To: Catharine Richert, “Poligraph” writer at MPR
\nFrom: Mitch Berg, mere peasant
\nRe: Here’s a dandy story idea!<\/p>\n
Ms. Richert,<\/p>\n
You’ve been doing “Poligraph<\/a>” at Mnnesota Public Radio for quite some time now. \u00a0 The ongoing feature purports to fact-check Minnesota politicians’ statements.<\/p>\n Now, a quick glance through the Poligraph page seems to show that most of your “fact-checking” involves going over statements…by Republicans<\/em>. \u00a0The statements, and the facts in question, can frequently be more than a little bit picayune, but the point isn’t so much that you fact-check a lot of things that are, to most people, pretty ephemeral stuff as it is that your efforts seem so very, very one-sided.<\/p>\n Now, on the one hand I’m one of those rare conservatives who credits MPR’s News <\/em>operation for at least trying for some sort of balance. \u00a0Tom Scheck did an excellent piece on Alliance For A Better Minnesota<\/a>, for example. \u00a0Two years after I did it<\/a>, naturally, and long-lagging my own extensive coverage<\/a> of ABM’s efforts, but then he’s gotta cover a lot of stuff, and it’s fine. \u00a0Better late than never (although I do <\/em>wonder why MPR’s coverage of things that don’t carefully buff the DFL’s sheen always happen in the dead of winter, long before anyone actually cares about politics, but again, just a quibble). \u00a0As a rule, I appreciate the job MPR News does, while believing it could do better.<\/p>\n On the other hand, I do realize you work for MPR, you’re a graduate of the impeccably-“progressive” Humprey Institude, and beyond all that that you have to serve your Volvo-driving, Carlton-degree-holding, Wellstone-worshiping, Crocus-Hill-dwelling, latte-drinking master. \u00a0And that DFL-voting master just loooooves to have her ego stroked, whether during the pledge drives (I noticed a lot more of the “we MPR listeners are a smart, discerning bunch!” promos during your pledge drive) and in between. \u00a0Which means tackling those nasty, talk-radio-listening Republicans.<\/p>\n So it’d be interesting to see if you ever manage to get around to “Poligraphing” the most egriegious, pants-soaked-in-napalm lies in Minnesota politics today – those being told by the likes of Dakota County Attorney Jim Backstrom<\/a> and the various metro police chiefs about the “Stand Your Ground” bill. \u00a0Quite simply, nothing they say – nothing, nada, bupkes – has even the faintest grain of truth to it.<\/p>\n (I’ll bring you up to speed: \u00a0Stand Your Ground would treat people who shoot in self-defense on their property a presumption <\/em>of innocence. \u00a0<\/em>Currently, to claim self-defense, you have to essentially say “I’m guilty, but here’s my explanation…”, and hope the explanation suits the prosecutor, judge and jury. \u00a0Sometimes it works<\/a>. \u00a0Sometimes it really really doesn’t<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now, Backstrom, Darth Lillehaug, and some of the Metro police chiefs (and headline writers) claim that the bill would “legalize murder”, which is a slander both to the law-abiding owner and the cops and prosecutors who investigate the shootings – as if they can’t tell the difference between a legitimate self-defense shooting and a criminal act.<\/p>\n But more importantly for your beat, Ms. Richert, it’s right in your wheelhouse. \u00a0You have Minnesota politicans – and, even worse, officers of the court – lying about the law. \u00a0To Minnesotans.<\/em>.<\/p>\n That’s your beat, right?<\/p>\n Now, I realize that the Volvo-driving, free-range-alpaca-wearing, Saint-Olaf-diploma-sporting, latte-drinking, Merriam-Park-dwelling crowd that is your audience base might find guns and Second Amendment supporters unfashionable. \u00a0I get that.<\/p>\n But, again – politicians lying to the people<\/em>. \u00a0In the news.<\/p>\n While this might take time away from poring over Michele Bachmann’s grocery list, I”m just saying. \u00a0You smelling what I’m cooking?<\/p>\n That is all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To: Catharine Richert, “Poligraph” writer at MPR From: Mitch Berg, mere peasant Re: Here’s a dandy story idea! Ms. Richert, You’ve been doing “Poligraph” at Mnnesota Public Radio for quite some time now. \u00a0 The ongoing feature purports to fact-check Minnesota politicians’ statements. Now, a quick glance through the Poligraph page seems to show that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,230,22],"tags":[115],"class_list":["post-26532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tc-media-bias","category-the-fact-check-scam","category-victim-disarmament","tag-abm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26532","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=26532"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47849,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26532\/revisions\/47849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}