FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 4, 2006

Associated Press Distorts Vernon Robinson's Historic Victory
AP reporter shares Brad Miller's penchant for "negative character assassination" and appears to be moonlighting as Brad Miller's campaign press secretary.

RALEIGH, NC - Vernon Robinson won the May 2nd Republican Primary Election in North Carolina's 13th Congressional District with the highest-ever margin of victory, winning all seven counties and capturing more than two and half times the votes of his closest competitor in a three-way race. Robinson is the first black Republican nominee from a competitive North Carolina congressional district in more than one hundred years.

Making history is nothing new for Robinson. In his 2004 campaign for Congress in the neighboring 5th Congressional District, Robinson received a financial contribution from more Americans (35,000) than any Congressman or candidate for Congress in the history of the United States. (After winning an eight-way primary against five millionaires in July 2004, Robinson was edged out in a primary runoff election.)

In order to win the nomination, Robinson appealed to 13th District Republicans and Independents by emphasizing his mainstream conservative voting record on the Winston-Salem City Council and telling the voters that he was the only candidate who could take on 'Gas Tax Brad' this November. Robinson's strategy of exposing Congressman Brad Miller's ultra-liberal voting record to the voters has apparently struck a chord with donors as well. According to the FEC reports filed in April, Robinson is one of only four Republican challenger congressional candidates in the country who raised more money than their incumbent Democrat opponents.

Robinson has cited Miller's sponsorship of both the gas tax increase and the 'Foreign Homosexual Importation Act' (which would give marriage visas to the foreign homosexual lovers of gay Americans) and Miller's votes in support of open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens, homosexual marriage, a handgun ban, partial-birth abortion, burning the American flag, and taking "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance as examples of how Miller is out of touch with an overwhelming majority of 13th District voters. Robinson says, "Those are San Francisco values, not North Carolina values."

Having won the Republican nomination in a district that President Bush won in 2000 and Senator Elizabeth Dole narrowly lost in 2002, Robinson is poised to make North Carolina's 13th Congressional District one of the contested battlegrounds that pundits say will determine which political party wins a narrow majority this November.

Associated Press reporter Mike Baker elected to leave out all of the forgoing information when he published the AP story that several gullible newspapers have already picked up off the wire. Baker wrote:

"In the 13th District's Republican primary, perennial candidate Vernon Robinson of Winston-Salem took 63 percent of the tallied votes to secure a spot on the ballot. He beat Charlie Sutherland (25 percent) and John Ross Hendrix (12 percent), and will face Democratic Rep. Brad Miller of Raleigh in November. Robinson, known for his sharp-tongued taunting of his competition, declared victory by calling Miller a 'cultural carpetbagger,' adding later in an interview that Miller 'votes against North Carolina values every time he votes in Congress.' Miller said he expected 'a vintage Vernon Robinson campaign.' 'It will be a hateful campaign that appeals to people's worst instincts and that distorts the truth,' he said. 'I believe in the end that the voters of the district will show decency to reject this campaign as voters have before.' Robinson first considered challenging Rep. Mel Watt, the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, in the 12th District, but withdrew from that race to oppose Miller, even though he lives outside the 13th District. Two years ago, Robinson spent nearly $3 million to run in the 5th District, eventually losing to Virginia Foxx of Banner Elk in a runoff. Robinson, a former member of the Winston-Salem city council, has previously run unsuccessfully for chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, state superintendent of public instruction, and state Senate."

Abandoning any pretense of objectivity, AP reporter Baker dubbed Robinson a "perennial candidate." Predictably, Baker did not see fit to use the derogatory and pejorative moniker for any Democrat candidate on the North Carolina primary ballot. Indeed, it is instructive to note that Baker used it for Robinson, but not Miller. Since 1988, Robinson has run for elective office ten times and served in elective office for eight years. Since 1988, Miller has run for elective office eight times and served in elective office for eleven years.

Even if one assumes that Baker is sincere in his belief that a nominee's unsuccessful campaigns for the state legislature and Council of State in the late 80s and early 90s are newsworthy, Baker's double standard is inescapable. Baker reported that Robinson lost a campaign for the state senate in 1988, but conveniently forgot to report that Miller lost a campaign for the state house in 1994. Baker mentioned that Robinson lost a campaign for State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1992, but, oops, found no space to mention that Miller lost a campaign for Secretary of State in 1988.

Not letting the truth stand in the way of his agenda, Baker (who is described as a rabid leftist by his peers) then makes the false statement that Robinson is known for "taunting" his opponents. Baker cites no example because there is none to cite. Even if the statement were not false, it would constitute the expression of an opinion and would therefore be unsuitable for publication in a "straight news" story without attribution to someone - and that someone cannot be the reporter writing the story!

In order to ensure that voters would have only his own ad hominem insults and red herrings to inform their opinion of Robinson (rather than substantive information about the candidates' positions on the issues), Baker saw to it that there was no room in his 222-word story to mention a single policy position that Robinson ran on so as to win the primary election or that distinguishes Robinson from Miller in the general election. On the night of Robinson's historic victory, Baker allowed Robinson a scant 13 words. Although Miller had no primary election, Baker gave quoted 44 words from Miller bashing Robinson. Miller's words comprise a whopping 20% of the story, while Robinson's words comprise only 6%.

