Want to know how to defend yourself? Take a lesson from Power Line

The Power Line trio have fired their own salvo in their on-going battle with the Star-Tribune. Their response to the apparently incorrect column by one Camille Gage. This a particularly effective rebuttal to my eyes, and it portrays Ms. Gage as a someone who is not presenting any facts to back up her assertions, and the editors of the Star-Tribune as presenting a piece which they have not checked for accuracy. I have heard it said before that opinion columns are not usually fact-checked and if this is truly the case then this debate shows that it should be done. Here is the section (the last half) of their response that I particularly liked:

Because the editors did no fact checking, they did not know that the FAIR report, far from having “no factual basis,” has been the subject of a criminal investigation.

Because the editors did no fact checking, they did not know that the FAIR representatives have submitted sworn affidavits saying they went to deputy registrars in Racine and Milwaukee who accepted their registrations to vote, even though they made it clear that they were not eligible Wisconsin voters.

Because the editors did no fact checking, they did not know that the FAIR representatives made tapes of their conversations with the deputy registrars which are consistent with their sworn accounts, and have been turned over to federal and state law enforcement authorities.

Because the editors did no fact checking, they did not know that two liberal activists are already under indictment for voter fraud in Racine County.

Last August deputy editorial page editor Jim Boyd falsely called us fraudulent smear artists. Last December Metro columnist Nick Coleman falsely suggested that we have taken money under the table from undisclosed benefactors. We're beginning to take these libels personally.

Oh, one more thing. The Star Tribune has yet to run a single article reporting on the Racine voter fraud story. Meanwhile, the broader topic of voting irregularities in Wisconsin has exploded into a major national news story. Maybe if the Star Tribune spent less time libeling us and more time reporting the news, it would be a better paper.

From what I know of the situation, through reading Power Line, I am going to side with the guys here, it seems that Ms. Gage has an agenda and is pursuing it through verbal bomb-throwing. It's sad really that a newspaper would stoop to that level.