You know what erodes the public’s trust? #FakeNews.

You know which side of the political aisle it gets generated on?

Yeah….

I was typing away doing my actual job this afternoon, trying to arrange actual facts in a news story discerning readers might or might not end up drawing some conclusions about when a tweet caught my eye. Sent out by A Better Minnesota, it concerned today’s not-very-surprising, blast-from-the-past entrant into the state’s gubernatorial race, Tim Pawlenty, and K-12 education.

“As #mngov, @TimPawlenty short changed out kids by ‘borrowing’ $2 billion dollars in funding from schools to cover up his $6.2 billion budget deficit, leading to thousands of teacher layoffs,” it said. “We need a gov that values our children’s future. #MeetPawlenty.”

There was a link, and a graphic that said, “Tim Pawlenty laid off thousands of teachers, MinnPost, 8.27.10.”

I finished my actual work before I called my personal archival droid up from the basement to request some intel. Teacher layoffs and ed finance was my MinnPost beat, circa 2010, and I was pretty sure I never typed those words.

I mean, I remember layoffs and I remember lots of things Pawlenty did in his first stint in the governor’s mansion that can fairly be classified as bad for schools. And I remember a recession that was bad for schools, families and pretty much everyone else.

But the tweet as written? No. Continue reading →

Did anybody else do a spit-take upon seeing the tweet Saturday announcing Rebecca Gagnon’s decision to run for a third term on the Minneapolis School Board?

Below a single sentence saying her candidacy was official, Gagnon posted a large blue block highlighting a quote from Sen. Jeff Hayden, a Minneapolis DFLer, endorsing her as “a trusted public servant, well equipped to face tough challenges and passionate about public education who will fight for our students and schools.”

Directly above the tweet is a photo of Gagnon with longtime Minneapolis Public Schools critic Al Flowers. A screenshot is above.

I realize ours is not a culture of long memories, particularly in politics, but this merits a short trip in the not-so-wayback machine. To keep it short, there are links peppered herein for anyone who wants a more detailed reconstruction. Continue reading →