regulating the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. According to the EPA, the IPCC, and numerous public health groups, climate change can worsen the pollution that exacerbates respiratory illnesses. The LWV ad highlights this public health risk by depicting a young girl struggling to breathe. Brown deemed it “highly offensive” and is asking supporters for money “to help us fight back.”
Though the Cape Cod Times editorial board disagrees with Brown's vote on the amendment, it lambastes LWV for running the ad and even calls on local LWV chapters to complain to the national organization. The editorial claims the ad threatens LWV's nonpartisan nature but fails to mention that LWV ran a similar ad targeting Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill.
The Cape Cod Times is owned by a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.
UPDATE 5/13: The online text of the editorial has been altered and now reads (emphasis added):
Brown has worked across the aisle on legislation to protect our communities from harmful pollutants.
According to the national GOP, Brown worked last year on bipartisan legislation that would have reduced dangerous emissions of pollutants from power plants. He also worked with Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, on the bipartisan Oil Spill Prevention and Mitigation Improvement Act.
This year, according to the GOP, he introduced legislation that promotes energy conservation.
UPDATE 5/14: The following editor's note has been added to the editorial:
Editor's note: Because of an editing error, the following paragraph in an editorial on Page A10 of Wednesday's Times did not attribute the information to the Massachusetts Republican Party: “Last year, Sen. Brown worked on bipartisan legislation that would have restricted emissions of such harmful pollutants as mercury from power plants. He worked with Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), on the bipartisan Oil Spill Prevention and Mitigation Improvement Act that would require oil companies to have peer-reviewed and tested plans for responding to an oil spill before getting an offshore drilling lease. This year, he introduced legislation that promotes energy conservation in vehicles and homes that would help the environment and start to wean us off foreign oil.”