Everyone in Minnesota politics is buzzing about the rather serious domestic abuse allegations against Congressman and Attorney General candidate Keith Ellison.
Everyone but the news media.
Members of that media are responding – understandably – “we’ve got to have time to actually do our jobs, here”, and “Accuracy > Speed”.
Which all makes sense on its face – but then, there’s some history involved.
In 2006, Ellison was running to replace the retiring Martin Sabo – and while the DFL as a rule can nominate a set of wind-up chattering teeth in the 5th CD and get 70% of hte vote, the polling must have looked a little tight (1).
The StarTribune ran an “October Surprise” hit piece against Alan Fine, Ellison’s GOP opponent, about a domestic abuse *arrest* ten years before, in the middle of a custody fight.
The Strib didn’t include in its report the fact that Fine was never convicted – the accusation was tossed for lack of evidence – and that Fine went on to get custody of the couple’s kid (which never happened in Minnesota at that time), and that his ex-wife wound up getting convicted of domestic abuse herself, in a later relationship, all of which tends to support Fine’s response.
I did a ton of writing on the subject, as did Scott Johnson – an actual lawyer:
I also had one of the story’s reporters on my show at the time. I asked her (in one of the better interviews I’ve ever done) why those salient facts, which were a matter of the legal record of the case, were not reported at the time. She said it was an editorial decision – there’s only so much space that can be devoted to a story.
Which claim I went on to flense, by going through the story and figuring out how much redundant fluff could have been cut from the original hit piece to make room for a simple paragraph showing, for balance, Fine’s side of the story.
It wasn’t even difficult.
So when journalists claim they’re not rushing material about Ellison out to air/print because “they’re trying to get things right” – well, maybe (2).
But there’s some very troubling history, out there, and you’re a pollyanna if you dont realize it.
(1) It seems unbelievable looking at Minneapolis these days, but Ellison got 50% of the vote. Fine got 25%, and an Independence Party candidate got another 25%. To be fair, she was both a great campaigner and, um, photogenic as hell.
(2) I’d say “ask Rod Grams”, but he’s unfortunately unable to respond.
Every so often, someone who posts, tweets, comments on the internet will write something about how he was off the internet for some few days. While so, he talked to people who were completely unaware of the various kerfuffles seen online and how refreshing it was and maybe we should learn some sort of lesson from this…
… and then a story like Ellison’s comes up and, as this post so capably documents, Jim Treacher’s comment from a few years ago comes to mind: Modern journalism is all about deciding which facts the public shouldn’t know because it might reflect badly on the Democrats. And the Democrat gets elected. Again.
I remember each one of those episodes, Mitch, thanks for the history lesson. Oh, PS-like, when Emmer ran against Governor Foster Brooks wasn’t there some mention of some sort of drunken driving charge against Emmer from some years past? Nothing since, of course.
… geez, sorry. My point was that “democracy” requires some work if you’re not going to be (mis)led around by the Democrats and their allies in the media. And people who don’t know anything (get their news from the MSM) are… well, .
Wasn’t there some allegations of domestic violence the first time Hakim ran for office?
Also, why is the Great Hijabi Hope getting a pass on her immigration fraud? The only news outlet covering that story is Alpha News…
http://alphanewsmn.com/take-a-walk-through-ilhan-omars-controversial-marriage-history/
The President’s characterization that the press is “the enemy of the people” is unfair and dishonest. The press is the enemy of HALF the people.
I was laughing my ass off this morning watching Lori “I’ll sue just to sue anyone with taxpayer’s money” Swanson addressed the media about the allegations against her. She had the audacity to complain “that this issue is brought up so close to the election, is dirty pool”! Well, Lori, how does it feel?
It was on the front page of both the Strib and the PiPress last night, along with a story in the PiPress tut-tutting about a former Project Veritas staffer who crashed an Omar presser and asked some uncomfortable and unauthorized questions. I didn’t get to read the PiPress articles because now they want me to pay for them, and I’m not sure I want to do that. Still, nice to see the piranhas attacking each other for a change. Of course, that means we’re going to end up with one fat piranha.
I’m always amused to see the tear squirting that happens everytime one of these low lives gets a knife stuck in their back by one of their pals.
It’s another instance of Joe Daok’s suggested law. They never think their scumbaggery will affect them.
Sorry about that rant earlier, the passive-aggressive bias of the MN MSM really steams me. I can’t believe at one time I actually subscribed to the Strib with pleasure and looked forward to reading it every morning.
If only Keith had plotted out his girlfriend’s position on the Hot/crazy continuum, all this could have been avoided. https://youtu.be/vwbKYcBdVyk
Personally I think that this is just tip of the iceberg with Ellison. Some people know that if he wins the DFL primary he has made enough enemies with his rhetoric that some really nasty stuff about his past with The Nation of Islam and Louis “blame the Joos for everything” Farrakhan will come out. I could be wrong but I have been deeply involved in enough campaigns to be able to anticipate two or three steps from where we are now. I have done… less than honorable (nothing cruminal though) things as a lacky in a campaign. I will say nothing more on the subject.
“cruminal “ – good word that
sometime a typo can lead to unintentional comedy I guess
My take here is that (a) there is something seriously sick about someone who not only commits domestic abuse, but videotapes it (“Watch me beat up my best girl!”), but (b) if they are indeed that sick, roll tape and let the public make their decision.
There is a lot of speculation of whether a video exists and further speculation of why anyone would video such a thing – uh, the simplest explanation is that the video was shot by a home security camera, like a drop-cam. A lot of people have them to keep an eye on their dogs during the day while they are at work.
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