As we Republicans look at yet another year of selective reporting and overt bias in action (who needs Journolist in a media hive like the Twin Cities?), it’s important to remember that that are those who believe the media is conservative.
It’s Eric Pusey from MN “Progressive” Project:
I found it interesting that the editors of the Star Tribune thought that the employment statuses of the MN-02 DFL candidates running against Rep. John Kline were newsworthy while a national story about Rep. Michele Bachmann wasn’t.
Let’s look at the allegations:
The essence of the story is that Dan Powers (DFL-endorsed) was a contractor and collected unemployment while Shelley Madore’s contract wasn’t renewed. Eric Roper and the editors of the Strib think something is fishy. They consider this more newsworthy than Bachmann stating “I think that all we should do is issue subpoenas and have one hearing after another” if Republicans regain the House and “we don’t have to fund any of these programs and that’s exactly what we need to do – defund all of this nonsense and then unwind it.”
So let’s look at this from the perspective of an editor:
News: Two congressional candidates have financial irregularities (provided that they’re not Obama cabinet nominees).
Not News: Michele Bachmann says something that gets liberals exercised, but is really no different from a zillion other such incidents.
What is also interesting about the Strib’s political coverage is that they very rarely (verging on never) cover Kline. The latest news (1 week old) is that Kline opposed funding child nutritional programs with the following hypocritical excuse:
“The debt crisis is the greatest national security threat we face,” ranking Republican John Kline of Minnesota said. “The cost of this legislation cannot be ignored.”
If the Strib did cover this story about Kline’s vote, what do you think the chances are the someone like Roper would note that Kline supported the Bush agenda of tax cuts and borrowing to pay for two wars?
News: Er, Kline voted against a bill? No, the only news here is that the word “hypocritical” has been devalued to the point of meaninglessness; hypocrisy is holding someone to a moral standard to which you yourself are not willing to adhere. Think John Kline is inconsistent on deficit spending?
Not News: Kline voted with the Bush Administration – while the Bush administration was in office. Two to eight years ago.
St Paul paper has a story on Big MAK today. She makes a good point…the Dayton inherited millions for doing nothing, and Entenza married into millions (and it was earned by Big Health Insurance). But MAK, you may not want to brag that your sole source of income and wealth is from having what should be a part time job…being in the state legislature.
Chuck, it was humorous. Last week in the strib, there was a short blurb about how Entenza added $450,000 of his own money to his campaign (which caused my MAK-campaign-worker-FB-“friend” to express disbelief on twitter). One commenter made the remark “Entenza’s money was taken from the sickest of Minnesotans” and another one commented that Entenza’s money was really blood money acquired from UHG. I responded “So, to all of you expressing disgust at the purchase of a primary victory, when Dayton successfully purchases it out from under Big MAK and Big Matt, you will all vote for someone else in protest, right? RIGHT? I thought so.” It is so funny watching the three camps pounce on each other. I wanted to get a bucket of popcorn and pull up a lawn chair.