1. George Soros does not fund Minnesota Monitor.

2. I did not write this story--Abdi Aynte did.

3. So...good job fact-checking, Mitch.

Yeah Mitch!

And "Why do you hate free speech?"

*spits more coffee through the nose onto the monitor*

Ahaha...dammit!

Hey, you guys should have a race!

I'll bet Mitch admits he got the name wrong of the person who wrote that POS story, before the POS story is retracted for lack of, you know, reality-basedness.

No correction necessary on our part:

http://www.alleghenyinstitute.org/reports/00_06.pdf

"The first charter school, which continues to operate in Saint Paul to this day, was started in Saint Paul by two public school teachers, both members of the teacher union, Milo Cutter and Terry Kraabel....The local board approved in April of 1992, the state board approved two months later, and on September 7, 1992, the City Academy opened its doors as the nation's first K-12 charter school."

Kirkpatrick, David W. "Charter Schools: an Irresistable Force?" Allegheny Institute Report #00-06, April 2000.

Er... Jeff

So on the one hand you have the actual ANNUAL REPORT ISSUED BY CITY ACADEMY, referring to ITSELF as a "high school.

And on the other hand you have some blurb from the Alegheny Institute (whatever that is) which says - in contradiction to City Academy's OWN ANNUAL REPORT - that CA is a K-12 school.

And you choose the later as proof that your guy was right? The Allegeny Institute somehow knows more about CA than CA itself does?

This is a great example of why, in a nutshell, your blogging shuld always be taken with absurdly large chunks of salt.

Once again, from CA's annual report, from the title page:

"City Academy HIGH SCHOOL
Annual Report"

From page 5 of same:

"The school’s target population is St. Paul youth who are seeking a small,
highly attentive, HIGH SCHOOL program."

From page 11 of same:

"While all staff are licensed and therefore considered “highly qualified” under state law in
individual content areas, our status as a small HIGH SCHOOL with an interdisciplinary delivery style requires that each staff person expand their expertise to more than one area."

Emphasis mine. .pdf here:

http://www.cityacademy.org/Documents/CityAcademyAnnualReport0405.pdf

I could go on.

Jeff Fecke,

City Academy may be even older than 1992. There's a wino that lives just down the block who says he went to the City Academy charter school in 1969 to study karate with Bruce Lee, and it was a K-12 school.... So you've got even more evidence, of equal quality.

Well, if the Allegheny Institute says it, it must be true! Or at least, true enough to bonk Bachmann over the head with.

Jeff.Fecke.JustGotOwned.com

"George Soros does not fund Minnesota Monitor."

Minnesota Monitor is run by "Fellows" paid by the "Center for Independent Media". If I'm not mistaken, all of the "fellows" make somewhere in low four-digits per month, no?

CIM shares offices with Media Matters - I called MM myself to confirm this. Media Matters is, of course, a George Soros joint.

The money that goes to the "Fellowships" comes from the same place CIM's and MM's money comes from.

Still wanna stick with that story, Jeff?

"So...good job fact-checking, Mitch."

Well, we all make our mistakes. Unlike MNMon, I've corrected mine.

And I don't even have a written code of ethics, much less a paycheck to show for it!

If I was Fecke I'd be more concerned about my association through MM with Oliver Willis than with George Soros.

sigh.

I love the way this works. Mitch writes something factually incorrect. Michael picks it up and calls it fact and embellishes. Mitch then grabs it back and says, Michael says it's fact, so it's fact.

I'm sure you did call Media Matters. And I'm sure they did say that CIM shares office space with them. Because CIM pays them money to rent a space in the office. As Michael intrepidly discovered two weeks ago.

Other than the fact that the CIM rents office space, there is no financial connection.

See, I'll even make it a little easier for you...

Out in the Suburbs, there is a place called the Carlson Towers. It's owned by Carlson Company. They rent out a suite to General Mills. Yet I'm almost positive that Marilyn Nelson does not own General Mills.

Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help.

Robin (rew) Wright

(George put on his Feckeless sock puppet)

George Soros does not fund Minimoni! Why do Republicans force me to pay for...I mean why do they hate free speech!!!

Goooood puppet Feckeless, gooood puppet. Here's a biscuit.

C'mon honey...speak..that's it..speeeaaak.

"outinthesuburbsthereisaplacecalledthecarlsontowersit'sownedbycarlsoncompanytheyrentoutasuitetogeneralmillsyeti'malmostpositivethatmarilynnelsondoesnotowngeneralmills."

Goooood sock puppet; you get a biscuit too.

"Robin (rew) Wright"

pffft.

Is this the name that George signs your MiniMoni "new journalist" (that'd be new to George) checks with little rew puppet?

"I'm sure you did call Media Matters. And I'm sure they did say that CIM shares office space with them. Because CIM pays them money to rent a space in the office. As Michael intrepidly discovered two weeks ago.

Other than the fact that the CIM rents office space, there is no financial connection. "

Perhaps. But sorry, Robin - these things don't happen by coincidence.

Is there a financial connection? We'll see.

Who *IS* funding the CIS, anyway?

Oh, and Robin? Care to address the factual errors in Minion's attack on Bachmann?

Or doesn't your "ethics statement" require you to?

Wow, Mitch! You got a "sigh"! That's always such a special moment.

Normally a "code of ethics" means they have to be ethical. I wasn't aware that distorting the truth was ethical.

Wow, no wonder they don't have a problem having a code of ethics. It certainly doesn't force them to follow any rules of behavior. What genius, you get a quick punchline and complete freedom!!!

I have issued a correction, and the original has been editedas well:

http://www.minnesotamonitor.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=582

sorry if this double posts,it looks like the last one didn't got through.

I've issued a correction and edited the original post.

http://www.minnesotamonitor.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=582

"I'll bet Mitch admits he got the name wrong of the person who wrote that POS story, before the POS story is retracted for lack of, you know, reality-basedness."

Ding, ding, ding! Brian wins!

Now on to the second question in all this that Mitch did raise, one that hasn't been answered: who is funding CIM? It's known that it IS being funded, but by whom and for what purpose? Since it's a DC based non-profit I assume that the data are available, but nobody's bothered yet to dig it up. Any volunteers? I'd love to see if Feckeless' point about no Soros money holds up -- although I'd bet it doesn't if you follow the trail far enough.

And isn't it interesting that the CIM's New Journalist Program (http://www.newjournalist.org/) doesn't make a mention about support? That's unusual for most non-profits, who tend to trumpet their supporters loudly.

It's also interesting that the CIM says that the average term for membership in the NJP is 6 months, not the 3 that MinMon has been trumpeting.

Before you guys go slagging off the Allegheny Institute, you ought to know that it's probably the closest thing we have in Pittsburgh to the Taxpayer's League, except without someone fun like David Strom in charge.

Kind of funny, then, to see the Institute getting attacked by so many of my fellow right-wingers here.

Dave, I for one wasn't attacking it. I knew of its right-wing tendencies and so was amused at Jeff's willingness to present its pronouncements as Gospel.

And AL GORE claimed to have invented the INTERNET and then he once said A ZEBRA CANT CHANGE HIS SPOTS frankly AL GORE should be made to watch 25 showing of RACING STRIPES and make him pay close attention to the zebras marks and then while touring MONTCELLO he could,nt identiy two bust of two of our fouding fathers THOMAS JEFFERSON and BENJIMIN FRANKLIN

Mitch - cleanup on aisle 8059...

Just out of curiousity, if George Soros did fund Minnesota Monitor, which he doesn't, so the hell what? You guys have Richard Scaife, Rupert Murdoch and the Reverend Sum Young Loon.

And you had Roger Ailes behind FOX and William Casey and some wacky Catholics behind ABC Radio.

