Anatomy of a smear

What do you have in common with the rat I saw the other day, running under a trash bin behind a grocery store?

Well, my guess is that you like to eat, are capable of fear and at some point in your life have wanted sex. Think about that, and you understand the mentality of those who run much of the mass media.

Like rats, they aren't especially concerned with fairness, but are sometimes far more malicious. We had a nice example of that last week, when suddenly, stories surfaced saying that elderly, retiring Flint-area U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee was being accused of "improperly touching" a male teenage cousin almost a half-century ago.

WNEM-TV in Flint began heavily promoting their "exclusive I-team report" on this issue, which aired Nov. 21. What it turned out to be, however, was an outrageous hatchet job, in which their "six-month" investigation consisted mainly of an interview with the alleged victim, one Patrick Kildee. The station showed Patrick claiming that back in 1964, when he was 15, the future Democratic congressman "would take my little penis and start rubbing it. ... I had no understanding of what my penis was, other than for going to the bathroom."

Give me a break. That sounds like something a 4-year-old might say. Fifteen-year-old boys have been through puberty and most have been enthusiastically masturbating for years.

Patrick claimed that this ruined his life, and caused him to inflict many wounds on his own body. Eventually, he was diagnosed as a schizophrenic manic-depressive, according to WNEM. In a previously taped audio interview, Patrick's mother talked about her son's drug and alcohol abuse as well as his mental problems.

Why didn't he complain a long time ago? Well, he forgot. Years later, his "repressed memories" came out while in a state mental hospital.

Basically, then, we have the word of a schizophrenic against that of a man who has served in Congress since 1977, and about whom there has been no previous scandal.

The allegation wouldn't stand the test of reasonable evidence in any court, or journalism's two-source rule.  Oh, the Flint station had "other sources" — family members who said they believed what Patrick said. The congressman angrily denied all of it.

Kildee, 82, said this was the result of a failed blackmail attempt by the alleged victim's son in September, and that he had gone to the FBI about this. And while Dale Kildee announced last summer his decision to retire, there may be a political motive for smearing the family name: Dan Kildee, the former Genesee County treasurer, is running to succeed his uncle.

> Email Jack Lessenberry