09/08/06  A lazy liar is still a liar.

Without bothering to link to his piece of fiction, I am flat out calling Gromer Jeffers a lazy liar who has caused a lot of grief today and may yet be source of a lot of grief for The Dallas Managed News.

My friend, Pat Cotton, is a political consultant, a Republican political consultant and one tough woman, but even she is vulnerable to an irresponsible DMN reporter who is too lazy to leave his desk, much less pick up the phone to corroborate a clearly outrageous statement.  If Pat Cotton can be maliciously libeled by DMN  worst reporter, you and I need to be quaking in our boots.

09/09  Michael Davis:    There's a full response on my site, DallasProgress, but here?s a quick take?     As most of you know, I have my issues with the writing of Gromer Jeffers of the Dallas Morning News. Whether it's the soap-opera like coverage of certain political people, or articles that sound like they come directly from the powers that be, his writing leaves a lot to be desired.    When I read the blurb in question on Wednesday (regarding Pat Cotton's threats to Mitch Rasansky) and I read Jim Schutze's article, I came to one conclusion. It just doesn't seem like something a consultant as experienced as Ms. Cotton would say to anyone, much less a reporter. Pat Cotton surely knows that when you talk to a reporter, nothing is "off the record." Which makes the information that much less credible.

Granted, not everyone in Dallas knows who Pat Cotton is or understands the relevance of the slanderous and untruthful nugget dropped by Go-fer Jeffers aka Gromer Jeffers (DMN's pitiful excuse for a political reporter).  Most DallasArena.com regulars do know Pat Cotton through the various campaigns she has run in local political races, including the two anti-strong mayor campaigns of 2005.

I'm going to write more, but here's what Jim Schutze has to say about the matter on the The Dallas Observer blog, UnFair Park:

September 6, 2006 Bury, Destroy?What?s the Difference Amongst Friends? Filed under: Schutze

Smokin? up the grapevine today! Lots of hot gossip.    Political consultant Pat Cotton says Dallas Morning News politics writer Gromer Jeffers made up a quote by her in this morning?s newspaper that?s so bad and so damaging she wants to sue him. Seriously.    In today?s Snooze, Jeffers quoted Cotton as telling city council member Mitchell Rasansky to stay out of the mayor?s race or ?Donna Blumer and I will destroy you.?    Cotton says she didn?t say it. Not a word of it. ?He made it up.?    Blumer is a conservative political leader in far North Dallas, where she preceded Rasansky in his seat on the council. Cotton has been running the campaign for mayor of lawyer Darrell Jordan.    Cotton says she called DMN metro editor Dwayne Bray this morning to complain. Jeffers was the one who called her back, she says.    She says she asked Jeffers: ??What have you done to me?? He said, ?Well, I don?t know, what?s wrong.? I said, ?The quote you used was not true. I never said that. He said, ?Well, I looked in my notes, and you said you would bury him.? I said, ?Bury is not the word used in the paper, and second of all, I did not say we would bury him or destroy him. That?s not a thing I would say about Mitchell, who?s a friend and a client, and I would not have included Donna Blumer?s name.??    She says Bray did call her back and refused to print a retraction because Jeffers had told him he had the quote in his notes. Apparently the call was not recorded. She says Bray told her she should have known enough to record any conversations she had with reporters.    Wonder why he doesn?t tell his reporters to do the same.    I have a call in to Bray and one in to Jeffers. No callback yet. I did talk to Rasansky. He believes Jeffers.    ?I did call Gromer,? Rasansky told me, ?and Gromer said, ?Mitchell, I don?t print things that people don?t say.??    Rasansky trusts Jeffers. ?I?ve known him for five years. He has not written the best articles about me in the past five years. But he is an honorable man.?    He thinks Cotton just blew her top. ?I?m extremely disappointed she had a Freudian slip,? he said.    But?did she say it? Did she ever tell him she would destroy him if he ran for mayor?Absolutely not, he told me. She did have a chat with him last week in which she suggested he should not run for mayor. But she never threatened to bury or destroy him or have him whacked or put his lights out or bust a cap in him or anything like that.    ?It was all lovely,? he told me. ?She said, ?We need you more as a council person than as a mayor.??    So if she didn?t say it to him, why would she have told Jeffers she did? Tune in to the next installment of ?One Life to Waste,? and maybe I?ll have an answer for you. ?Jim Schutze Update: Robert Mong, editor of The News, called me and said: ?My experience with Gromer is that he is very straightforward. I believe him.?    I couldn?t really think of anything else to ask, so I said, ?Are you sure??    There was a long silence on the other end.    Finally Mong said, ?All I can do is fall back on my experience with him, and I have no reason to doubt that?s the case.?    I was thinking of saying, ?Are you sure?? again. But I didn?t.

