WGBA -Heather Blish Letter

Heather Blish Letter

In many ways, this has been the worst week of my life.

It all began last Thursday. I logged in to Facebook and saw that a friend of mine planned to attend a listening session held by my congressman just a few blocks from my home. Although I'd been aware that Congressman Kagen had been holding sessions across the district all week, I'd had no idea that he was going to be holding one in my home town. I struggled with the decision to attend the meeting and lose several hours of valuable time, but there was never really a choice. I've always been politically active, I had many legitimate concerns about the healthcare proposal being debated, and I knew that if I didn't attend this meeting, I would have no right to complain if the bill passed into law. I spent an hour or so researching the bill online, downloaded a copy, read several pages of it, and asked my dad (also one of Congressman Kagen's constituents) to print up a list of facts about the bill that concerned me, along with accompanying page numbers. I wanted enough copies to share with other constituents at the event so that they could see in writing the issues that concerned me. He agreed to do so, and to attend the event with me.

He met me at my house and we walked the three blocks to the elementary school gymnasium where the congressman was holding the listening session. When we arrived, we began handing out copies of the fact sheet. We were quickly approached by a local Fox affiliate news crew, who requested an interview. I'm a very private person who avoids the spotlight, so I allowed my father to speak to them. Once inside, we handed out more copies of our fact sheet. Almost instantly, a well-dressed woman asked for a copy. We gave it to her and moved on. Within minutes she had approached us, identified herself as a member of the Fox news crew and asked me if I would be willing to do an interview.

I told her that we had already spoken with her crew outside, and declined her request apologetically. I engaged another constituent in a debate while we waited for the congressman to arrive. It quickly grew heated as it became evident that we both were on opposite sides of the fence and that nothing would convince either of us to change our minds, so I moved on. Again, the well-dressed woman approached me, asking again for an interview. Her persistence almost convinced me to agree, but I decided that I really just wanted to talk to my congressman, so I again declined. My father, standing nearby, encouraged me to go forward with it, so I grudgingly agreed.

She started taking my information, asked if I was with any political party, and I told her I wasn't. Although I'd served as an officer with the local county Republican party for 6 years, I had resigned and left the party, and had not been involved for quite a while.

The woman explained that I'd be interviewed live after the event, and during the course of the conversation I realized that she was not with the local Fox affiliate, but with the Fox News Channel, and that the live interview would be with Neil Cavuto. That was more than enough excitement for me, but I had already agreed to do the interview, so I gave her my cell phone number and moved on. I spotted Kewaunee County Sheriff Matt Joski, a Republican and a friend who I had helped campaign for

in 2007 when I was a volunteer with the Republican Party. We chatted for a while. My friend from Facebook (Andy Williams) arrived, I recognized him from his picture (I had just added him to my friends list the day before, and knew only that he was a fellow conservative), introduced myself, and we struck up a conversation. A reporter walked up to Williams, asked him if he was with the congressman (he was one of the few people in the room wearing a suit); Williams informed him that he was the congressman's opponent, which was a surprise to me. I'd had no idea Williams was running for Congress.

The congressman arrived, gave a brief speech, and began taking questions from the audience (a relatively small, quiet group compared to the previous sessions I'd heard about on the news). It quickly became clear that he was not there to answer any questions; he was dodging them, changing the subject, and reciting lines that sounded as though he was reading from a playbook. After about an hour of this, I became increasingly more frustrated. A student of economics, I felt that the basic principles that govern the free market were being ignored, so I raised my hand, shaking from an innate fear of public speaking.

The congressman passed me the mic, I introduced myself as "just a mom from down the street" "with no political affiliation" (words that would later haunt me) and I delivered an impassioned lecture to the congressman and the audience on basic economics and why more government regulations will cause healthcare prices to increase, not decrease. I'd had no idea what I was going to say when had I arrived that morning; I was truly speaking from my heart. I received rousing applause from the audience when I handed the mic back to the congressman, and still shaking, I moved back to stand next to Williams. A member of the congressman's staff approached me and requested my name. Having nothing to hide, I gave it to him. By this time, my kids were getting restless and the session showed no sign of ending.

I started to round them up, and went to find the FNC reporter who had approached me about an interview. I found her, but as I walked toward her a news crew from the local NBC affiliate approached me and requested an interview. I refused; the station has a reputation for tabloid journalism and I wanted nothing to do with them. I noticed that they were running their camera, but thought nothing of it. The woman from FNC told me that one of her crew members had found information online linking me to the Republican Party.

I had no idea what she was talking about, since I'm not in the habit of Googling my name. While trying to identify the source of her information, I adamantly denied any association with the party, assuring her that I had not even paid my dues for 2 years. Rather shortly, she informed me that the interview would not be taking place, as the session had run longer than they had anticipated (I later suspected that based on the information her crew had found online, she had determined that I was too much of a liability and had canceled the interview, but that's pure speculation). I told her that was fine and turned to head home, but again the NBC news crew requested an interview.

