Watchdog says Schultz misrepresented its reporting, facts about Keystone XL letter

File: Sept. 21, 2010: An unidentified protester opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline carries signs, in Omaha, Neb. (AP)

MSNBC’s Ed Schultz featured a Nebraska Watchdog.org story on his "Ed Show" on Friday about the Keystone XL oil pipeline but Schultz’s words didn’t match the reporting the group has done on the issue this week, the group said Saturday.

During the opening to his show, Schultz put on screen Wathdog’s 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 cut to former Sen. Abbie Cornett, a Republican, saying there was heavy lobbying on both sides, Watchdog reports.

He then referred to a letter 29 Nebraska state senators sent this week to the 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. “They’re all Republicans – only one Democrat.”

Schultz got that flat-out wrong. If he’d scrolled over to our home page, he’d have seen that nine Democrats signed the letter. Just three signed a different letter opposing the pipeline, Watchdog writes.

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