Shot in the Dark

Northern Alliance Takes Over As State Press Office

I just got this: 

SAINT PAUL –  The office of Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty announces that the staff of the radio talk show the “Northern Alliance Radio Network” will be taking over the duties of the state press-relations office.

“We think this is a slapshot for good government, and will put us square in the net as far as cost savings and turnaround”, Governor Pawlenty said in an impromptu statement at the Capitol this morning. 

The State Press Office oversees all media relations for all branches of Minnesota’s state government, from the Legislature through the Executive Branch.

The outsourcing of PR services is expected to save the state 45 million dollars a year.  But not everyone is thrilled by the idea.

“I’m outraged…Outraged…” said Ashley Grot-Puttanesca-Steubingfelder of “Peace Through Mandatory Unity”, a non-partisan Saint Paul-based affiliate of ACORN, “…outraged [brief pause to re-collect her thoughts] that the government of Minnesota would turn this vital job over to a bunch of partisans“.

Speaking on behalf of the Northern Alliance/State Press Office, Deputy Press Officer Chad The Elder replied “What kind of name is Ashley Grot-Puttanesca-Steubingfelder?  Good lord, pour me a drink – she’s ugly”.

Satiric fantasy?

Oh, this is Minnesota under the control of the unfettered DFL.  Of course not.

UPDATE:  A bad analogy?  Provided all the UpTake – an overtly left-leaning organization – does is provide a commentary-free feed, perhaps. 

I’ve had questions about the slant of UpTake’s coverage of events; to be fair, they’ve quickly and fairly answered those questions (as, indeed, I seek to do with this update).  To be prudent, it’s perfectly fair to ask if a group can serve two masters – an agenda and “fairness”.

Is UpTake providing a useful service, and doing it fairly?  Perhaps.

Can they – and Secretary of State Richie – expect to be watched carefully?  Absolutely.

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Mitch Berg

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32 responses to “Northern Alliance Takes Over As State Press Office”

  1. RickDFL Avatar
    RickDFL

    You want a right-wing video of the Canvasing Board, get your camera and get off your lazy rearend.

  2. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    get off your lazy rearend

    Not being a subdized leftyblogger, I have to work at my day job for a living, actually.

    And surely you’re not so obtuse than you miss the actual point…

    …no, wait.  Never mind.

  3. RickDFL Avatar
    RickDFL

    “I have to work at my day job for a living, actually.”

    Me too. That is why I am grateful for The Uptake providing a livestream. You should be grateful too.

  4. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    Please, sir. Can I have more?

  5. RickDFL Avatar
    RickDFL

    You could have other groups, even right-wing groups, livestreaming. The fact that none volunteered probably tells you a lot about Coleman’s popularity and chances.

  6. Jeff Rosenberg Avatar
    Jeff Rosenberg

    You’re right, Mitch. It would be better to have a complete media blackout.

    Was that the actual point?

  7. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    You could have other groups, even right-wing groups, livestreaming. The fact that none volunteered probably tells you a lot about Coleman’s popularity and chances.

    And even moreso that there are no “right-wing groups” that do that sort of thing. There is no right-wing analog to Uptake, the Minnesoros “Independent”, and so on. I’m not aware of a “right wing” group in Minnesota that would be able to devote days of work-day time to covering a recount; I’m not seriously aware of a single signficant conservative blogger that doesn’t have a day job.

    Which is, of course, our problem to fix, not “yours”.

    Jeff,

    It would be better to have a complete media blackout.

    Of course not.

    So if Mary Kiffmeyer had gone to the NARN to provide recount coverage, you’d say…what?

  8. Yossarian Avatar
    Yossarian

    Shorter Jeff/Rick:

    It’s okay, because it’s on our side.

  9. RickDFL Avatar
    RickDFL

    “So if Mary Kiffmeyer had gone to the NARN to provide recount coverage, you’d say…what?”
    Nothing, as long as The Uptake and every other member of the public was provided an equal opportunity to provide coverage.

  10. Jeff Rosenberg Avatar
    Jeff Rosenberg

    Here’s our misunderstanding, folks. Ritchie didn’t ask The UpTake to do this. They offered.

    In fact, I was watching Ritchie’s press conference when The UpTake’s director put Ritchie on the spot and offered to film the proceedings.

    If Kiffmeyer had gone to the NARN, I’d be upset. If Kiffmeyer had resigned to no coverage, and Roosh had showed up with a camcorder, I’d applaud him. The latter is the proper analogy.

  11. RickDFL Avatar
    RickDFL

    Jeff:
    It is not a “misunderstanding”, it is a deception plan. Norm is losing bad so someone needs to manufacture an issue to talk about. Mitch and MDE know the issue a joke, they just got nothing better.

  12. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    Jeff,

    A fair point.

    Rick,

    A stupid point. Deception plan? Adjust your tinfoil, you hysterical ninny.

  13. Terry Avatar
    Terry

    RickDFL & JR–
    You guys oughta be walking on eggshells re the anointing of Senator Franken. The NYT has choked on Caroline Kennedy & the Senate won’t seat Blagojovich’s pick. How far is St. Paul from Chicago anyway?

  14. Tim in StP Avatar
    Tim in StP

    Ha, ha, the Republicans will get to that fancypants live-feed stuff as soon as they figure out how to load the Beta tape into their Kodak Super-8. Then it’s off to Dearborn to document their make-believe Iraqi pro-Bush demonstration.

