Conservative Blogger's Accusation of "Liberal" Newspaper

    In this blog submission from self-affirmed conservative political blogger, Robbie Cooper of UrbanGrounds.com, Cooper accuses mainstream media source, the Texas Tribune, of starting a liberal-serving smear campaign against Republican gubernatorial hopeful, Greg Abbott.  I am immediately wary of Cooper's accusation in that he is unabashedly conservative and aside from past military service and a degree in Professional Writing, has little credibility as a political journalist.   I also take into account that most of his intended audience are likely to also be Republican and for the most part fans of his opinions.  However, after reviewing the evidence he presents and logic of his argument, I have come to partially agree with what he is saying.

    In Robbie Cooper's claim that the Texas Tribune has begun a smear campaign against Greg Abott, Cooper sites the speculation and lack of evidence used by the newspaper as reasons to believe that this is part of liberal media's attempt to discredit any Republican running for Governor of Texas by disguising editorial opinion as front page news.  This is where I agree with Cooper.  After reading the Tribune article in question, it was obvious to me that editorial opinions were inappropriately present on the front page of a newspaper that claims to be nonpartisan. 

   If I were looking at this misplacement as the sole reason and justification for Cooper's argument, I would have to agree with him.  However, the blogger goes on to use quotes from the Tribune article as evidence that the paper is spreading unsubstantiated rumors and lies about Attorney General Greg Abott.  For example, Cooper suggested the Tribune's claim that "the adversity that Abbott has faced has become the symbolic centerpiece of his recently launched gubernatorial campaign, which he announced on Sunday — the 29th anniversary of his accident” was invalid and made-up by the paper.  While "centerpiece" might not be the best way to describe the role of adversity in Abott's campaign, one needs only to google search "Greg Abott Campaign" to find evidence that the Texas Tribune is not the first let alone only news source to question the role his disability plays in his campaign.  It also seems as though the announcement of his run for Governor on the anniversary of the tragic accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down was something that Abott did purposefully.  Regardless, the coordination of dates is something most media and select readers (myself included) did not ignore.  

Cooper again accused the Tribune of a lack of evidentiary support regarding their statement that Abott's personal story "has also exposed Abbott to criticism from those who say that he has battered the legal protections he has benefited from for political gain", asking the paper to "name who these those are that (they) are referring to".  Contradictorily, they did exactly that later in the article citing a direct quote from the director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, Jim Harrington, on the subject.  

While I believe the Texas Tribune definitely infused some left-leaning sentiment into their article about Greg Abott, I also believe that they were quite reasonable in their portrayal of the campaign he has recently launched.  The newspaper provided quotes and convincing logic to back up their assertions.  So although Bobbie Cooper may have been right to question the type of piece they had written, I don't agree with his questions of the information and evidence they provided.