This morning’s Coeur d’Alene Press printed a letter to the editor by Eden Irgens.

Her letter is useful to show how disinformation (also called black propaganda) works.  Disinformation has likely been employed by various governments for as long as governments have known deception is a useful way to influence people.  The key to the success of a disinformation operation is that almost all of the information must be correct and reasonably easily verifiable so that it can withstand casual scrutiny.   The hope, of course, is that the kernel of deception will be missed and then accepted as factual as readily as the accurate information. 

Irgens’ attempt at disinformation in her letter this morning uses two common techniques,  vague association and selective context,  to lead readers to her desired conclusion.

Dan Gookin,  Mary Souza, and I started OpenCdA in 2008 to provide information and a forum for discussing it.  Each time Dan filed to run for public office, he suspended regular posting (as distinguished from commenting) on OpenCdA.  Some of his posts still remain, and he still helps Mary and me wade through the technobabble documentation of WordPress to keep the OpenCdA website operating.  He also occasionally comments on posts Mary and I put up on OpenCdA.  Readers can decide for yourself if, as Irgens asserts, Dan is a member of the team which she alleges initiated the recall.

Readers can also decide if her use of the word “initiated” is accurate or misleading.  She has used it broadly, so it could also be applied to the framers of the Idaho Constitution who provided specifically for recalls in the Idaho Constitution, Article VI, Section 6, and to the Idaho Legislature who provided statutory authority and procedures for recall proceedings in Idaho Code, Title 34, Chapter 17.

Irgens also extracted part of one of Dan’s comments from an OpenCdA post.  While her letter provided a hyperlink to OpenCdA, it did not link to the specific post which contained Dan’s comment she quoted incompletely.  Thus, she left the reader to sift through many comments to many posts to try and find the context of the comment she used.  My belief is that she was counting on very few readers being willing to make that much effort.

So readers can more easily evaluate Irgens’ letter for yourselves, here is a link to the original post titled “Eagle Gets It!”  Readers can see that the post reported how the Idaho city of Eagle had ousted its unelected urban renewal commissioners and had replaced them with the City Council.   Here is Dan’s comment, in total:

Readers can decide for yourselves if Coeur d’Alene City Councilman Dan Gookin has remained neutral in performing his City Council duties while the recall effort proceeds.   Whatever standards of neutrality in official performance are to be applied, they must surely be applied to all public officials and public employees who comment and participate in it.

Addendum at 12:45 p.m.:  I contacted Dan Gookin and asked for his permission to post a complete version of his response to Eden Irgens’ inquiry to him.  Here is his complete reply to her:

From: GOOKIN, DAN
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2012 1:28 PM
To: ‘Eden Irgens’
Cc: GABRIEL, WENDY; WEATHERS, SUSAN
Subject: RE: Request

Thank you for writing, Ms. Irgens.

I understand your concern for the community. I am deeply troubled by what’s going on, but I have chosen to stay out of the recall process. It’s being initiated by citizens, and is not officially City government business. Though some of those citizens are my friends, I have refrained from involvement and have no control over what they do or say. I believe it’s best not to take sides, though I am constantly asked to do so. I don’t see how taking one side or the other can help unite our community, which is what’s needed now.

The $40M price tag comes from the McEuen Master Plan, which is available online at http://mceuenpark.com If you click the Master Plan link, the last page in the PDF lists approximately $40M worth of improvements, both specific and ala carte, which the council adopted on May 24, 2011. That document stands as the council-approved plan and cost estimate for the Park revitalization.

The $14M figure is regards to the funding for Phase I of the park. The council approved that funding amount last month.

I appreciate that you’ve taken the time to ask these questions and get the answers, and it means a lot to me that you’ve written to express your concerns. I value that.

Thank you for your time, and for your interest in City government.

Best,
DAN