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Ready for some Monday morning mischief? I am! You can help local Florida journalist Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel (search) and maybe his paper avoid legal problems from me and you can have a little fun getting him to apologize. I have been held in a false light by Moore and his paper and I need your collective help to get it fixed. You have done it successfully before in a similar situation with another newspaper and it is time to do it again. I know how persuasive you can be.
Since the blog often gets 100,000 readers a day, and since we had success before, I figured this would be the most effective way to fix this problem. I hate having to go through formal means when informal can quickly address the matter. If you feel so inclined, after reading below, drop Moore a line or call him and tell him to apologize. As soon as I get the apology in writing in his paper, I will call off the dogs! If he apologizes, it ends the matter right there. We all make mistakes — although I think his is a whopper in this instance (read below.) If he does not apologize after all your cajoling, I am going to research filing a "false light" tort claim against him and probably his newspaper. I am sure he does not want that and neither does his paper.
To reach Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel, call (407) 420-5369 or send him an e-mail at a rmoore@orlandosentinel.com. He proudly put this information at the end of his article trashing me, so I think he is eager to hear from you. He needs to hear from you so that he does the right thing — apologize in his paper. He needs to know how important this matter is and that in the future he should be more careful. And again, I realize we can all make mistakes, we can all be mean... but apologizing is a great remedy. I eagerly accept apologies and can forget the harm.
I am not looking for a fight... I am just looking for old fashion decency. I want him to repair the damage he inflicted upon me in the same forum that he created it... which includes his paper and the Internet where it was also published. That's simple, that's easy, that's fair and that is right. A public apology, with your influence, will end the matter. It will also avoid potential problems for his employer, the Orlando Sentinel, since the false light tort was committed by the paper's employee in the paper. He should thank you for your call or e-mail.
I was grateful for your support and success last time you did this (Capitol Times in Madison, Wis.) and hope you believe it worthy of your help again. So, here goes....
First. some old-fashioned facts to guide you — as well as what was written about me that holds me in a false light. Then you can decide:
1. It is no secret that my father — who died in the 1980s — was Senator Joe McCarthy's (search) campaign manager in 1946. Let me emphasize, I was not his campaign manager. I was not even born.
After McCarthy was elected in 1947, McCarthy moved to Washington, D.C., and my father stayed home in Wisconsin to raise a family. My father was not on his staff. I was born eight years after McCarthy's 1946 election and after his move to Washington.
2. In 1957, before my third birthday, Joe McCarthy died. At age 2 3/4 I was ineligible to vote for him at the time of his death. I have no recollection of him. I was a toddler when he died. I am not even sure I could talk by the time he died (but yes, I am a talker now!)
3. A few years back I wrote a book – "My Turn at the Bully Pulpit" — which discusses in one chapter Senator McCarthy. I condemn what he did and Moore could easily have picked up my book and checked it out. Moore did not bother. He pulled the trigger with his bigoted thoughts about me. He ignored the facts.
4. A new book is out on Joe McCarthy and here is where the sliming by Moore occurs. Roger Moore wrote a review about the new McCarthy book in the Orlando Sentinel on Sunday. In writing his review of the book, and with uncertain motives, Moore trashed me. The book was not about me. Moore took the opportunity to simply gratuitously trash me and infer some very bigoted things about me.
Moore excerpted a paragraph from the book referring to my father which I have no idea if it is true or not — my father has been dead for years. In excerpting the paragraph, Moore added his own editorial comment about me and my employer. The remark by Moore is gratuitous, mean-spirited and legally wrong — called "false light tort," for which you can recover damages from a jury. It holds me in a false light and a very unflattering one to put it gently. I would be remiss if I did not step up and make sure this is corrected.
The article is written in full below, but here is the excerpt and his editorial comment — the false light tort:
"Johnson entertains by showing how the decades haven't altered the teams in this war for America's political soul. McCarthy's best friend, the man who loaned him a copy of "Mein Kampf," was a fellow Wisconsin conservative, Urban Van Susteren. Progressives won't be surprised that Greta Van Susteren, a FOX News mainstay and Urban's daughter, grew up in a home with a cherished edition of Hitler's famous template for fascist political organization and bigoted scapegoating."
The light in which Moore holds me is wrong. It is false. It is meant to harm. It was not intended to be fair or right. The false message he seeks to convey about me — that is now on the Internet — is obvious and does not need a translation or explanation. Mr. Moore did no investigation — he committed a tort by putting me in a false light. In my opinion, it is malicious. Obviously he has never watched our show.
