Biased, Unbalanced, and Fact-Challenged

Rentablogger Jeff Fecke yet again bobbles his “facts”. 

In the midst of an exceedingly obtuse whack at Governor Pawlenty, Fecke – who may be the most fact-challenged “journalist” in Minnesota today – writes about Luke Hellier.  Hellier is a conservative Republican whom Pawlenty has nominated for one of the student spots on the MNSCU Board of Trustees.

Fecke:

Now, I don’t think anyone would begrudge Pawlenty picking a highly qualified conservative over a highly qualified liberal.  Pawlenty is, in fact, a Republican.  But it takes a certain Cheney-like genius to pass over a highly qualified Republican for an unqualified conservative zealot, and that’s exactly what Pawlenty appears ready to do.  Pawlenty is evidently planning to bypass the MSUSA-endorsed candidates for Luke Hellier, who has not, to date, set foot in a MnSCU classroom.  He has, however, served as political director for Michele Bachmann and interned with Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life.

What Fecke doesn’t deem fit to tell the readership is that the MNSCU Students Association endorsement is neither a requirement nor, for that matter, mentioned in the Open Appointment process.  King Banaian – an SCSU professor who interviewed Hellier and Adam Weigold, another candidate for the board on NARN III last weekend – relates:

Using the Open Appointments process meant he filled out a form. He reports that last week, he was interviewed for the position. Nothing on that form indicated to him that he should speak to MSUSA for screening, nor did anyone from the governor’s office when they interviewed him.

As to the part that the leftybloggers are hopping up and down and cackling like poo-flinging monkeys about – that Hellier supposedly “isn’t a student” – King actually went to the trouble of reading the Minnesota Statute:

 when the statute says (136F.02) that “Three members must be students who are enrolled at least half time in a degree, diploma, or certificate program or have graduated from an institution governed by the board within one year of the date of appointment.” (emphasis added), it clearly contemplates the applicant pool to include a student entering school. Nobody disputes this. And this would appear to be the case: The entering student would be a graduate student coming to a MnSCU school. We do not offer doctorates (yet) and master’s programs typically take two years. So it’s most likely that if grad students are contemplated to join the board, they would most likely join it at the very beginning of their enrollment in a program. Without the provision I italicized, it is unlikely that graduate students could gain the 4-year student seat on the MnSCU board.

Yet the system by which MSUSA announces the process it uses is exclusionary to those who would enter a program a few months after the announcement of a vacancy. It puts candidates like Luke at a disadvantage to insiders within MSUSA and the seven campus student governments.

If you think that’s fair — that there should be preference for current over incoming students, even if the incoming student has experience in student government from a non-MnSCU school — you’re welcome to argue that point. Please indicate how you read that into current Minnesota statute.

Those, of course, are the parts that the leftyblogs – especially Fecke and his “editors” at MNMon – don’t see fit to tell their readers; Hellier’s application is within the letter and spriit of the law, and that the MNSCU Student Association’s endorsement is really meaningless.

Why is MNMon afraid of the truth?

Brodkorb attacks Fecke’s other “point” – that Pawlenty “favors” Hellier in the first place:

One thing I don’t endorse is the misleading, dishonest, and downright nasty attacks Hellier has faced in the liberal blogosphere.  

For example:  

“A controversy regarding the appointment of a new student representative to the Board of Trustees for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system is resulting in strong criticism of a candidate reportedly favored for consideration by Gov. Tim Pawlenty.” Source: Minnesota Monitor, June 22, 2007

Reported by who?  Who is reporting that Hellier is favored? Governor Pawlenty hasn’t announced his decision yet and I haven’t been able to find a direct or indirect quote where Governor Pawlenty said Hellier is his favored pick.  

I’ll repeat my question: Reported by who? Who is reporting that Hellier is the favorite as Minnesota Monitor reported. 

Is this just another rambling by one of the most inaccurate and sloppy bloggers in Minnesota, Jeff Fecke?  

One is bidden to wonder. 

I don’t go to MNMon for truth or accuracy, much.  My only real question is, what does Eric Black think about the people he shares a masthead with?

UPDATE:  For the same “coverage” you get on MNMon but with a depressing dose of undermedicated twitchiness, try Cucking Stool’s fevered recitation of the same talking points; same fact-challenged drivel, more self-adulatory incoherence.

In other words, just another day in the fever swamp.

7 thoughts on “Biased, Unbalanced, and Fact-Challenged

  1. Rentablogger, eh? I guess the only good bloggers are the ones nobody in the world would *dream* of paying.

    Bloggers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your jammies!

  2. Rentablogger, eh? I guess the only good bloggers are the ones nobody in the world would *dream* of paying.

    Nah, cash all the checks you want. I just like to make sure, as much as possible, that people know where their “journalists” money comes from.

    And if I got any money (other than ad revenues) I’d be honest about it. Which MNMon isn’t.

  3. Reported by = unfounded supposition that best fits the spin / narrative that I am angling for?

    Sort of like how Mr. Fecke ‘reported’ the John Kline was desperately afriad of something and that there was a ‘conspiracy to deny diligent lefty bloggers wi-fi access at the Kline Pressor.

    Truthier than actual Truth ! Your mileage may vary

  4. Amen to all that. And I believe the key word in all this is probably “Bachmann.” That name just sets the lefty dogs to howling. If he had worked for any other GOPer in the state, we wouldn’t even know there was such a thing as the MNSCU Board of Trustees.

  5. Very lefty of you Mitch. Any other private businesses that should be forced to open their finances to public scrutiny?

  6. private businesses

    Best I can tell, the Center for Independent Media is a 503(c)(3) public charity. It’s not yet exactly clear what MiniMoni is, but if it has the same status as it’s parent, then they are dancing a pretty fine line with regards to political activity.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.