Last week the Chronicle acquired a copy of an unsigned, seven-page memorandum directed to the Houston Chronicle, complaining of “egregious” errors supposedly contained in our Jan. 26 News feature, “No Real Alternative.”
The memo is printed on the letterhead of the Texas Pregnancy Care Network – the entity that administers the state’s newly created “Alternatives to Abortion” program. However, we have been told that it actually originated with the office of Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands – who authored the budget rider creating the abortion alternatives program – and that the document itself was actually created by Bryan Eppstein, of the GOP political consulting firm the Eppstein Group. We attempted to confirm the origin of the letter, but neither Eppstein, nor TPCN Executive Director Vincent Friedewald, nor Williams aide Jason Baxter returned numerous calls requesting comment on the document.
While the memo purports to correct the Chronicle‘s errors, none of those involved with the TPCN program nor its chief political supporters has ever contacted us regarding any error, sought any correction and/or retraction, or submitted a letter for publication.
In the sidebar below, we respond briefly to the eight main charges of “error” made by TPCN.
Download the original memo here.
This article appears in February 23 • 2007.