Your Opinion:
Thomas Minihan
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
After reading the perspective offered by U.S. Rep. Luetkemeyer in the News Tribune on Oct. 9, I checked his claim about proposing legislation in an effort to help women with breast cancer every year and discovered it was not true. Regardless, the News Tribune continues to publish his weekly editorial, without fact-checking this congressman.
Additionally, on Oct. 2 he wrote, "if you have had at least $600 in your account at any time, your financial transactions will be monitored by the IRS." Then on Oct. 17 under the "Not Real News" section this claim is called, "extremely misleading," or not the truth.
He's at it again. The most recent perspective – opinion, view, standpoint, half-truth, deliberate lie – published by the News Tribune on Oct. 16 claims, "the United States Attorney General announced the Department of Justice will be directing the FBI to investigate parents who are concerned about what is being taught to their children in American schools, going as far as to label these parents as 'domestic terrorists.'" By putting quotation marks around those words, he implies that the attorney general said those words. This is libel -- communication embodied in physical form that is injurious to a person's reputation, exposes a person to public hatred, contempt or ridicule – and he should be taken to court for doing it. More to the point, the statement does not match up to what was actually said. Read the press release for yourself at https://www.justice.gov/ag/page/file/1438986/download.
This makes three weeks in a row that the News Tribune has published false information provided to it by our United States congressman. I believe it's an attempt to accomplish two things. First, it corroborates false information found online and gets that information to people that don't read the nonsense spread through what's called social media. Secondly, it detracts from the very serious concerns our country is faced with and he should be addressing truthfully.
Where will the News Tribune draw the line? If you read their Core Values on page two, you'll see that the line has already been crossed. The congressman has proven to me that he doesn't work for Missouri constituents, he works for the other millionaires and follows the orders given to him by his leader, Rep. Kevin McCarthy.