Truth in Reporting

Alaska reporter Craig Medred's had a bit of trouble with errors in reporting in the past. You may recall that several months ago Bob and Mark (of KWHL in Anchorage, Alaska) called him out for his erroneous reporting and attempt to create a controversy out of Todd Palin's participation in the Armed Services Combat Fishing Tournament:



Now, Jeff Smith, author of Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel, is a bit annoyed with Medred. You may recall that Governor Palin mentioned a man named "Soapy" Smith in her book as part of a larger passage about the history of Alaska and some of its characters. The paragraph in Going Rogue that mentions "Soapy" says:

After his adventures in Tombstone, the legendary lawman Wyatt Earp came north and spent a few years in Nome during the gold rush. On the other side of the law was "Soapy" Smith, a Wild West crime boss whose tight-knit gang moved from Colorado to Skagway. They made a mint cheating gold miners out of their cash. It finally caught up with Soapy Smith: he was killed in a shoot-out with a vigilante gang.

As part of a larger piece at Alaska Dispatch, Medred fact checked this paragraph. In this check, Medred said that the historical record states that "Soapy" was not killed in a shoot-out with a gang, but was instead killed in a scuffle that turned into a gunfight with a man named Frank Reid. Reid, he said, shot "Soapy". Among others, he cited a passage from Jeff Smith's book to bolster this version of events. According to Smith, however, Medred was off base.

Smith said (addressing Medred):

My name is Jeff Smith, author of Alias Soapy Smith: The life and Death of a Scoundrel and the website Alias Soapy Smith. It is important to me that people know that you took the facts from my book and my website completely out of context and horribly and incorrectly stated my conclusions about the Shootout on Juneau Wharf in which my great-grandfather, Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith was killed. I can only surmise that you either did not read the book and/or website or that you intentionally left out major important portions of one or both in order to show that Sarah Palin was incorrect in her statements on page 13 regarding Soapy Smith's fight with vigilantes.

Had you read the book and/or my website you would have clearly noted in my book (pages 532-580) and on my website (HERE) that Frank Reid was NOT the man who killed my great grandfather, and that in fact, another member of the vigilante guards present joined in the fight and wrestled Soapy's rifle away from him and turned it on an unarmed Soapy and shot him in the chest killing him instantly. Whether you agreed or disagreed with Soapy's ways is irrelevant to the fact that Soapy was shot while wounded and unarmed, which in most civilized communities is murder. The vigilantes hid this fact from the courts in order to save their own new found power.

Smith attempted to get a correction from Medred who eventually rewrote the article, removing the citation for Smith's book. Medred also issued a clarification citing Catherine Holder Spudes. Smith isn't particularly impressed with Medred's clarification:

Mr. Medred's "clarification" is filled with errors but truth in history is not his goal. Disproving Sarah Palin's book is his goal.