  15. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    Tim,

    Hold that thought.

    (or, indeed, any “thought”).

  16. joelr Avatar
    joelr

    The problem with your analogy, Mitch, is that The Uptake is broadcasting a live feed, CSPAN-style, of all of the Canvassing Board meetings, and all of the Coleman and Franken pressers they’ve been allowed to broadcast.

    What Ritchie’s office should have done — which it may have, for all I know — and should have announced — which it didn’t — is that The Uptake, as well as anybody else who offered to or wished to, would be broadcasting the meeting, gavel-to-gavel. What it did gives a faint whiff of impropriety . . . until you look at the fact that nobody else has stepped up to do it, and that gavel-to-gavel coverage of an event is by its nature unbiased coverage of that event.

  17. penigma Avatar
    penigma

    Mitch, the number of private/public croney-ism examples in the Bush administration is without count. OMG this is absolutly hilarious that you actually attempt to make an issue of this kind of thing.

    Do the words “No Bid Contracts” have ANY meaning for you, or perhaps the cozy relationship between hundreds of companies and their Republican campaign recipient/benefactors? Shall I really dredge out a few?

    ROFLMAO.

    BTW – as if you weren’t already frothing at the mouth over Ritchie – but NOW you’ll keep an eye on him.. yeah, I’m sure he’s plenty scared.

    ooooo scary oooooo

  18. penigma Avatar
    penigma

    BTW Mitch – I don’t think you ought be using the analogy of ‘tin-foil’ with anyone considering your hystrionics about this recount – and ninny.. again.. LOL

  19. angryclown Avatar
    angryclown

    You’ve really hit on a big issue here, Mitch. I understand there was a massive demonstration against Uptake in Dearborn.

  20. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    Peev,

    Please show us any prior post about the recount.

    Then, please demonstrate “hysteria”.

    Hint: You can’t. You’re making stuff up again.

  21. Tim in StP Avatar
    Tim in StP

    I heard Old Man Petersen asked the NARN to turn off the blinking 12:00 on his VCR. No success.

  22. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    If I chuckle patronizingly, will you go away?

  23. Lileks Avatar
    Lileks

    Unless things have changed, UpTake isn’t providing the stream; they’re passing along the stream the State of MN created. It’s run through Mogulus, which is where we got it at the Strib. Ritchie could have sent people there, but perhaps thought it was too confusing to make them find it. (During the first week of the recount Mogulus ran the UpTake feed in the main box on the grid, which gave them spiffy visibility.)

    The Strib was carrying the full stream as well, but I can’t imagine a reporter asking Ritchie if he’d endorse the paper’s coverage.

    Anyway, the straight Mogulus feed should be embeddable – again, unless things have changed and the state isn’t providing the raw feed. Anyone on the right or left can put it on their site, put up a comment box and liveblog it. I suspect Ritchie wasn’t aware of any of this.

  24. Yossarian Avatar
    Yossarian

    I like how Lileks wrote a comment that Tim in StP wouldn’t be able to understand if he studied it for a week.

  25. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    they’re passing along the stream the State of MN created. It’s run through Mogulus, which is where we got it at the Strib.

    So is it a matter of someone at Uptake going to Richie and getting the link to the Mogulus feed (?) and posting a container?

    Where is this “Mogulus” thing found. I know another site that might be interested.

  26. angryclown Avatar
    angryclown

    Good point, Cathcart. Lileks can be a little hard to understand. Maybe he should take one of them expository writing classes.

  27. Yossarian Avatar
    Yossarian

    Yeah, pretty sure you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about there, AC. Then again, go ahead and try to mix things up with Lileks; I’ll even make the popcorn in anticipation of watching you flail miserably at that windmill.

  28. RickDFL Avatar
    RickDFL

    Our ace pro reporter is on the scene:
    “Unless things have changed, UpTake isn’t providing the stream; they’re passing along the stream the State of MN created”

    Things have changed (be nice if there was a profession dedicated to telling me these things). The State of MN employees are not working. You can find the whole story on the Internet.
    http://the-uptake.groups.theuptake.org/en/blog.details/id/3734/
    “The UpTake is providing this service because the Capitol staff who normally provide both the video feed and webcast were not available. The UpTake volunteered to contribute equipment and technical personnel to continue to provide both. The office of the Secretary of State accepted our offer. This conversation was transparent and also streamed live online.”

    Where is this “Mogulus” thing found. I know another site that might be interested.
    Again the Internet:
    “Our live feed of the Minnesota Canvassing Board proceedings is available to anyone. Go to http://www.mogulus.com/ theuptake, click EMBED in the lower left hand corner and you can change the initial volume and player size.”

  29. Lileks Avatar
    Lileks

    Well, I’ve been out of town and out of the office, and haven’t been paying attention, which is why I said “unless things have changed.”

    The only thing more amusing than me thinking I’m an ace pro reporter, Rick, is you thinking I’m an ace pro reporter.

  30. RickDFL Avatar
    RickDFL

    “The only thing more amusing than me thinking I’m an ace pro reporter, Rick, is you thinking I’m an ace pro reporter.”

    After the expository writing class, I suggest one on irony.

  31. Shot in the Dark » Blog Archive » Comparing Apples And Tuna

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  32. Shot in the Dark » Blog Archive » OutTake

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