Romney email omits Detroit News criticism

Touting an endorsement from The Detroit News, Mitt Romney's campaign sent out a press release announcing the news Wednesday morning.

But the e-mail skipped over a few key paragraphs in the editorial, namely sentences that offered criticism of the Republican presidential candidate.

While much of the article lauded Romney as the most experienced and electable candidate, the editorial board included a few points of contention:

"We disagree with Romney on a point vital to Michigan - his opposition to the bailout of the domestic automobile industry. Romney advocated for a more traditional bankruptcy process, while we believe the bridge loans provided by the federal government in the fall of 2008 were absolutely essential to the survival of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Corp."

But the editorial board went on to write that the issue "wasn't a differentiator in the GOP primary, since the entire field opposed the rescue effort."

The Romney press release, however, replaced that section with a simple:

"..."

Other paragraphs replaced with ellipses included the board's analysis on the volatile presidential race, naming several candidates "who have enjoyed a burst of popularity at Romney's expense." The article also mentioned that "very conservative Republicans have been lukewarm to Romney because of his history of more moderate positions on social issues."

That, too, was left out of the Romney email.

To be fair, the release omitted harsh criticism of his opponents, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, as well. The release also included a link to the full story at the top of the email.

The Detroit News' editorial page editor, Nolan Finley, said he contacted the Romney campaign after media reports highlighted the press release.

"We would prefer -- if they are going to excerpt pieces of the editorial and not the complete editorial -- that they would have indicated that they were excepts," he told CNN. "This was such a long cut and paste that I think it did create some confusion as to whether this was the whole editorial or not."

The Romney campaign told him they circulated excerpts, rather than the full text, because of copyright "legal concerns," Finley said, and he was assured a link to the full text did and would accompany any excerpts.

This isn't the first time Romney's campaign has carved out negative commentary when sending out newspaper endorsements (of which Romney has many). It left out similar critical passages in its release on The Des Moines Register endorsement in December, for example, as well as an editorial from The Tampa Bay Times in January.

While copyright laws may play a role in restricting the amount of material a campaign can legally disseminate, the email blasts leave out largely negative material. In the case of The Detroit News, the campaign skipped over the primary point of criticism on Romney's opposition of the auto bailouts, a big issue in Michigan.