I consider Mitch Rasansky and his lovely Rita to be close friends.  They were at my wedding, and I love them both.  I am surprised Councilman Rasansky would take the word of Go-fer Jeffers over Pat Cotton.  After he gets over the shock and hurt of what Jeffers has done, I hope Mitch will re-think who deserves his trust.

Few days pass without a telephone call between Pat Cotton and me.  Usually, we talk several times a day.  She's very funny and always has something interesting to share.  For a couple of weeks, Pat has been concerned about all the people who have announced or who are rumored to be contemplating a mayoral race.  Not just because it is problematic for her candidate's race, but because 20+ people running for mayor muddies the message and makes it possible for the likes of Sandra Dee Griffith to make the runoff. 

Pat also is very worried about the District 13 council seat. 

Pat told me there are at least three potential candidates for the District 13 seat, but they are reluctant to start a campaign for fear that at the last minute Mitch will give up his mayoral race and jump back in the council race.  Pat told me she is just as reluctant to encourage anyone to mount a District 13 council campaign for the same reason. 

Pat was very upset that Mitch would give up his council seat when it is unlikely he can win a mayoral race, or even make the runoff.  He's much loved in high-voting District 13, but not all that popular in the rest of the city.  She said and continues to say we really need him on the council.

At no time has she said anything about going after Mitch if he did run for mayor.  She has never said anything like what Goffer Jeffers falsely claims she told him.  If she wouldn't threaten Mitch when talking with a friend and fellow supporter of her mayoral candidate, do you really believe she would say something so inflammatory to a reporter who is notorious for getting it wrong and misquotes?

Do you know the all powerful Dallas Managed News  refuses to print a letter from Pat Cotton refuting what Jeffers claims?  They print a complete fabrication, and they won't allow the victim to defend herself?  That is so wrong, and so scary.

This is not just a he said/she said situation.  This is about Pat's livelihood.  She's no spring chicken, who can just go out and start a new career.  Her business is political consultation.  It's not a hobby.  It's how she makes her living.

Gromer Jeffers and the big shots at The Dallas Managed News  have put Pat's business in jeopardy through Go-fer's lazy fallaciousness.  Their refusal to print her letter of self-defense is malicious.

There are lots of surmises as to who or what was really behind Jeffers' fallacious blunder.  Things like this don't happen in a vacuum or without a reason.

It's not like Go-fer Jeffers ever had a thought of his own.  So, it's very unlikely he pulled this malicious stunt without someone's misguided hand.  I have my own suspicions as to who directed Go-fer's stunt -- a suspicion shared by several others. 

Whoever was behind this or whoever conspired with Jeffers to pull this evil stunt, they clearly intended to destroy Pat Cotton.

They may be successful, but not without a fight from Pat and her friends. 

I hope Pat Cotton does sue The Dallas Managed News.   They knew they had a lazy doofus in Gromer Jeffers.  Now, they know they have a dangerous puppet that somebody is using for evil, but effective ends.

Halloween is not for another six weeks, but I can't think of anything more frightening than what The Dallas Managed News  has allowed Gromer Jeffers to do to Pat Cotton.

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