Continuing to Refute Misleading Statements: Correcting NBC5 Reporting
A letter written to Tyler Boronski, reporting for WPTZ NBC5 last night on the public presentation and accompanying protest held at UVM earlier:
Kwai Tyler,
I believe we met yesterday outside UVM's Davis Center at the protest gathering. I am Chair of the VT Commission on Native American Affairs and I need to request that you make a public correction of your reporting to keep the record straight.
In last night's newscast, your coverage of the protest and presentation at UVM regarding Vermont Abenaki identity repeated Professor Darryl Leroux's assertion that "...because the state did not require people to prove their genealogy, [he] felt it paved the way to false claims." This is also stated often by certain leaders of the Canadian Abenaki First Nations who are involved in this agenda of delegitimization of the Vermont tribes for their own political gain. The statement itself is false and this needs to be made clear.
The claim is demonstrably untrue, as well as being a classic example of the propaganda technique of a half-truth - a fallacious error used for the specific intention of manipulating the minds of people with false information or misleading claims. The statement has been refuted already, yet it continues to be repeated and this needs to stop. I would hope that WPTZ would not be guilty of the same pattern of parroting such assertions.
As you probably know, your colleagues at VT Public have recently been providing ample coverage of this politically-motivated campaign, often with a lack of investigative rigor, and repeating the same assertion. They have been confronted with the erroneous claims and have consequently made corrections and retractions. I would encourage you to do the same. This is but one of the many intentionally misleading falsehoods and aspersions that we now have to deconstruct, due to acceptance of claims made without any investigation of credibility.
See my post linked here, and VP reporter Elodie Reed's receptive correspondence in reply to my request for correction of the falsehoods. Please don't make the same mistakes.
https://www.atowi.org/blog/vermont-public-continues-to-mislead
From Elodie Reed [VP] to me
Hi Rich,
Following our exchange last week, my editors and I felt our story should be corrected to more accurately reflect state-recognized tribes' response to scrutiny of the state recognition process and whether they have demonstrated their Abenaki ancestry, including the context re: genealogical documentation cited in state recognition applications. We've updated our web story and the audio posted there, and we're working to roll out the new audio to the other platforms where the story is posted. I appreciate you writing with your feedback, that is often how we catch things we've missed.
All best,
Elodie