|  Many of you may have noticed the new blog and facebook group "Race for Michigan" that purports to be a new source of information for Michigan political races, particularly at the top of the ticket.
OutsideLansing.com research however indicates its an anonymous "attack blog", and recent posts have racial overtones, as the post here attacking Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land suggests. The post accuses of Land of failing to act on a campaign finance complaint against Kwame Kilpatrick for using campaign funds for personal purposes, and then both in words and visually juxtaposes Land with Kilpatrick. It suggests her lack of action was intentional - an effort to "get Detroit votes" - and attacks her for that. Outsidelansing condemns the attack - both in its style and substance. Land was not wrong to not prosecute Kilpatrick because Michigan campaign finance law is weak, unclear, and probably doesn't actually apply to this situation, and Kilpatrick has already received the brunt of his punishment and campaign finance law would only allow a further slap on the wrist anyway. Furthermore, Race for Michigan is registered by GoDaddy's "Domains by Proxy" service, meaning that short of litigation and court order, the identity of the owner will remain unknown. Since there is no way to contact Race for Michigan - OL left a message on its Facebook feed/wall and we were told to contact them by Facebook e-mail (which didn't appear to work at first but did after our request). Our e-mail with questions has remained unanswered for several weeks now. Anonymous speech is a time-honored tradition in America, dating back to greats like Ben Franklin and Thomas Paine - but they made lasting and truthful points about liberty. Race for Michigan is a nothing more than an attack tool for someone - and lest speculation be that it is run by a Republican, it is entirely possible a Democrat or anyone is operating for whatever long-term reason. It has attacked several other Republican candidates, and its difficult and unclear whose horse the operator may have a stake in. It would seem that Race for Michigan has a right to exist - even anonymously - but it is also right for everyone to recognize it is NOT a legitimate or unbiased "news" source, that it has an agenda, and for us to condemn it when it launches into questionable attacks. |
