Tag Archives: Blueprint NC

3rd Local Media Outlet Ignores Goodmon/Blueprint NC Connection

Posted on February 23, 2013 by A.P. Dillon

The hole Blueprint NC has dug for themselves just got a little deeper. The Director, Sean Kosofsky, has made an attempt to distance himself from the memo. Kosofsky appears to be wildly finger-pointing in any direction but that of him and his organization and stops short of claiming a ‘vast Right Wing conspiracy’:

“On Friday, however, he said Blueprint did not pass on the controversial three-page draft. He suggested it was appended to the other documents by someone hoping to tarnish his organization.” (Raleigh N&O)

From the Raleigh News and Observer: Head of Blueprint North Carolina denies his group sent memo plotting attacks on Republicans

The head of a Raleigh nonprofit group on Friday sought to distance his group from a memo laying out ways liberals could attack Gov. Pat McCrory and other Republican leaders.

Sean Kosofsky, executive director of Blueprint North Carolina, said he misunderstood a reporter’s questions on Thursday about documents emailed by Blueprint’s former communications director to the group’s partners.

he documents, obtained by the Observer from another source, included talking points for progressive policy positions and an issues poll. It also appeared to include three pages of a draft strategy that called for weakening Republican legislators by “crippling their leaders” and working to “weaken their ability to govern.”

Kosofsky said on Thursday that the documents, some from other groups, were emailed to supporters by Blueprint.

On Friday, however, he said Blueprint did not pass on the controversial three-page draft. He suggested it was appended to the other documents by someone hoping to tarnish his organization.

“I misunderstood,” he said Friday. “This is just a bunch of confusion. I think someone has an agenda to deceive people about the connection between these things. … There are things said in there that I might even agree with, but it’s just not us.”

He said the three-page draft was circulated in December at a meeting of more than 50 progressive groups. He’s not sure who drafted it.

The article goes on to mention the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and the big chunk of money they give Blueprint NC, but makes no mention of the local media mogul and his AJ Fletcher Foundation that has also sent Blueprint NC funding– Jim Goodmon, owner of WRAL.

This morning, ABC11’s story on Blueprint NC also left out the connection. I tweeted to the author of the story, Jon Camp, questioning the omission:

@abc11joncamp Really light on the details links to external docs aren’t ya? How about @wral connection to funding? abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?sec…

— LL1885 (@LadyLiberty1885) February 23, 2013

I also tweeted to the News and Observer asking a similar question. I will update this post with any responses I receive from any local media entities I have contacted about the story. As of yet, WRAL has still not responded.

Read prior/related Blueprint NC posts:

@WRAL Silent On Internal Link To Blueprint NC’s Attack Memo

Liberal NC Non-Profit Group’s Attack Memo Leaked

Something is Rotten in NC… Blueprint NC, that is. Continue reading →

Posted in Media Bias, POLITICS NC, THE LEFT | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

@WRAL Silent On Internal Link To Blueprint NC’s Attack Memo

Posted on February 22, 2013 by A.P. Dillon

As I previously posted, a non-profit in NC named Blueprint NC has been caught distributing a memo with talking points on how to attack Conservatives, the GOP and Governor Pat McCory. What has not been so publicized is the link between this progressive group and the local media – specifically local Raleigh station, WRAL.

Let’s review what Blueprint NC advocates:

• “Crippl(e) their leaders (GovMcCrory, House Speaker Tillis, Senate leader Berger etc.)”

• “Eviscerate the leadership and weaken their ability to govern.”

• “Pressure McCrory at every public event.”

• “Slam him when he contradicts his promises.”

Pay attention to the last item. Funny how WRAL now displays its shiny new McCrory Promise Tracker on their site. I re-iterate from my earlier post:

After my initial reading of the article, the last one struck me as familiar – WRAL’s shiny new “Promise Tracker“. When this promise tracker came out, I questioned WRAL on why there wasn’t a Bev Perdue tracker. This is the answer I received was in a Private message on Twitter. I tweeted them publicly and they replied PRIVATELY. Which means they had to follow me and unfollow me just to send this message:

They didn’t have the resources to have someone jot down and post Bev Perdue’s promises to their site? What kind of resources would that take exactly? A pen? Some paper? Ethics?

As I mentioned above, WRAL has a story on their site about the Blueprint NC memo leak. It is void of any link to their own owner, Jim Goodmon. Civitas already has a response up; citing :

The WRAL reporter left out the very deep connections WRAL has with BlueprintNC through its owner Jim Goodmon, donations and former employees. The AJ Fletcher Foundation has given $35,000 to BlueprintNC and $380,000 to the NC Justice Center which initially housed BlueprintNC when it was formed (the foundations 990 IRS reports are not current so there may be more) . The Goodmon family which owns WRAL has 4 family members on the board of the Fletcher Foundation including Barbara the President and Jim the chairman of the board. The Executive Director was formerly the head of the NC center for Voter Education, one of the original members of BlueprintNC. In addition Chris Fitzsimon, former WRAL reporter, is head of the liberal NC Policy Watch, the original lead attack group in the Blueprint coalition. Fitzsimon is also provided free airtime on Goodmon owned WRAL-FM from which he launches daily attacks on political opponents. The Fletcher Foundation has been a long time funder of Policy Watch is now housed in the Justice Center.

The best section comes next:

Wral is also actually doing one of the items in the strategy memo. The memo on page 3 calls for tracking McCrory “Campaign Promises” and “slam him when he contradicts his promise.” WRAL appears to have taken that for action by launching their “Promise Tracker“, complete with cute little ”Skull & Crossbones” symbols.

Gee, isn’t that a coincidence?

I took to Twitter to ask the station for comment on the omissions in their current story covering Blueprint NC:

@wral where is mention of your OWNER financing them? Liberal groups lay out blueprint for attack on state leaderswral.com/liberal-group-…

— LL1885 (@LadyLiberty1885) February 22, 2013

As of this posting, I have not received a reply from WRAL. Continue reading →

Posted in POLITICS NC, THE LEFT | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Liberal NC Non-Profit Group’s Attack Memo Leaked

Posted on February 22, 2013 by A.P. Dillon

BlueprintNC ,a 501(c)(3), has a some explaining to do after the Charlotte Observer ran an article last night detailing the group’s attack strategy via a leaked memo. The headline in the Charlotte Observer last night reads: Leaked memo outlines liberal attack plan on McCrory, N.C. Republicans

Continue reading →

Posted in Occupy, POLITICS NC, Racial Justice, Social Justice, THE LEFT | Tagged | 7 Comments