Fleming Campaign Responds to Virginian-Pilot’s Information Freeze
By Joel McDonald • Jan 8th, 2010 • Category: Blog, Campaigns & Elections
On Friday, January 8, 2010, The Virginian-Pilot published an editorial endorsing Republican Jeff McWaters for the State Senate 8th District in Virginia. The Democratic candidate Bill Fleming was portrayed as a naïve dupe with no real chance. The rational and conclusions drawn were questionable, but opinions are like navels.
Fleming supporters immediately began drafting responses to rebut the misinformation in the endorsement. Later in the morning, a letter writer called the campaign office to inform staff that The Pilot’s Letters to the Editor Dept. was not accepting letters; that in effect it was closed for 4 days. A staffer then called Editorial Board Editor Donald Luzzatto to inquire about the issue. Luzzatto stated that the pages were being laid out on Friday at approximately noon for the next three days…Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The election is on Tuesday. In effect, this denied readers the opportunity to respond to the endorsement and to inform other Pilot readers of the facts as they relate to McWaters involvement with the criminal justice system.
The Pilot’s endorsement completely glossed over the facts related to McWaters career with Amerigroup, the largest publicly traded company focused exclusively on tax-payer funded health care programs, i.e. Medicaid and Medicare. It made no mention of the $334 million federal judge finding against Amerigroup in the Northern District of Illinois at the time Jeff McWaters was Chairman and CEO in March 2007. The US Attorney in Chicago and Illinois Attorney General filed charges of defrauding the Illinois Medicaid program by cherry picking the healthiest patients to reduce spending, and denying coverage to pregnant women. Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s August 14, 2008 Press Release makes no mistake about it: Amerigroup was required by law to enroll all eligible beneficiaries, including pregnant women. An appeal was later withdrawn, and a $225 million settlement- which replaced the original judgment- ultimately announced in August 2008. To put this in perspective, it remains the largest ever award in a federal health care fraud case in the Northern District of Illinois. Well known US Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, of the Scooter Libby/Valerie Plame trial, participated in the official settlement announcement.
McWaters’ retirement as CEO in August 2007- just five months after the initial federal judgment- and as Chair the following spring- invites logical suspicion as to whether he was in fact encouraged to give up these positions by Amerigroup’s Board. His reported annual salary at the time was in excess of $600,000, with his biggest source of compensation that year “option awards” of $3.84 million (not known if exercised), and $2.66 million from a non-equity incentive plan for Amerigroup officers.
McWaters campaign literature includes the following statement: “Politicians talk about cutting government waste, but I spent my business career helping state legislatures save billions in tax dollars by cutting cost from state Medicaid budgets while improving services. I will use this unique experience to cut the waste and restore fiscal accountability to Richmond.” Perhaps someone should put in a call to the State of Illinois to ask how McWaters’ cutting costs worked out for them.
Rather than share this information with readers, The Pilot Editorial Board chose to tout his experience as “specializing in providing medical care for the poor.” The wording of which in itself is ridiculous. If McWaters provided medical care, he did so without license to practice medicine.
The nature of editorials allows for opinion, whether substantiated or not. Supporters of Democrat Bill Fleming know and understand this. However, to then be denied the opportunity to express their opinions and share facts with other readers, because the “pages are being laid out for the next three days” seems to fly in the face of the 1st Amendment and further erode The Pilot’s reputation as a credible news source.
The late Frank Batten, founder of Landmark Communications and The Virginian-Pilot publisher from 1954 through 1976 penned the mission of the paper; “Our duty is clear: It is to serve the public with skill and character, and to exercise First Amendment freedoms with vigor and responsibility.” Wonder how Frank would feel about this one.
Matthew Sullivan
Campaign Manager- William W. “Bill” Fleming for State Senate
Related posts:
- McWaters Pens Virginian-Pilot Endorsement of Himself
- From the Virginian-Pilot: Bill Fleming is Democratic Nominee in the 8th
- Bill Fleming Running Grassroots Campaign for the 8th Senate District
- McWaters to Face Democratic Challenger in the 8th!
- Mathieson Loses Recount by 16 Votes
Joel McDonald has been following Virginia politics since February 2008, starting with the Democratic Presidential Primary. Since then, he has been the primary new media contact for progressive district and statewide campaigns.
Email this author | All posts by Joel McDonald
I used to work for the Virginian-Pilot and it is not unusual to have the editorial page, especially the letters section, prepared several days in advance. That is how the “dead tree media” often works.
However, given that there is a special election on Tuesday in Virginia Beach, one would think that the Pilot would leave some space for letters; or even better provide a, Special Election Letters section.
I will call them and see if they will give democracy a little support, and run a Special Election Letters section in Tuesday’s edition. So, keep writing to the Pilot, anyway.
The citizens of Virginia Beach need to learn that Mr. McWaters is a former health insurance gatekeeper, who will most likely be looking out for his insurance buddies and not for the working man here in VB. What is perhaps worse, McWaters has shown that he would be a rubber stamp for McDonnell’s plans to sell the operating rights to our roads to Chinese-Australian conglomerates who would then charge us TOLLs to drive on our own roads.
Bill Fleming would not let our Virginia assets be handed over to foreign companies, and he would work across the aisle to develop a comprehensive transportation solution.
I thank both of these Men for running for office. Mr. Fleming is the best choice to lead us back toward prosperity and will work for more Virginia JOBS, JOBS, and MORE JOBS!