MPR: Carrying Water For The Greens?

Federal authorities raided the home/campaign headquarters of Minneapolis City Councilman Dean Zimmerman yesterday:

FBI agents spent about three hours going through Zimmermann's home, which is also his campaign headquarters. Zimmermann did not comment to reporters. Lauren Maker, campaign coordinator for the Green Party member, says agents showed up at Zimmermann's house with a search warrant and a sealed affidavit.

Zimmerman's supporters and shocked, shocked I tell you:

Green Party mayoral candidate Farheen Hakeem said she dropped by Zimmermann's home to give him moral support. She said Zimmermann sat at his dinner table and said little.

"He looked like as if a train just hit him and he looked like he was in shock. For me, I'm very much in shock because he's the nicest guy ever. He would never hurt a fly. So many people in the community who have known him for years just love him," she said.

But - and this is the vaguely-interesting part - they not only spoke with a Zimmerman neighbor:

Neighbor Nancy Stevens stood by and watched as reporters and others staked out Zimmermann's home. She says she can't believe that Zimmermann would do anything illegal and questioned the timing of the search.

"I think they are some of the more straightforward, honest people -- direct people -- that you could ever meet. To me it seems very very odd that all of this coming down just days before the primary. I'm very suspicious as to what instigated this and who instigated this," she said.

They also showed, in the MPR web version of the story, a photo of Zimmerman spokesperson Lauren Maker:

So we get the self-serving claim of political motivation, specifically, in full and prominently-displayed on the site...

...while the reader is left to infer for him/herself that it's a federal investigation, and so probably (barring evidence to the contrary, and I've heard none yet) outside the scrum of Minneapolis city/DFL (pardon the redundancy) politics.

Good reporting?

I'm asking. I'm not sure, and I have my doubts.

Posted by Mitch at September 9, 2005 09:36 AM | TrackBack