Our Oregon Says O's Fact Checker Got Facts Wrong

Portland Mercury:

Maybe you've seen a certain political ad put out recently by progressive group Our Oregon. Coming off the fight over how much money (not) to spend on Oregon's education system—and whether to open the spigot on the state's reserve funds to give the kids a little more—the group put out a piece that targets Dennis Richardson, the GOP budget co-chair from the 30-30 House, for not agreeing to release that extra money. Richardson, although he's one of three lawmakers (the other two are Democrats) on the Legislature's budget-writing power team, has some outsize sway because he and his party can block things they don't like. And he and his party have been vociferously pushing to hold the reserve funds back. Seems like fair game, then, to call him on it. Not according to the Oregonian. The staffers who compile their PolitiFact feature said it was unfair to single out the guy with veto power, since, you know, two Democrats signed off on the budget, too. They called the ad "false," and said everyone's to blame. Also, stop being mean to Republicans! Then it was Our Oregon's turn to fire back. Spokesman Scott Moore yesterday sent out a blistering response, said he explained all that to the O, and wondered whether the Oregonian's new publisher, N. Christian Anderson III, was pushing the paper's politics rightward. Brilliantly, they also took this screen grab (of a goof that's since been fixed):

Read more of Moore's answer after the jump. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

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