Jack Lessenberry’s piece on Dale Kildee’s “media lynching” deserves your attention. We’ve quoted part of the story below, but please read Lessenberry’s full piece at Michigan Radio’s website:
Patrick Clawson is one of the more aggressive investigative reporters I know.
The former CNN journalist is now semi-retired, and dabbles in a number of occupations. He is no great worshipper of government, titles or institutions. Last year he broke the news that Governor Granholm had awarded a huge tax break to a convicted embezzler whose business was entirely fiction.
Yet he is now outraged about a story he sees as totally irresponsible, and so am I. Yesterday, media throughout the state began reporting allegations that longtime Flint area congressman Dale Kildee improperly touched a young male second cousin of his more than half a century ago. The 82-year-old congressman, indignantly denied the allegations, and noted that the man making them had a long history of mental illness.
There has never previously been any hint of scandal involving Congressman Kildee, who has a wife, three children and announced months ago that he intended to retire after this term.
These stories bothered me when I saw them, because they contained absolutely no evidence or shred of proof. And because I know that any time anyone is accused of something like this, the accusation sticks to them through life, even if later exposed as totally false. What I didn’t know was that it had been checked out.
Pat Clawson contacted me last night and said that he and another well-known investigative journalist, a man instrumental in exposing Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick became aware of these allegations more than a year ago.
Clawson told me they both checked them out, and, “We each, separately and independently, came to the same conclusion. These allegations could not be substantiated in any way and were most likely false.” He notes the accuser has a record of drug abuse and a history of hospitalizations for mental illness.
