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LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/taylor-batten/article102315532.html
With Hurricane HB2 blowing North Carolinas doors off, Gov. Pat McCrory took questions in Charlotte last week from himself.
McCrorys staff planted questions at a lunch event in SouthPark on Thursday with the crowd under the impression that they were coming from the media or the audience. The moderator, a volunteer from the lunch audience, introduced three questions by saying they were from the Charlotte Observer.
He apologized to me afterward, saying it was his understanding all the questions on one of his sheets were from the Observer. In fact, they were from the governors own staff, an event organizer said.
Speakers at Hood Hargett Breakfast Club events routinely take questions from the floor. McCrory required that all questions be submitted in advance in writing.
When the moderator asked how to get started, McCrory said, Anything you like. No filter here. Sure, who needs a filter when you posed the questions yourself?
When I tried to ask McCrory a question, the filter went up. Weve got three Observer questions answered already. I think you guys dominate the news enough.
Of course, those werent Observer questions. They were softballs from his staff about what he wanted to do with his next term; how he wanted to reduce the states rape kit backlog; and how the state crime lab performed under McCrorys opponent, Roy Cooper.
When the event was over, McCrory did not meet with the throng of reporters who were there. He ducked out a side door and down a hall that led to a back exit. I followed him to try to ask him about HB2, but his staff blocked me.
Ricky Diaz, a campaign spokesman, on Friday acknowledged the campaign provided questions for the governor, but said we were asked to in order to keep the conversation format going.
Jenn Snyder, executive director of the Hood Hargett Breakfast Club, said thats not true. She said she had expected the governor to take live questions from the audience but the campaign insisted on this other format and wanted to include questions of their own along with ones from the audience. All the questions were portrayed as coming from the audience and the Observer, and the crowd was never told that many of them actually came from McCrorys campaign.