Read the story at the link below. It's an object lesson in why we have a nut, bigot and liar representing Minnesotans and other Americans in Congress.
This time it's Dennis Lien of the St. Paul Pioneer Press who's passing off a promotional piece as "journalism."
This is what Tarryl Clark is up against: she's not just up against the national right, the evangelical conservative right, the talk radio and Fox right--she's up against the local press, the big papers.
Michele Bachmann is the biggest news story in Minnesota and one of the most controversial figures in national politics. Knowing that, Lien and the PiPress run this:
(continued)
(Excerpts from Lien's Pioneer Press story:
Even Boomer the beagle got in on the action.
Surrounded by family, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann launched a two-day campaign swing through the 6th Congressional District on Wednesday, hugging admiring constituents and chatting up seemingly everyone in sight.
The Republican congresswoman and husband Marcus wore Minnesota Twins jerseys with catcher Joe Mauer's name and number on the backs. "This is my guy,'' she said. "We stick with him if he has a good day or a bad day.''
(Before the Twins' game at Texas on Wednesday night, Mauer said of Bachmann's being a fan, "I had no idea. It's cool. It's flattering. I appreciate the support.")
One of the Bachmann children, Harrison, kept an eye on Boomer, who seemed a bit uncomfortable with all the commotion. And there was plenty of it.
Arriving at Dorothy Ann Bakery & Cafe in Woodbury, Bachmann encountered a crush of photographers and reporters, as well as backers such as Betty Marquardt of Woodbury.
"I like her because she doesn't back down from a fight,'' Marquardt said. "She's not afraid to stick up for what she believes in. I admire that.''
Bachmann, who faces a re-election challenge from state Sen. Tarryl Clark, DFL-St. Cloud, toured the bakery, where she got some tips on decorating cupcakes and cookies....
Isn't that sweet? You've got the cupcake and cookie decorating, the quote from beloved Minnesota Twin Joe Mauer, the play-by-play on what the beagle's thinking--
...you'd never know that the Sixth District has had the highest home foreclosure rate in the state during Bachmann's tenure, you'd never know about the homophobia and conspiracy theories, about how Bachmann tried to blame people of color for the mortgage crisis, about her "end times" rhetoric and her claim that anti-Americans in Congress need to be investigate, her shilling to prevent BP from getting ripped off by victims of the oil spill--it goes on and on, but you won't read it here.
No factual context in this reporting: the Bachmann campaign wants to present the lovable beagle and the lovable cupcakes and the lovable Michele. So the PiPress faithfully reports that. The Bachmann campaign should put them on the payroll, but they don't have to--the PiPress will do that for free.
(The woman Bachmann is hugging in the photo is Kathy Lohmer, a local Bachmann disciple who is positioned to become State Senator for Stillwater.
The evangelical takeover in the GOP thing--you're not going to read about that in the PiPress either. Cupcakes and beagles...
Perhaps when the PiPress sends people out to cover a Clark appearance, Clark will get a similar treatment. The problem is: Clark is not a nut, bigot and liar. So even if the PiPress ultimately decides to puff both Clark and Bachmann, fairness in reporting is abandoned. It doesn't do Clark a bit of good to receive similar mindless coverage, if the same news outlet leaves Bachmann's extremism out of its campaign reporting.
And the PiPress also gives you the following (imagine how this will play with people unfamiliar with Bachmann's partisan and extremist career):
She cited her core messages of improving the employment climate, opposing tax and spending increases and helping constituents with pocketbook issues, which she termed her focus as a congresswoman.
"Pocketbook issues are what impact people more than anything,'' Bachmann said.
Now a real reporter and a real paper would use those comments as a springboard for pointing out that Bachmann's been a "no" vote on every attempt to return her constituents' federal tax dollars to the people of her district--in the form of infrastructure repair, job creation.
But the hell with that: this is the Pioneer Press
Read the story. You'll be amazed at the praiseworthy Michele Bachmann that is presented here. You'll end up loving her yourself, if you've never read any real reporting on what's she's really said, done, and failed to do. And you won't, if you rely on this kind of "political reporting."
http://www.twincities.com/...
Next:
Big story in the Minn Post, traveling with Bachmann on her tour bus this week. The Minn Post is a blog, a kind of the elephant's graveyard for professional political journalists who got laid off from the big papers. (Nobody in the readership seems to miss them. But, incredibly, people still send them money not to report political news.)
There's some content in the article (link follows.) But I swear that the guys who write for MinnPost are dickheads. Look at this line:
And after two elections of trying to paint Bachmann as too far to the right, Clark has changed tactics to painting her as out of touch.
- Bachmann is too far to the right; she's "too far to the right" even for some people in the GOP. She's a political extremist who's described the President of the United States as a "tyrant" and "gangster," stated that if the GOP gets a majority they should do nothing but issue subpoenas against the opposition party, etc. etc.
But reporting that factual context would get the MNPost eff-ups tossed off the bus and cost them access--to Bachmann, to the beagle, and the cupcakes. So that goes unreported, the extremist nut stays in Congress, and the guys with access have a 2% improved chance of getting laid because they can still call themselves "political reporters" instead of the chump who gets assigned to the police beat.
Instead of including context so readers can understand the truth: the MN Post presents the fact of Bachmann's right wing extremism to its readers as a mere "failed campaign approach" of the Dems in the district.
- ...which it is not. It is simply untrue that Tinklenberg and Wetterling tried to present Bachmann as "too far to the right" as part of their tactics. That's bulls**t; I spent years writing about how those campaigns wouldn't do that, for fear of alienating conservatives in the district. You find me the Wetterling or Tinklenberg ad that says "she's too far to the right" (prior to the last minute money bomb that Tinklenberg received in the final weeks of the campaign.) Those ads and press comments just don't exist--I know, because if they had existed I would have printed them.
None the less, this particular account reports something that simply didn't happen: that previous Dem campaigns against Bachmann in this district stressed that she was too far to the right. Both the Wetterling and Tinklenberg campaigns stressed local issues--prior to the last minute money bomb, Bachmann opponent Tinklenberg's main line was that "Bachmann doesn't spend enough time in the district."
The "MB's too far to the right" rhetoric came from outside the Sixth District Dem campaigns. In fact, you can find more "MB's too far to the right" rhetoric on the editorial pages of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the St. Cloud Times, than you can in the campaign ads of the Wetterling and Tinklenberg campaigns...
To paraphrase: "The MinnPost blog and historians have been granted a power denied to the gods themselves--the power to alter the past." If the ex-print journalists now working at the MinnPost had ever done their jobs, Bachmann never would have been elected in the first place. It just shouldn't happen that a nut, bigot and liar gets into elected office--because journalists are afraid of alienating a particular audience or losing their access to politicians. People who let that happen--are not journalists. They're publicists.
Those guys were access whores when they wrote for the big papers, and they're still access whores now, writing for that blog. The only difference is they're older, cheaper whores.
LINK:
http://www.minnpost.com/...
ACTION LINK: You read the stuff I posted above, and you wonder why Bachmann gets re-elected? If you guys don't help Bachmann opponent Clark with a small donation--you will be so, so sorry that you didn't...
http://tarrylclark.com