Again, I refused. Shoving the mic and camera into my face, the reporter began to badger me, asking if anyone had influence me to be there. Annoyed, I said no, and explained that I had only just learned about it this morning on Facebook. He looked cynical, and repeated the question, suggesting that because I was so well-informed, I must have been influenced by somebody to be there. I quickly took offense to that, and when he asked me again, I angrily responded that average people were educating themselves about this bill and getting involved. Again, he asked the same question, and finally I looked straight at him and said flat out: "No, I was not influenced to be here. I am not a member of the Republican Party." I walked away, disgusted with what I perceived to be complete density on his part, gathered my children, and walked home.

As I began to process what had just happened, I realized that he was going to run the story portraying me as a Republican plant. When I got home, I got a note from Andy Williams, rehashing what had happened after I left. Evidently, the NBC reporter and his cameraman singled out Williams because I had been standing with him for most of the event. Informing Williams that I was a liar, and that the Kewaunee County Sheriff had said so (I haven't spoken to Joski since the event; I can only imagine that the reporter must have singled him out as well, and Joski must have confirmed that I had at one time been involved with the Republican Party. Joski himself was never very involved with the party, and may not have been aware of my resignation).

He then asked Williams if I worked on his staff. Williams denied the accusation, informing the reporter that we had just met. The reporter then accused Williams of lying, and asked if he could keep the footage of the conversation in case it came out later that I did work for him. Furious, I fired off an email, chewing the reporter out for accusing me of lying, and suggesting that he get his facts straight. His response: "I understand your frustration, but after a little digging it shows something different than what you told us. Your LinkedIn page shows you were the Vice Chair for the Republican Party of Kewaunee until February of 2008. You said you left the party two years ago.

The dates don't match up. Plus, here is a list, from your page of the groups you belong to/affiliated with: Heather Blish's [sic] Groups: Vice-chair, Republican Party of Kewaunee County, Executive Committee Member, 8th Congressional District Republican Party of Wisconsin, Member, Republican Party of Wisconsin, Republican National Committee If you are not affiliated with these groups anymore, why do you still have them on a current bio page?" For me, the response was simple. I was guilty of mistaking the timeline; I had said that I hadn't paid my dues for two years (probably an accurate statement; I likely paid my last dues to the party early in 2007, and would have been due to renew when I resigned in 2008). I had never meant to misrepresent the timeline; I had given my best guess under the circumstances, and to me the exact date was irrelevant.

As for my list of groups, LinkedIn is a business networking site. I work in the political marketing industry, so maintaining business connections with the groups that include potential clients makes sense. I wrote back, offering to produce the email of resignation with which I had ended my relationship with the party, as well as multiple witness inside and outside the party that would prove my statement, but I also asked him why I was "having to defend my independence? Even if I was associated with a larger organization, like ACORN for example, does that make my opinion somehow less valuable?" He didn't respond (I can only assume he already had the story he wanted, and was not interested in allowing the facts to get in the way.)

I contacted a friend in the local talk show industry, Jerry Bader, and notified him of the situation. He said he'd keep an eye out for the story. That evening, NBC 26 WGBA fully lived up to their reputation and ran an absolute hatch-piece on me ( ), playing portions of my conversation with the FNC reporter, one line of my conversation with the NBC reporter (never airing the actual question he had asked me, which would have made a difference), splashing screenshots of my LinkedIn page all over the place, and suggesting that I was a Republican plant and a liar. The other two stations who covered the event told a completely different story about the event itself, further illustrating the sensationalism of the NBC story (, . Stunned, I contacted Jerry Bader again, and he asked me to come on the air the next morning and defend myself.

On Friday morning, the Huffington Post had picked up the story, congratulating the NBC reporter for his stellar investigation skills (). I was appalled that this had gone national. I went on the Jerry Bader Show to defend myself, and by the end of his show, the local Fox affiliate had contacted me requesting a follow-up interview. Still so shaken up from my experience with the predatory NBC crew, I was not inclined to trust anyone in the media, but the one media member I did trust, Jerry Bader, advised me to do the interview. The Fox reporter was the polar opposite of the NBC reporter; courteous, considerate, and actually interested in the facts. She had actually made the effort to contact the Republican Party of Kewaunee County, who of course confirmed my claim that I was no longer involved, and had not been for some time.

By this time the hate mail had started. Multiple liberal blogs were linking to the Huffington Post article, and strangers who disagreed with me and had no other way to express it than to insult me personally began to find me in Facebook and send me messages. My employer was beginning to receive phone calls and emails from people demanding that I be fired for being a liar. Fortunately, I have a good relationship with my company, and my boss has a sense of humor. Shaken, I went to a friend's house to try and escape the whole thing. Once I was there, however, my boss informed me that the New York Times had contacted him requesting an interview.

