Doug Miller hit piece on Dan Patrick omits detail
KHOU-11's Doug Miller ran a hit piece on talk show host/Texas Senate candidate Dan Patrick today:
Dan Patrick’s job as a talk show host got him into politics. Now it seems his political opponents were listening.
“He said, ‘This race, he’s going to win this race without taking special interest money.’ I think we have that clip for you now,” said Joe Nixon, ® Candidate for State Senate District 7.
It turns out Joe Nixon’s campaign spent months recording Patrick’s radio show.
Patrick radio clip: “I don’t want lobby money. I don’t want PAC money unless they’re groups that support the people and issues we support.”
And now, Nixon is trying to use the talk show host’s words against him.
“Those are words and actions of Mr. Patrick and of no one else. And to those, he needs to own up and be responsible for,” Nixon said.
“I’m focused on illegal immigration, lowering our government spending, lowering our property taxes, and they’re listening to tapes. And they wonder why they’re behind,” Patrick said.
Patrick’s talk radio exposure gave him priceless name ID among voters. But it could become a double-edged sword.
All of the other candidates running in this primary have served in elected office so they have voting records. Dan Patrick does not, but he has built a career in talk radio.
“And one of the dangers of being on talk radio is you say a lot of things you may not really have thought of. We sometimes call it ‘cheap talk,” said Bob Stein, KHOU Political Analyst. “And I think in the case of Dan Patrick, they may have begun to—how shall we say? -- hit the motherload of those remarks.”
And at least one of his opponents is trying to make Patrick’s years of outspoken words come back to haunt him.
So, Joe Nixon has an audio clip of Dan Patrick saying something and asserting it means something. Doug Miller has basically given the Nixon campaign a free television ad on the highly rated KHOU news broadcast, seemingly agreeing that Joe Nixon's assertions mean something. Houston Bicyclist Bob Stein seems to agree that it means something.
The story's glaring omission? Any specifics as to why Dan Patrick's earlier comments are controversial.
Does Miller have evidence that Patrick has taken money from PACs opposed to his issues and fellow conservatives (which would contradict the clip in the story)? If so, the evidence doesn't appear in the story, which just seems to be a vehicle for Joe Nixon and Bob Stein to beat up Dan Patrick.
Houston bicyclist and "KHOU political analyst" Bob Stein's blast is even more interesting. Stein is a Democrat whose wife works for Houston's Mayor Bill White, also a Democrat. One suspects that he has found conservative Republican Dan Patrick "outspoken" (as Doug Miller puts it) over the years, to say the least -- something that would not be apparent by the way Miller identified Stein. And Stein's notion that Nixon's vague assertions are somehow a "motherload" is unsupported by the facts reported in the story.
Now, there may be some truth to at least some of the remarks by Bicyclist Stein. Remember when he went on Chris Baker's radio show to defend the original SAFEclear program? That PR effort (not to mention quotes in the newspaper) was such a disaster that the entire program nearly wound up shelved, and did wind up modified considerably. But that's probably not what Stein had in mind with his comment.
Miller's story seems more an attack piece than quality political journalism. It raises eyebrows because it's Miller's second such attack on a local conservative in recent weeks (and the last one featured commentary from Bicyclist Stein as well). Miller and KHOU would be better served to focus on actual political news, and ease up on these weak attack stories.
UPDATE (02-08-2006): The Chronicle's Kristen Mack reports on the Nixon press conference (no response from the Patrick campaign). It's pretty short on substance, but at least it doesn't include Bicyclist Stein's thoughts.
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Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/07/06 11:07 PM | Print |
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