I figure if many of you hammer him with calls and e-mails like you did before when I was held likewise on this topic in a false light by a newspaper, he will repent and he will publicly apologize and save himself and possibly his paper some legal heartache.
I would love to "let it go," but in cyberspace (where this paper is also published) things don't get "let go" — they get repeated and repeated and repeated and then become "fact" to some non-discerning readers. I am unwilling to let that happen as I am sure you would agree would be wrong for me to do. Hence it is imperative to get an apology of equal breath to the false light remarks he made in writing. It took lots and lots and lots of calls and e-mail to the last paper who did this but we did prevail. So, here is how to reach Mr. Moore. Good luck and thank you. Let me know what he says.
And once again, here is the tag line to Roger Moore's article. He must want to hear from you, since he has provided it:
"Roger Moore can be reached at (407) 420-5369 or rmoore@orlandosentinel.com."
Click here to read the full article.
By the time you get this blog in your in box or log on to the blog, we will be on the road... again.
I might have this story slightly wrong since it was told to me on Friday, but here goes: One of my producers — Matt Linder — found a phone in a New York City cab on Friday as he was going to work at our bureau. Attempting to find the owner of the phone, he scrolled through the address book on the phone called the numbers on the phone. Unfortunately he had no luck and could not get through to anyone. The numbers on the phone address book were overseas numbers minus the city or country codes. Hence he hit a brick wall. Matt carried the phone with him during the day trying to figure out how to find the owner. Later during the day he checked the cell phone again and was able to find a number with the country code labeled "casa int." He tried it and got through... but the person answering it spoke only Spanish to Matt's only English. But, the good news was that Matt was able to determine the call was to Argentina.
Late afternoon on Friday we did a pretape interview with Governor Bill Richardson (search) of New Mexico. Governor Richardson was in our New York bureau for the taping. After the interview, Matt approached Governor Richardson and asked him if he spoke Spanish and yes, he does. (Matt was quite certain that the governor spoke Spanish.) Matt then explained his discovered cellphone problem, handed the governor the lost cell phone and Govenor Richardson then placed a call to the number Matt called earlier. He reached a woman in Argentina and had a conversation with her in Spanish. After getting off the phone he translated for Matt. The phone belongs to the Argentine woman's husband who was in NYC on business when he lost his cell phone in a NYC cab. The end of the story is a good one: The business man from Argentina got his cell phone back and I am sure was very happy. I wonder if his realizes who placed the call to his wife to complete this Good Samaritan task... a current Governor of New Mexico and a possible candidate for U.S. president in 2008.
Yes, our producers multi-task very well!
Now for some e-mails from viewers... randomly grabbed and posted:
E-mail No. 1
I am not one of the groupies that worships at the feet of Beth Twitty like yourself. I am an American that is very afraid of what people like you are doing to our country. We have people in foreign countries protesting our president and our country and you want to make another enemy out of a tiny country that used to like us. So they can't solve a case of a missing person, we have thousands of missing people we can't find or find out what happened. Should we boycott every city in the USA that have unsolved cases? What financial interest in this case do you have? Is your husband in the money laundering business with Jug Twitty and Jossy Mansur? I am sending a letter to the Justice Department to demand an investigation into your involvement into this case.
Sharron Misner
Kansas City, MO
ANSWER: Let me know if you need the address for the Justice Department.
E-mail No. 2
Bernie's outfit matched Ted's exactly last night. Do they have you dressing them now? I complained yesterday about Bernie's sport coat/polo shirt being a Glamour Don't, but now after seeing him in the standard Geoff Fieger black T-shirt look, I miss his personal "style". Maybe you guys should go back to letting him dress himself after all.
Joyce
ANSWER: Joyce, I teased both of them on Friday when I saw they were both dressed.
E-mail No. 3
God, when on Earth will your 15 minutes of fame be over? Okay, we get the picture, you like the Blue Angels, who the hell doesn't?
Finally, if you are a regular viewer of "On the Record," you might be curious to read the next two Associated Press stories. The two recent AP stories update stories that we have covered:
Click here to read the first article on the murders of Peter and Joan Porco.
Click here to read the second article on the brutal murders of Katherine Hanson-Tsao, her husband, Jimmy Tsao, and her parents Terrance and Mary Lynn Hanson.
Send your thoughts and comments to: ontherecord@foxnews.com
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