Fake charges from GOP candidate Boughton, or real?

Everyone in the crowded field of Republicans vying for governor is looking for an edge and sometimes that throws them over the edge. The debate Thursday night at Mohegan Sun offered a good, if fleeting, example.

David Stemerman, the Greenwich hedge fund manager, touted what he called an “endorsement” of his very detailed economic plan by The Hartford Courant. Setting aside whether it was an endorsement, The Courant’s editorial did compliment Stemerman for producing a detailed prescription — and criticized Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton’s lack of details.

That led Boughton, the party endorsed candidate, to scoff.

“Let me just say, did I just hear you cite The Hartford Courant? I can’t believe we’re citing The Hartford Courant.”

Then, in what appeared to be a side remark that was apparently inaudible in the hall but loud and clear to those listening on the radio, Boughton sniffed, “fake news.”

Well then. That, of course, reflects the ubiquitous jab from President Donald Trump about the so-called mainstream media, which certainly includes The Courant. “The Hartford Courant upholds the highest standards of journalistic integrity as we provide vital and verified news to the people of Connecticut,” said Andrew S. Julien, the Courant’s Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, in an emailed response.

And it wasn’t the first time Boughton lobbed those words around a discussion with the media. On July 6, the mayor exchanged sharp words on Twitter with a reporter for the Danbury News-Times, part of the same Hearst Connecticut Media Group where you’re reading this very article.

A reader of the Twitter exchange tweeted that Boughton is “ready for a GOP nomination” now that he’s in a feud with the media, which started with a Hearst report on a rash of car burglaries that the public wasn’t warned about by the Danbury Police Department.

And Boughton tweeted, “Fake news” in response to that comment.

To my knowledge there have been no credible charges of falsfied or madeup news leveled at The Courant or Hearst any other traditional news outlet in Connecticut, as the traditional media holds to strict standards of accuracy.

Is Boughton trying to boost his pro-Trump creds? That was questioned long before Thursday’s debate, which was sponsored by CBS Radio 94.9 FM.

Does he really think the Courant and Hearst actually do deliver fake news?

None of the above, Boughton said Friday.

“This was just a humorous reference, trying to create a moment of levity in a tense situation,” he said, referring to the debate. “I certainly don’t doubt the veracity of the Hartford Courant, I don’t doubt the veracity of Hearst Media.”

If anything, he meant Stemerman’s claim that the Courant had endorsed his economic plan was fake news. And as for the exchange with the reporter, he said, “I didn’t see it as a feud, that’s all .... I should have been more clear.”

Indeed. The moral of this story is this: When we have a president who’s attacking the credibility of accurate news and inciting an illinformed public, denying bald facts to suit his own political ambitions, “fake news” is, let’s just say, a sensitive couple of words — even in a midsummer moment of lightness.

Maybe we could come up with another hilarious cudgel, like “voter fraud.”