{"id":2368,"date":"2008-04-04T06:00:12","date_gmt":"2008-04-04T11:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2368"},"modified":"2020-12-21T05:35:06","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T11:35:06","slug":"whos-afraid-of-the-big-bad-media-democrats-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2368","title":{"rendered":"Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Media? Democrats Are!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s now been two solid weeks since Andy Birkey, acting in his capacity as a conduit for lefty talking points, gurgitated<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Have Michele Bachmann\u2019s media gaffes and extreme conservative views driven her to speak mainly to conservative and Christian-right news outlets? Bachmann\u2019s media appearances since her election create the impression of a member of Congress who is shy when not among friends, and perhaps a campaign that is concerned about what happens when a nonconservative microphone or camera is pointed in her direction.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So Rep. Bachmann – the conservative firebrand and lighting rod from the Sixth District – has consistently shied away from the regional, left-leaning media, which has engaged in bald-faced campaigns of context-mangling character assassination against every single Republican <\/em>to the right of Arne Carlson in recent memory (see: Rod Grams, Norm Coleman, Alan Fine), and has been in the bag for every single DFL candidate for every single office in every election in recent history. Their claims – and those of their apologists – that outlets like MPR and WCCO are “balanced” are utterly disingenuous, and about as plausible as Flash claiming he’s a Centrist, my claims to be the “best” feminist in the Twin Cities, or the Minnesota Monitor’s claims to being “independent media”.
\nHm.<\/p>\n

In response, I wondered – would local lefty politicians be any different? So I sent invitations, two weeks ago, to the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Senator Amy Klobuchar<\/strong> (Emailed and left a phone message for her press person)<\/li>\n
  2. Senate Candidate Al Franken<\/strong> (Emailed and left a voice mail message)<\/li>\n
  3. Rep. Keith Ellison<\/strong> (left a voicemail and an email)<\/li>\n
  4. Rep. Betty McCollum<\/strong> (I left a message with her local press assistant)<\/li>\n
  5. Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak<\/strong> (Email sent).<\/li>\n
  6. \u201cGrowth and Justice\u201d<\/strong> poobah Joel Kramer<\/strike> President Dane Smith<\/strong> (email sent)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In this email, I told the truth; that Ed Morissey and I are overt conservatives – and that we pride ourselves on doing incisive, but fair<\/em>, interviews. Not ambushes. Not slime jobs. Which is better than an awful lot of the Twin Cities’ media (to say nothing of the ever-hack-ier Monitor<\/em>) can say.<\/p>\n

    Responses:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Senator Amy Klobuchar<\/strong>: Nothing.<\/li>\n
    2. Senate Candidate Al Franken<\/strong>: Nothing.<\/li>\n
    3. Rep. Keith Ellison<\/strong>: Nothing.<\/li>\n
    4. Rep. Betty McCollum<\/strong> – my “representative” did not respond.<\/li>\n
    5. Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak<\/strong>: I did get an automated response – but nothing else.<\/li>\n
    6. \u201cGrowth and Justice\u201d<\/strong> poobah Joel Kramer<\/strike> President Dane Smith<\/strong>: Eureka! Mr. Smith will appear on an upcoming Northern Alliance broadcast.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      So – the obvious conclusions are that, even when faced with a chance to “reach across the aisle” to the half of Minnesota that is <\/em>to the right of center, in a medium that pledges to be fair and even-handed (and has demonstrably delivered on that pledge over the course of four years), Minnesota’s elected DFL politicians and candidates are a bunch of snivelling cowards.<\/p>\n

      (Comments stating anything to the effect of “I’m glad they didn’t waste their time responding to a bunch of conservatives” will be mocked for what they are – the enabling of craven cowardice).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      It’s now been two solid weeks since Andy Birkey, acting in his capacity as a conduit for lefty talking points, gurgitated: Have Michele Bachmann\u2019s media gaffes and extreme conservative views driven her to speak mainly to conservative and Christian-right news outlets? Bachmann\u2019s media appearances since her election create the impression of a member of Congress […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,4],"tags":[208],"class_list":["post-2368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-democrats","category-media","tag-a-klo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2368"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22406,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2368\/revisions\/22406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}