In the most shocking display of bias, Baker actually quotes Miller accusing Robinson of running campaigns that "distort the truth." As Baker knows, it is actually Miller, not Robinson, who has a track record of lying to voters. In Carolyn Grant v. Bradley Miller, Superior Court Judge Howard Manning found Brad guilty of "negative character assassination," and said Miller's television ad was "a classic case of intellectual dishonesty, as it was drafted with the knowledge that it was false and deceptive." The Court summed up the case this way: "While the truth was staring Miller in the face, it appears Miller deliberately elected to cut, paste, and leave out the truth."

In another transparent attempt to manipulate voters to join his crusade against Robinson's candidacy, Baker states that Robinson won the Republican nomination in the 13th District "even though" he resides in the 5th District in an effort to cause the reader to assume that that legally inconsequential, politically irrelevant, anecdotal fact is unusual or somehow objectionable and should be held against Robinson rather than Miller. Baker conveniently neglects to mention that in North Carolina this phenomenon is the now-all-too-common result of the Democrat-controlled legislature's penchant for engaging in gerrymandering so obscene that The Wall Street Journal calls it "political pornography" (i.e., splitting dozens of North Carolina's counties, cities, and precincts into two, and often three, different districts to ensure that white Democrats defeat black Democrats in primaries and defeat Republicans in general elections).

Baker is fully aware that Congressman Walter Jones, Jr. (R-NC3) was elected from the 3rd District while living in the 1st District and Congresswoman Sue Myrick (R-NC9) was elected from the 9th District while living in the 12th District. Baker knows that the 2006 Democrat Party's nominee for Congress in the 6th District, Rory Blake, resides in the 9th District. This is of course the almost inevitable result when politicians choose their voters instead of the other way around. Miller took the voters in both Greensboro and Raleigh and cracked, stacked, and packed them into THREE different districts.

Baker also knows that in 2002 Miller was pressured to resign from his post as the state senate's Redistricting Committee Co-Chairman because of the corrupt conflict of interest represented by Miller's decision to use his position to personally draw the boundaries for North Carolina's new 13th Congressional District around his Raleigh home. Miller did in fact resign in disgrace. It should also be noted that Baker doesn't give the voters enough credit. It is obviously Baker's absurd assumption that the voters of Guilford, Rockingham, Caswell, Person, and Alamance counties will be so petty and shallow that they will vote for Robinson simply because he lives closer to them than Miller and vice-versa for the voters in Wake and Granville counties.

AP's "pro-liberal Democrat" bias and "anti-conservative Republican" bias is equally apparent in the story AP penned on the primary results in the 11th District. The same AP story says: "Former NFL and University of Tennessee quarterback Heath Shuler easily won the Democratic nomination for U.S. House in the state's far western 11th District on Tuesday, setting up a November election against longtime GOP Rep. Charles Taylor. 'This is a good first step for us,' said Shuler, of Waynesville. 'We have a challenge in front of us, but we're working as hard as we can every day.' With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Shuler had 75 percent of the vote and a wide lead over challenger Michael Morgan, of Swannanoa. Taylor, meanwhile, handily defeated his opponent, winning 80 percent of votes tallied in his race against John Armor, of Highlands. Shuler began attacking Taylor long before the primary, and again pointed out his connections to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff on Tuesday. Taylor, of Brevard, has weathered a number of Democratic challengers in his through his 16-year tenure in the House, but Shuler confidently boasted 'this is the year' after his primary victory. 'We continue to see the trend that he has in his votes,' Shuler said. 'He doesn't reflect our family values, the people in our district or the direction our country should be going.' That's 61 words for Shuler and 0 words for Taylor. Baker is content to report that Democrat Shuler "reflects family values" while Republican Taylor reflects nothing other than "connections to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff."

The Robinson campaign has advised AP that it has an affirmative duty to remove Baker from covering the 13th District race in light of the fact that he is manifestly hostile to Robinson and has demonstrated that he is either unable or unwilling to write an unbiased story. Baker's editor, Sue Wilson, says she stands by the story and can't fathom why anyone would perceive a bias. Sadly, Wilson' recalcitrance is not surprising. AP still refuses to admit its bias in putting a misleading headline on the wires for an hour last Friday that said "Rush Limbaugh Arrested" instead of "Limbaugh Strikes Deferred Prosecution Deal."

The Robinson campaign has apprised other media outlets that they should review any AP story purporting to cover the 13th District race with an eye towards ensuring that their own standards for journalistic integrity, accuracy and impartiality are met before disseminating it further.

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Action Items for Supporters:

1. Call or email AP and let these so-called journalists know what you think of their bias! AP reporter Mike Baker can be reached at (919) 340-5867 or mrbaker@ap.org. AP editor and bureau chief Sue Wilson can be reached at (919) 833-8687 or apraleigh@ap.org. Feel free to carbon copy the Robinson campaign with your comments and AP's responses at michelle@vernonrobinson.com.
   
   
2. Help the campaign with your immediate financial support! A recent poll shows that, after they compare Vernon's voting record and positions on the issues with Miller's voting record, a whopping 75% of 13th District voters say they will vote for Vernon. But without your help, Vernon will be unable to respond when Brad again spends $500,000 on television ads that Superior Court Judge Howard Manning says are "false and deceptive."
   
   As you can see, Vernon will obviously have to go around the liberal media to communicate with the voters. Brad Miller's allies in the media have already proven themselves to be complicit in his effort to hide his voting record from the voters. They will continue to publish Miller's press releases verbatim by simply disguising them to resemble objective news stories. But the Robinson campaign can and will overcome that hurdle so long as it has the necessary resources to go directly to the voters and educate them. Thank you for your generous support.

Help Vernon Defeat the Liberal Media and Brad Miller!

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