Awaiting a Retraction and Apology from Rob Eno Any Day Now (UPDATED: Rob Eno Retraction-FAIL)

[UPDATE added following screencaps below]

I don’t know if Rob Eno, the proprietor of right-wing propaganda blog Red Mass Group, considers himself a journalist in any capacity.  In fact, I don’t know Mr. Eno personally.  I have never met him in person.  However, I do know for a fact that he peddles easily disprovable lies.

This afternoon, Mr. Eno posted a steaming pile of lies at Red Mass Group, entitled “ProgressMass Sister Organization Allegedly Involved In Illegal Bugging.”  (A screen cap of the dishonest post is below if you can’t bring yourself to actually visit Red Mass Group.)  The title and content of Mr. Eno’s post is completely dishonest.  (He also tweeted similarly dishonest content.  Screen cap below, as well.)  I expect him, if he has a shred of integrity to his name, to post a full retraction of his recent post noting his failure to report actually true information, as well as an apology both to his readers for misleading them and to the general public for peddling easily disprovable lies.

In both the title of his post and the body of his post, Mr. Eno refers to Progress Kentucky as a “sister organization” of ProgressMass.  That is a lie.  100%.  Completely.  Untrue.  ProgressMass had and has zero relationship whatsoever with Progress Kentucky.  Additionally, ProgressNow, the national organization of which ProgressMass is a state partner, had and has zero relationship whatsoever with Progress Kentucky.  ProgressNow made that clear to the media:

And while the names sound similar, the group is not affiliated with ProgressNow, the network of state-based progressive activist groups. “ProgressNow does not have a Kentucky chapter, nor are we affiliated with ProgressKY,” Denise Cardinal, executive director of ProgressNow, said in an email this afternoon.

As far as I can tell, Mr. Eno made no discernible effort to contact or get comment from me or anyone else affiliated with ProgressMass or ProgressNow who could set him straight before he spewed his complete falsehood.  For this falsehood alone – dishonestly suggesting any relationship whatsoever between Progress Kentucky and ProgressMass or ProgressNow – I expect Mr. Eno to offer a full retraction and apology.

Seriously, did he think that just because the word “Progress” appears in both organizations’ names, they’re automatically related?  Will Mr. Eno next indict the New Deal-era Works Progress Administration or, perhaps, Progressive Insurance?

Other less urgent falsehoods also appear in Mr. Eno’s dishonest post.  Mr. Eno wrongly claims that ProgressMass hasn’t “done anything in Massachusetts since the election.”  That is false.  A very simple visit to ProgressMass.org would have informed him of ProgressMass’ involvement with The Action, post-election in November and December, on efforts to protect middle class tax cuts and to encourage letting the Bush tax cuts expire for the top 2%.  The press release entitled “Massachusetts Activists Join National Day of Action: Middle Class Over Millionaires” dated December 1, 2012, should have been a tip-off.  One can also view video footage of the event, courtesy of ProgressMass’ YouTube account.

Mr. Eno’s dishonest post also includes some ad hominem junk about George Soros and being Colorado-based, which I won’t bother to dignify; it’s stock right-wing silliness.  However, I will note that, even in discussing Progress Kentucky’s activities, Mr. Eno employed very selective and partisan “reporting.”  He highlighted questions about the legality of Progress Kentucky’s activity while ignoring just as prominent questions about the legality of Republican Senator Mitch McConnell’s activities:

CREW Files FBI and Ethics Complaints Against Sen. McConnell for Misusing Official Staff for Campaign

Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked the FBI and the Senate Select Committee on Ethics to investigate whether Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) violated federal law and Senate rules by misusing Senate staff or resources to conduct opposition research on potential campaign opponents.

Mr. Eno concludes his dishonest screed with the apparently falsely indignant line, “The left folks will stop at nothing to achieve power. Even illegal activities.”  I’m not sure the full scope of those to whom Mr. Eno is referring when he bemoans “the left folks,” but it looks like his own political party’s Senator McConnell is going to some legally-questionable lengths to achieve and maintain power in the situation to which Mr. Eno is attempting to draw attention.  And Mr. Eno himself is going to rather dishonest lengths himself with the several lies contained in his post.

Oh, and since I have no interest whatsoever in personally contacting Mr. Eno, given his politically manipulative lapses in honesty, if someone wanted to e-mail him or tweet him the link to this post, you’d have my gratitude.

UPDATE: Mr. Eno has gone to comical lengths to save face with his Red Mass Group readers.  He has edited his original post to include this correction (screen cap of his now-edited post below):

Correction:Title updated to reflect apparent fact that Progress Kentucky is not affiliated directly with ProgressNow the parent of Progress Mass.  Other members of the Soros Network, Mother Jones and a legal fund have been involved with Progress Kentucky.  I’m leaving the original post up with strikeouts on untrue portions.

Mr. Eno shamefully continues to rely on innuendo to save face, using phrases like “apparent fact” and “not affiliated directly,” leaving some wiggle room as though there may be an “indirect” affiliation, which is still completely dishonest on his part.  There is zero affiliation between Progress Kentucky and either ProgressMass or ProgressNow.  Mr. Eno fails to make that crystal clear in his “correction,” again shamefully on his part.  Until he makes it crystal clear that there is zero affiliation between Progress Kentucky and either ProgressMass or ProgressNow and until he apologizes on Red Mass Group for his lack of diligence before reporting easily disprovable falsehoods, I don’t consider his “correction” a retraction or apology.  Further, given that there is zero affiliation between Progress Kentucky and ProgressMass, there is no reason to even mention ProgressMass in a post about Progress Kentucky’s dealings with Mitch McConnell, but Mr. Eno doesn’t let that get in the way of a dishonest, innuendo-based smear campaign.

To gauge Mr. Eno’s integrity with his Red Mass Group readers, compare his attempted face-saving “correction” on the Red Mass Group post with the e-mail he sent to Blue Mass Group’s david, which includes the following passage:

Mr. Helman, I am sorry for looping you in with the Progress Kentucky mess. It was my understanding that ProgressNow was in the process of founding state based chapters across the nation. I made an assumption, I should not have made that ProgressNow, the parent organization of ProgressMass, was involved with Progress Kentucky.

It would be swell if Mr. Eno demonstrated even that basic level of compelled contrition on the actual post, acknowledging his failure to perform due diligence before “reporting” easily disprovable misinformation, along with the crystal clear statement that there is zero affiliation between Progress Kentucky and either ProgressMass or ProgressNow, so that his readers could see that for themselves.

Also, it should be noted that Mr. Eno’s dishonest tweet (screen capped above) remains on his Twitter account without deletion or a correction via follow-up tweet.  However, untouched is the line in his post where Mr. Eno bemoans certain folks that will “stop at nothing.”  Ironic, huh?  In short: retraction FAIL.