This is Ed Yoon, Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund's CO/NM Campaign Manager. 

I read your Politicker article from Tuesday, 7/8 titled "Musgrave criticizes Markey for silence on attack ad" and felt that your reporting statement below to warrant a second look and to request an immediate opportunity for our campaign to rebut the Musgrave campaign's silly but expected reaction to the factually correct claims made on our ad:   "Subsequent media analyses of the ad by CBS4 and 9News – as the Musgrave campaign pointed out – deemed many of the allegations made in the ad to be false or misleading.."  

The "media analyses of the ad" you mention were the culprits of at best misleading, and false, reporting.  

Case in point below: CBS4's Raj Chohan's unfairly editorialized "reporting" on the story called "Reality Check: Ad Against Musgrave 'Big On Spin'" (7/2/2008), in which he claims:

"Bottom line, while Musgrave's critics can find plenty of legitimate policy differences to attack in her voting record, Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund chooses instead to build its ad around a shameless accusation of corruption unsupported by the facts."  

Chohan commits several cardinal sins of honest reporting:  

1. Chohan puts his own spin on the "reporting" by opining about his feelings about the ads rather than sticking to reporting the facts. 

"Shameless accusation?"  Give me a break.  He's no journalist - he's putting his own partisan spin to the reporting.  

2. Chohan claims in his spin that the ads are "unsupported by the facts".  That is entirely untrue.  

First, the ad correctly cites the independent government watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, as having named Marilyn Musgrave as "One of the Most Corrupt Members of Congress".  In fact, she was named "One of the 13 Most Corrupt" by the group for her series of unethical behaviors. 

What Chohan cites off of Greeley Times as having found one of such numerous ethics violation allegations to be supposedly dispproved by that paper is at best limited reporting on his part that fails to mention her other misdeeds that led to her corrupt label by CREW; or worse, his overzealous partisan cover for Musgrave.  Go to www.citizensforethics.org for more info on Musgrave's other misdeeds that Chohan conveniently fails to mention.  There's plenty there if you search the site for "Musgrave".

Secondly, the ad's claim that Musgrave took over $165,000 in campaign cash from big oil is true, and even Chohan does not dispute that in his opinionated report.   Thirdly, the ad's third and final claim that she voted against raising fuel mileage standards that could save Colorado families almost $1,900 a year is also true.

Chohan admits to the fact that Musgrave voted against such measures in 2005 and 2007 that would have mandated more fuel efficient cars.  While he notes that Musgrave did vote for "a compromise bill on fuel efficiency standards on a slower timeline and with more loopholes than some competing measures", that is equivalent to saying that Musgrave voted for a worse bill than others. 

More loopholes?  Slower timeline?  Colorado families deserve better than Musgrave who did not have the foresight nor courage to vote for better, stronger bills.  

3. I think that if you are writing a story involving what our campaign did, it's only fair that you also contact us for comment or rebuttal. 

In this case, I think it's only fair that Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund has an opportunity to rebut the Musgrave campaign's silly and outlandish reaction to a correctly cited ad that we ran about her record of unethical behaviors and her support for billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil companies and siding with them to oppose to stronger fuel efficiency standards while taking over $165,000 from them.  It's disappointing that we weren't given that opportunity for rebuttal, and I would sincerely like to request that we get it to provide a balanced perspective.  

Jeremy - As our ad correctly cites, we stand by the fact that Rep. Musgrave was named "One of the Most Corrupt Members of Congress" by an independent government watchdog group who took over $165,000 from Big Oil and voted against raising fuel mileage standards that could save Colorado families almost $1,900 a year in gas.