"Just out of curiousity, if George Soros did fund Minnesota Monitor, which he doesn't, so the hell what?"

First - even if it isn't Soros, it's some other sugardaddy or group of sugardaddies; people with enough extra cash to toss it away on paying bloggers.

" You guys have Richard Scaife, Rupert Murdoch and the Reverend Sum Young Loon."

Really?

I'm still waiting for a check from any of them.

Every local conservative blogger, in fact, is. I know of only one local conservative blogger whose blogging is supported in any such way - and it's through steady contract writing work, not a "fellowship".

The references to Scaife and Moon and so on make handy lefty spin - but they have nothing to do with the discussion.

Mitch said,

"The references to Scaife and Moon and so on make handy lefty spin - but they have nothing to do with the discussion."

Hmmmm... Mitch's audio interview with Rochelle Olson is available at...

Drumroll please...

Townhall.com.

Ok class... Can anyone tell us how and from where Townhall.com came to be?

Anyone?

Hey Jeff Fecke, question for you... Know anything about the Heritage Foundation and who was instrumental in starting it?

Feel free to discuss among yourselves.

"Feel free to discuss among yourselves."

Hey Doug, who's blog is it anyway? And what does anything you said have to do with the "fake, but accurate" methods of Minnesota Monthly?

You're also got some big brassy ones to come in here after Mitch gutted you like a 12-point buck.

"Mitch's audio interview with Rochelle Olson is available at..."

Spare the dramatics. It's at Townhall.com.

But...

"Ok class... Can anyone tell us how and from where Townhall.com came to be? "

Who put the "special" kid at the front of the class?

The original Townhall was a Heritage foundation project. Now, comparing Heritage to, say, George Soros is too dumb to even beggar the imagination; Heritage has never taken superelectoral control of a nation by destabilizing its currency, for starters.

But Heritage doesn't own Townhall anymore. Salem Radio does. Now - why would a *radio network* have an interest in promoting a *radio show*? You are obviously a business genius, Doug - can you see a connection, there?

And yes, Townhall is an overtly conservative vehicle (like all the Salem stations); unlike the Strib and, for that matter, the Minnesota Monitor, it is honest about that fact.

Your facts, as always, are wanting in the end.

Mitch said,

"Doug - can you see a connection, there?"

Of course I can see a connection there Mitch. That's exactly why I posted what I posted. I believe it was you that said,

"First - even if it isn't Soros, it's some other sugardaddy or group of sugardaddies"

Just out of curiousity, Scaife's bio mentions that he also owns radio stations but fails to mention which ones.

I wonder if any of them are in the Salem Communications group - which owns Townhall.com - where your podacasts are hosted?

But never mind that... Minnesota Monitor folks MUST be paid by Soros because they rent office space from a group that rents offices from a froup that may have gotten a contribution from a group that may have gotten a contribution from Soros. (Gasp!)

So Doug - CIM "rents" offices from Media Matters. It's not just co-location; MMand CIM - the organization that's bankrolling all these bloggers - have a financial relationship. They're not just in the same building - they are in the same *office space* as MM. Is there *no* connection between the two? Perhaps - but it has at least the *appearance* of a connection. Oh, yeah - and MM didn't "maybe" get money from Soros. It's a fact. As to CIM? Well, let's just say there's an appearance of a connection; it's worth looking over. And it really doesn't matter - I don't care who says what, or funds whom, as long as they're honest about it. Which, of course, MM and CIS are not.

Scaife? He owns a couple of radio stations in western Pennsylvania (neither, to my understanding, associated with Salem's "Talk" division; couldn't tell you if they were in the Christian network), and he's *reputed* (although I've seen nothing more than gossip on leftyblogs, really) to have an investment stake in Clear Channel.

Sorry, Doug. Park your conspiracy theories; the NARN is strictly business. There's no right-wing plutocrat conspiracy to put conservative bloggers on the air.