Ed Schultz gets it wrong: claims 1 NE Democrat signed pro-Keystone XL letter
By Deena Winter | Nebraska Watchdog
LINCOLN, Neb. – MSNBC’s Ed Schultz featured a Nebraska Watchdog story on his Ed Show Friday about the Keystone XL oil pipeline – only problem is, the words that came out of his mouth didn’t match the reporting we’ve done on the issue this week.
BIG ED: Ed Schultz of MSNBC’s Ed Show quoted a Nebraska Watchdog story on his show Friday, but got his facts wrong.
During the opening to his show, about 9 1/2 minutes in, Schultz put on screen our May 2013 story about the $27.4 million lobbyists spent in Nebraska in 2011-2012. That figure includes $700,000 spent by TransCanada lobbying for the pipeline it wants to build across America. He then quotes former Sen. Abbie Cornett, a Republican, saying there was heavy lobbying on both sides.
He then refers to a letter 29 Nebraska state senators sent this week to the U.S. State Department in support of Keystone XL – a number that grew to 34 by week’s end.
“Heavy lobbying on both sides, but on that letter that was sent to John Kerry from Nebraska, there was only one Democrat,” Schultz said on the show. “They’re all Republicans – only one Democrat.”
Schultz spends considerable time in the segment accusing others of lying or making up numbers. “Prove me wrong,” he says.
Big Ed got that flat-out wrong. If he’d scrolled over to our home page, he’d have seen that a number of Democrats signed the letter – nine Democrats, to be exact. Just three Democrats signed a different letter opposing the pipeline.
Former Douglas County Democrat executive director Kris Pierce first alerted us to Ed’s error, pointing out on Twitter Friday that Schultz didn’t correct his false report. Pierce tweeted that Schultz used “false facts” and “accusations of crooked Nebraska senators” being influenced by TransCanada lobbyists.
Pierce then took to Facebook to explain his concern, writing, “To those who question my integrity, you can take a long walk off a short pier. I have no real opinion either way on the pipeline, my thoughts on this project are public. But no side of this issue should report false ‘facts’ and this goes for either side. This just happened to be a very black and white fact that cannot be disputed.”
Contact Deena Winter at deena@nebraskawatchdog.org. Follow Deena on Twitter at @DeenaNEWatchdog
Editor’s note: to subscribe to News Updates from Nebraska Watchdog at no cost, click here.
The post Ed Schultz gets it wrong: claims 1 NE Democrat signed pro-Keystone XL letter appeared first on Watchdog.org.