Horrified by the national publicity and still shaken with my apparent inability to handle the situation with the NBC reporter, I refused. After several more attempts by the New York Times to reach me, they finally settled for interviewing my boss. That afternoon, a friend informed me that the story had made the front page of DIGG and Reddit, two popular social bookmarking sites. By this point, I was starting to panic. The hate mail was spiking, and people were on liberal message boards telling everyone to get all the information they could about me. Again, I turned to Bader. Stunned at the attention this was getting, he told me we had to fight back.

We decided to notify the conservative talkers across the state, as well as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, to see if we could get them to start defending me. By that evening, I had changed my mind. Exhausted and afraid for my family's safety, my husband and I agreed to just let it die. I asked Bader not to contact any other outlets, and he agreed. Late that night, MSNBC picked up the story. Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow both ran the NBC video, offering adulations to the NBC reporter for outing me ( ). The hate mail spiked again.

On Saturday, the New York Times interview ran as part of a bigger story about the town hall meetings across the county (). I was relieved to see that they had at least treated me fairly. Saturday evening, NBC 26 ran their second hatchet-piece on me, but this time the focus was on all the national attention and praise their reporter was receiving (I have not been able to find this video online). On Sunday, Bader got fed up with having to defend me to conservatives all weekend, and wrote an essay entitled "The Character Assassination of Heather Blish" (). The next morning, he read it on the air, chewing out any conservative who had bought the story, and the conservative bloggers in Wisconsin for ignoring the story completely. He followed up the essay by interviewing the NBC reporter live in Bader's studio, during which time the reporter refused to answer the yes or no question: "Knowing what you now know, do you still believe that Heather Blish lied?" The reporter was caught in several lies of his own; Williams called in to the show and confronted the reporter about calling me a liar; the reporter denied it. Williams challenged him to release the footage from their conversation and exonerate himself; he dodged the challenge.

Stunningly, the reporter admitted that he had gone to that event with instructions from his director not to report on the event, but to find Republican plants and expose them. He admitted on live radio that he had gone there with an agenda! (You can listen to the interview here: , linked under Jerry's photo and blog link) Monday night, NBC 26 ran its 3rd hatchet-piece on me, this time focusing on the Bader interview. They refused to retract their original story ( ). As of today, the hate mail continues. I have developed a strategy to deal with it; for every piece of hate mail I receive, I donate $1 to the Wisconsin Right to Life, which is fighting HR3200 for the culture of death it promotes. Bader is matching my donations, as are 5 other supporters. When notified of this, the some of the hate-mailers have chosen to respond with even more vitriol, ratcheting up yet another donation in their names (one gentleman in particular leads the count, with three donations in his name).

The publicity also continues; other reporters are finally getting wind of this and have been in contact with me. As I try to process what has happened to me over the last 6 days, I am still stunned by how big a story I became. I AM just a mom from a few blocks away, trying to raise my kids, earn a living, and stay informed. Why was I perceived as such a threat? The answer may lie in a statement the NBC reporter made in response to Bader's question: "Why did you single Heather out?" His response: "because Heather was the only one there who didn't have a question." Try to wrap your head around that. Because I did not line up with the rest of the sheep (my apologies to the rest of the citizens in attendance; I'm trying to net this out from the reporter's viewpoint), and write my question out on a little card (I did, btw, but they never used the cards), and because I had the presumption to confront my congressman (who still works for me whether I voted for him or not) and lecture him on basic economics, rather than meekly presenting a question for him to ignore, dodge, change the subject, and use as a launching pad for Democratic Talking Point #451, I chose instead to try and educate him and those in attendance on the basic principles that will spell doom for a government healthcare solution. And that is why he targeted me.

The Fox 11 reporter who interviewed me asked if I regret going. The answer was no. It still is. I did nothing wrong, but because I spoke out and they were looking for a villain, I paid a dear price for my Constitutional free speech rights. Every time I get another piece of hate mail, I start shaking. Every time I see another story about me online, I start shaking. My family has suffered psychologically; my husband and I still fear for our safety and the safety of our children. My work has suffered; aside from continued calls for my termination, it has been nearly impossible for me to work creatively with the constant distractions, and my productivity (and income) has been slashed to nearly nothing.

It's been difficult to sleep at night (I gave up at 1:30 this morning and got up to write all this down and get it out of my head). This has far from shut me down or intimidated me. Normally a very private person, I am also a fighter; when for some bizarre reason the left decided to attack and brutalize an insignificant woman from a tiny Wisconsin town, they opened a can they never anticipated, and I am now far more of a threat to their movement than I ever was before.

Along with the hate mail, I have received twice as much support, from both friends and strangers. Other moms who have been silent up until now are determined to be silent no longer. Complete strangers have pledged to donate money to the Wisconsin Right to Life for every piece of hate mail I receive. This story is not about me; it's about every American citizen, and their right to speak out against anything the government does, regardless of their affiliations past or present. It is a fundamental right, written into our Constitution, and if we forfeit that right, we will forfeit every other freedom we have.

Do not allow what is happening to me and other Americans all across the county right now to shut you down or intimidate you; stand up and fight for what you believe in, regardless of what side of the fence you're on. It's not un-American, it is the very essence of that makes us American!