Updated: Kennedy Campaign Eliminating Facts From News Stories

Read down for update:

It's not unusual for campaigns to post or link to news stories about their candidate. What is unusual is the sentence-by-sentence editing the Mark Kennedy for U.S. Senate campaign has done to remove balance and any dissenting remarks about their candidate from news stories. The stories did not link back to the original content. So there was no way to tell they were altered.

The Kennedy website editing included:

Making up new headlines that made Kennedy look good

Removing analysis that Kennedy's votes in the past year are an attempt to portray him as a moderate, when it is likely he will go back to his far right voting patterns as soon as he gets in the Senate.

Removing critical descriptions that provide balance:

For example, in a New York Times story about the House's recent passage of the energy bill, the phrase "despite objections that the energy plan was flawed by subsidies to industry and a failure to curb national demand for gasoline" was deleted.

So if anyone points to the Kennedy website as a legitimate news source, just link back to this story when you comment on it.

UPDATE: The Star Tribune reports Kennedy's campaign has agreed to post links to the full articles. When I checked at 5:20pm CDT, nothing had changed. However, Kennedy's campaign did find time to post new stuff about Bush signing the transportation bill today. It's pretty clear where the priorities are on this campaign. Promotion first. Promises fullfilled...later...maybe.

10:30 PM -- Still no changes, or promises fullfilled, on the Mark Kennedy campaign website.

Thurs August 11, 2005 2:40 PM - Still no changes. Are the promises from Kennedy's campaign staff as hollow as the promises from the candidate himself?