Fakin' It

Thursday’s Chronicle features a story on a pair of local entrepreneurs who purchased degrees online from a diploma mill near Spokane. 

One of those individuals, Ervin Kraemer, was the focus of a story I wrote almost a year ago (the other was his daughter, Chelsea). His company, Northwest Aquifer Surveying, Inc., was ordered to pay $481,000 out to a number of franchisees who sued because, in short, their stuff didn’t work. It’d be a little bit like starting a McDonald’s and finding that your Big Macs tasted like recycled Purina. 

A week and a half after I wrote the original story about the Kraemers and their franchising escapades, the Lewis County News (the LC’s Number Two Source for Printed News ... or maybe number three, depending on how often you read the East Lewis County Journal, or Toilet Talk on the walls of the Centralia College bathrooms) wrote their own story on the issue. 

Their story/editorial called into question the reporting practices of yours truly, criticizing the fact that we had no quotes from the Kraemers in the story. 

Wrote the LCN: “The story which broke two weeks ago contained little more information than what was sent to the local daily paper in a press release. The standard line of “could not be reached for comment” was included, but Christine and husband Ervin say they were not given time to respond.”

I made the calls, left the messages, and waited an extra day for a response. I even stopped by the company’s Pearl Street address and knocked on the door. 

This was after, of course, the editor of the fine weekly paper called me to ask for a copy of the original news release from Howard Morrill. Like a fool, I faxed it over, believing the whole honor-among-journalists thing. 

Fast-forward a week and a half, and the LCN runs their anti-Chronicle, pro-questionable-local-business piece. Ironically, the “story” raked me over the coals for not contacting the Kraemers, all the while spelling their last names wrong, without bothering to call and ask me how I wrote it. 

The piece was cleverly titled “National Water invites public to dig deeper.” Get it, dig? They’re a groundwater company?

The subhead could have been, “but not too deep, lest they come across some fake diplomas.”

I stewed for a few days and forgot about the matter. After all, at a daily paper, we’ve got a lot of pages to fill. 

Fast-forward another year, and the Kraemer name again pops onto the front pages for the diploma mill incident. A few days later, a “new member” named “Wow!” pops up on the Lewis County Buzz, leaves a ton of comments on the original fake diploma story, and fires up a new Buzz thread about our “biased” reporting. 

Here’s a few samples: 

“Most damningly, The Chronicle immediately published this one-sided story without investigating and making readers aware of exactly what the claims of the disgruntled franchisees were.”

We didn’t? Really?

“Pike and the Keatings tested the equipment in a scenario where they knew there was water below the ground, only to find results claiming the opposite. In another case the readings said that a significant water source was available but, upon drilling, no water turned up.” (The Chronicle, Aug. 2, 2007)

Another comment by Wow! on the fake diploma story:

“1) easily-obtained records of the arbitration clearly show (and this is undisputed by both sides) that the claim was made by franchisees that often the equipment used was MORE accurate than the statistics provided by NWAS prior to a franchise sale.”

This doesn’t make much sense to me. How could they win an arbitration in which the plaintiffs agree that what they purchased worked better than expected?

More from the actual 2007 story: ‘“What we bought was under the assumption that this works 70 to 80-plus percent of the time,” Pike (a franchise purchaser) said. “Come to find out we were way off, it’d be 50 percent if we were lucky.”’

Also from Wow!: “I am in no way related to or financially connected to the parties mentioned in this case, I am just interested in the facts (and have had to research them for myself with all concerned parties thanks to The Chronicle’s laziness or outright libel).”

Not related? You, sir or madame, have done a fair amount of homework over the last 24 hours (and have excellent timing, creating an account the day after the story broke; and a marked hatred for The Chronicle) to not be related in any way, shape or form to this story. 

And libel? Really? Funny, that was mentioned in LCN’s story, too. Definition: anything that is defamatory or that maliciously or damagingly misrepresents. Now, as I understand it, a defamatory statement is something false. Once again, nothing written in any of the stories published on this matter has been proven false. Maybe Wow! didn’t study hard enough for his (or her) online diploma. 

That story, however, is in the past. The new frontier for the Kraemers (or, if you’re the LCN, “Kramers”) is this little “fake diploma” incident. More replies to the latest story (“Fake Diplomas Irk Former Customers of Local Business”) are credited to the real Ervin and Christine Kraemer, and listed after the story. 

Among the latest batch of claims: 

- NWAS was NOT passed on to the Kraemers’ daughter, Chelsea; it was legally dissolved, and the leftover assets were sold to her. 

- “We used the monies gleaned from the asset sale to pay off local venders and debt of NWAS- all of which we can prove with receipts.” That’s odd. The story listed above their comment says, “He said he doesn’t have the money to comply with the order to pay the $481,000 settlement, and that he has no plans to do so. He said the former franchisees are conspiring against him.” Now, I’m no genius, but if you’d paid ANYTHING back, don’t you think you’d tell the reporter about it?

- “Dan Scheiber twisted and skewed Mr. Kraemer’s response to the false allegations and neglected once again to print truth.” Now, I give ol’ Donny Scribble as much crap as anyone (as I write this Eric Schwartz is complaining about how Scribble never writes up his own Lewis County Commission agendas), but what does he have to gain by writing up a story full of lies about the Kraemers? I listened to him as he was on the phone with Ervin Kraemer and, I’m not making this up, he actually told Ervin “The truth will set you free!” as he was asking about the diploma/degree. 

Here’s a few quick facts: 

1. NWAS lost in a $481,000 arbitration hearing. An impartial entity awarded the money to the franchisees. I wasn’t at the hearing, and I’m not a geologist or hydrologist (although, apparently, with a few dollars, five minutes and a DSL connection I could be), but on my best day I couldn’t spin that to look good. 

2. Ervin and Chelsea Kraemer purchased degrees/diplomas from what proved to be an online diploma mill. The Spokesman-Review reported that, not us. We localized the story. If it would have been about any other business owner, public figure, criminal or citizen, we also would have reported it. If my name would have been on the list, I’d imagine a story of some kind would have been written (maybe even by me!).  

(Editor’s note: Confirmed. There would have been a story written about (Aaron), bringing eternal shame to Adna and environs.)

We wrote a truthful story about a business losing an arbitration case and a follow-up, a year later, about the diplomas. We didn’t write an attack piece. Contrary to the Kraemers’ beliefs, we don’t set out every afternoon to ruin a business with the goal of selling more papers. If we wanted to do that we’d burn down churches (possibly with people inside); the art is far more impressive and, as the old saying goes, if it bleeds it leads.