{"id":18908,"date":"2010-06-30T07:01:53","date_gmt":"2010-06-30T13:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=18908"},"modified":"2010-12-20T11:36:14","modified_gmt":"2010-12-20T18:36:14","slug":"don%e2%80%99t-make-claims-you-can%e2%80%99t-back-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/06\/don%e2%80%99t-make-claims-you-can%e2%80%99t-back-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t make claims you can\u2019t back up"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

In politics, people lie. Certainly not all people, and not all the time, but it does happen frequently.<\/p>\n

I devote much of my work to trying to sort the truth from the lies and the spin that falls somewhere in between. The American public is inundated with the spin and the lies daily in TV ads, news releases and other communications.<\/p>\n

TV ads have more reach than any other attempt to influence voters. That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important that political candidates be able to back up the claims they make in TV ads with facts.<\/p>\n

Enter Susana Martinez<\/a>, the Republican candidate for governor who has claimed in two TV ads (here<\/a> and\u00a0here<\/a>) that she\u2019s \u201ctaken on members of the most violent Mexican drug cartels.\u201d<\/p>\n

I want to make clear up front that I think Martinez\u2019s claim is probably true. The words of the head of the federal agency that coordinates the fight against drug trafficking in New Mexico \u2013 a man who says Martinez\u2019s claim is accurate<\/a> \u2013 add credibility to Martinez\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n

So does that agency\u2019s 2009 report<\/a>, which details cartel-related crimes that are being committed in New Mexico \u2013 the type of crimes that, in Do\u00f1a Ana County, would be prosecuted by Martinez\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

As a former crime reporter in Las Cruces, I\u2019ve covered cases involving the types of local gangs officials say act as enforcers for the cartels. I understand why Martinez doesn\u2019t want to identify specific cases to back up her claim. Informants, government officials and journalists are killed in Mexico all the time for taking on cartels. People have been killed in New Mexico by gangs working with cartels for losing drug shipments or money owed to cartels.<\/p>\n

This is scary stuff.<\/p>\n

Reason to doubt<\/h3>\n

But Martinez made the statement about taking on cartels in a political context, and the bottom line is that, in that context, the gubernatorial candidate\u2019s ads make a claim she isn\u2019t backing up \u2013 even if there\u2019s a very good reason she isn\u2019t backing it up.<\/p>\n

My job as a journalist is to be skeptical. I want to be able to show you proof.<\/p>\n

In this case, I\u2019ve found testimony from a federal official and narratives in a federal report about the types of crimes that Martinez\u2019s office might be prosecuting. But, while that\u2019s evidence in support of her claim, it isn\u2019t definitive proof. There is a difference.<\/p>\n

Because so much in politics is spin and lies, the American public has reason to doubt every claim a politician won\u2019t or can\u2019t back up. It\u2019s no surprise that the state Democratic Party has accused Martinez of exaggerating her own importance in combating cartel activity. She hasn\u2019t provided proof that they\u2019re wrong.<\/p>\n

Martinez opened herself up to such attacks by putting the ads on the air and not providing proof of the claims they make.<\/p>\n

Of course, Martinez isn\u2019t the only one to do that. I wrote last week about Democratic gubernatorial candidate Diane Denish\u2019s<\/a> TV ad that makes an unsubstantiated leap<\/a>. In that case, Denish\u2019s campaign was unable to provide proof to support its claim that Martinez \u201callowed\u201d child predators to avoid the sex offender registry.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because the campaign doesn\u2019t have proof. Denish made an allegation that was based on spin \u2013 a leap to the worst possible conclusion about two cases Martinez\u2019s office prosecuted that required taking the cases out of context and making a claim without having all the facts.<\/p>\n

Denish paid the price for that when the father of the victim in one of those cases called her out<\/a> and left her with egg on her face.<\/p>\n

If you can\u2019t provide proof\u2026<\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve spent most of my time in the last few weeks investigating claims being made by both gubernatorial candidates. The bottom line is this: You shouldn\u2019t make a claim \u2013 positive about yourself or negative about your opponent \u2013 that you can\u2019t back up with proof.<\/p>\n

Because if you can\u2019t provide proof, the political system in which you operate has given the public all the reason in the world to believe you\u2019re lying.<\/p>\n

Haussamen bio<\/a> \u2502\u00a0Commentary archives<\/a> \u2502\u00a0Feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note to political candidates: You shouldn\u2019t make claims you can\u2019t back up with proof. If you can\u2019t provide proof, the political system in which you operate has given the public all the reason in the world to believe you\u2019re lying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[108,195,107],"class_list":["post-18908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-2010-election","tag-mexicos-drug-war","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}