The Maine Wire chief editor’s description of a U.S. Senate candidate’s alleged oyster business as a fake campaign prop turns out to be true, despite an alleged media critic claiming he’s wrong.
Steve Robinson came under fire from a group that calls itself Politifact for saying on national TV that Graham Platner’s oystering is a ruse designed to prop up his status with voters as a working stiff.
Politifact tried to prove Robinson wrong with what turned out to be a lengthy, vacuous “investigation” allegedly looking into the Democrat candidate’s claims of being a workingman’s oyster farmer.
But, try as it might, Politifact came up embarrassingly empty.
Ben Brasch insisted in a piece he published Tuesday that Robinson is wrong – that Graham Platner is a bonafide oyster dealer.
The problem is, Brasch failed to confirm that Platner is making any real money selling oysters – other than maybe to his mother’s restaurant.
Brasch actually admitted as much in his article, writing:
“Platner’s income from the oyster business is unclear. Under the ‘compensation’ section of his personal financial disclosure, the one entry listed as providing him more than $5,000 annually is from his mother’s business, Ironbound Restaurant and Inn. The description is simply ‘oyster purveyor to restaurant.’”
“Platner’s income from the oyster business is unclear.”
So there it is in black and white – Brasch admitting that the finances of Platner’s business are suspect – the very essence of Robinson’s skepticism.
Platner’s own financial disclosures show that he reported between $5,000 to $10,000 in income for an entire year – at least $5,000 of which came from his mom’s restaurant, Robinson pointed out.
“Politifact claims Platner’s oyster hobby is a full-time job and a business that’s not phony,” Robinson said Tuesday night. “Maybe Politifact pays their fact-checkers $5k and calls it a full-time job. But here in Maine, when mommy pays you to play in your boat, that’s a hobby.”
Though Politifact claims to be nonpartisan, Wiki says two analyses showed it’s more likely to find fault with Republican claims than Democrat.
Independent media monitors generally rate PolitiFact as having a lean-left, or liberal bias, according to AllSides.com.
“PolitiFact leans center-left,” says Bryan White, creator of Zebra Fact Check. “That means it’s fairly consistently tougher on conservatives and Republicans than on liberals and Democrats.”
If Brasch’s critique of Robinson was supposed to be nonpartisan then his pointing out that The Maine Wire “was founded in 2011 by the conservative think tank Maine Policy Institute” is suspect on its face.
Brasch’s supposed analysis of Robinson’s claim that Platner is a fake oyster farmer should be based on whether it is true or false, not on the editor’s political leanings.
“PolitiFact has not earned a reputation for consistent accuracy,” White says. “Indeed, it is hard to see how any fact checker that insists on making a subjective rating system the focus of its website could ever legitimately earn readers’ trust.”
Meanwhile, Brasch falsely claimed that Robinson refused to comment when he reached out to him.
In fact, when Brasch emailed Robinson online with questions, Robinson responded with a lengthy, detailed analysis of his claims.
I would rather have somebody like this who does all of his business above board with his parents then somebody like Donald Trump Junior who is enriching himself by taking advantage of the tax payers through no bid contracts given to his various companies by his father‘s administration or by foreign interests who purchase from or invest in his companies as a back doorway to get influence with his dad.
Oh Charles ….. YOU MEAN like Hunter Biden .
I have read that Platners rich parents lived in the wealthy town of Blue Hill, which has its own Private School, George Stevens Academy. That was not a good enough school for young Platner: his parents shoveled him off to one of the finest Preparatory Schools in the Country, Hotchkiss, where tuition is $79,000.00 per year. I do not think it was at Hotchkiss, that Platner learned to pretend to be a member of the Down East Fisher Folk and dress as though he sleeps under a bridge. When he mustered out of the service the military shrinks thought that he was 100% mentally disabled so that he would not be able to find a job and allowed him an annual pension of $57,000.00 for the rest of his mentally disabled life. I am a ‘Nam era U S Navy vet and I will not be voting for the 100% mentally disabled Platner to become a Maine Senator for the next six years.
Charles wants a NAZI, hates Jews,doesn’t care much for fellow vets, women deserve to be raped, all cops are bastards, Blacks don’t tip well, lobstermen are low life’s, loves porta -potties likes KIK while married, hates successful people. Why wouldn’t today’s Maine democrats love this guy, they wouldn’t even mind him in their daughters or wife’s locker room.
And yes given the chance Platner will be no different than the rest in DC.