Yesterday Patrick Condon, political reporter for the Associated Press (AP) wrote a puff piece on Michael Brodkorb, the blogger behind Minnesota Democrats Exposed, called "Republican blogger has Al Franken’s campaign reeling."
The piece points out the troubling relationship between opposition researchers—which Michael Brodkorb is—and reporters who re-write and publish their pre-packaged stories designed to embarrass the opposition, like the current hoopla about Al Franken straightening out his state taxes.
Articles like these are payback in the sleazy symbiosis between political opposition researchers—most of them highly paid operatives—and people who are supposed to be objective journalists.
Norm Coleman votes for a needless $600 billion war against Iraq and we’re talking about Al Franken re-filing his income taxes when his accountant screws up.
Norm Coleman votes against veterans, children’s health care, and supports the Patriot Act, and we’re talking about why Al Franken’s accountant won’t violate client confidentiality.
Here’s how our democracy gets corroded into a trivia contest between sleazebag opposition researchers:
Wing-nut Gary Matthew Miller has a new blog called, ironically enough, "The Truth vs. The Machine," which is his successor to the blog called "Kennedy vs. the Machine" which had to be retired because, uh, Mark Kennedy was forced into retirement by a landslide in 2006. (Mr. Miller is neither a close nor distant relation to this author, as far as I have done my opposition research)
If you visit his new blog, you'll see that Miller is quite pleased with a trophy case of endorsement quotes which he posts halfway down the home page on the right-hand column. These endorsements come from Republican notables like Karl Rove and Vin Weber.
And yes, from Michael Brodkorb, of Minnesota Democrats Exposed:
"Michael Brodkorb, Minnesota Democrats Exposed: "One of the most respected blogs in Minnesota"
Oh, and right next to Brodkorb's ringing endorsement? There's one from--what do you know? ---Patrick Condon, Associated Press political reporter:
"Patrick Condon, Associated Press: "Gary, I've continued to enjoy reading KvM throughout the campaign... You'd make a great reporter! (and please don't take that as an insult)."
Why would Condon be friendly with opposition researchers like Brodkorb? The point is that he and other political reporters earn their keep by writing news that people will read. The boss likes stories that have some heat, and one of the best ways to get political dope on a candidate is to talk--totally off the record--with opposition researchers like Brodkorb.
This is how Condon and Brodkorb scratch each other's backs. Guys like Brodkorb--former director of research for the Minnesota Republican Party--and other opposition researchers, gather anything remotely embarrassing about a candidate, package it up and pitch it to reporters from supposedly respectable news outlets like the Associated Press. They're a slimy form of PR agent, pitching stories to reporters.
The reporters, for their parts, like the slimy opposition research because it's usually packaged with all of the documentation, and the reporter gets the credit with his boss and in public for digging up the dirt.
Bloggers like Brodkorb add a new twist that makes it even more attractive for the reporter to cover opposition research as if it's "fair and balanced" journalism. The reporter can publish the opposition research, and even lead their own story with the slimy opposition researcher's point of view---just by "attributing" the line of thinking to the blogger.
Being a political reporter is hard work. You need to build up a network of contacts, people you have relationships with, who can give you the "inside scoop" on your beat. How much easier is it to take an "oppo dump" of opposition research, pre-packaged with all the so-called evidence lined up, and all the reporter has to do is write an article that parrots the opposition’s angle.
Everyone’s happy: editors love articles that sell fishwrap, reporters like scoops, and the opposition researcher drags the discussion away from their candidate’s flaws to a box of documents and innuendo about their opponent.
Without inside contacts you're forced to suck up to politicians directly, which can often result in embarrassing pieces like this one Patrick Condon wrote about Republican Mark Kennedy at the end of the 2006 campaign:
"You need only spend a few minutes with Kennedy, a U.S. congressman and the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, to see the importance he places on family. One of his favorite anecdotes in front of campaign crowds is about the start of his political career in 2000, when he rose from obscurity to beat incumbent Democratic congressman David Minge by 155 votes.
"All those votes came from my relatives," Kennedy, 49, joked to a group of supporters at a small fundraiser in Grand Rapids."
Or this comparison of Amy Klobuchar as ambitious politico and Kennedy as a "pretty independent guy."
MINNEAPOLIS - The job description of a county prosecutor doesn’t typically include trips to Israel, but Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar just returned from a Holy Land sojourn that included a personal meeting with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Klobuchar - one of several Democratic candidates for the open U.S. Senate seat on the 2006 ballot - must convince voters and national donors that she’s ready to jump from prosecuting rapists to helping set U.S. foreign policy. "A trip like that is a must for a candidate like Klobuchar," said Jennifer Duffy, analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based Cook Political Report.
While Klobuchar tries to beef up her resume, Republican candidate Mark Kennedy’s campaign has to convince voters that his isn’t printed on White House letterhead. This Friday, Kennedy welcomes President Bush to a Minneapolis fundraiser that could net a million dollars - even as Kennedy tries to keep a certain distance from an increasingly unpopular president.
"Mark’s approach has always been to run on his own vision for the future. He’s not running on anyone else’s record or agenda," said Pat Shortridge, Kennedy’s campaign manager. Shortridge pointed to Kennedy’s opposition to oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a Bush priority.
"That was a dustup with the White House. He’s a pretty independent guy," Shortridge said.
Not exactly incisive journalism...With this kind of puffery as the alternative, is it any wonder that reporters fall in love with opposition researchers?
"Though reporters, and blogs like the Drudge Report, take credit for scoops, the news of the day is more often than not produced by the invisible hand of one campaign or another," says Joshua Levy in a post on the blog at Personal Democracy Forum .
Michael Scherer from Salon wrote a terrific article on this subject in the May 14, 2007 edition, "The Matt Drudge Primary." in which he examined a series of these trivial "scandals," that are the result of oppo research doing the legwork for journalists who are supposed to be objective analysts of the political scene:
"Most of the time, the fingerprints of opposition research shops are untraceable," writes Scherer. "The first reporter to note the $400 haircuts of John Edwards, the Politico's Ben Smith, would not reveal to Salon whether he uncovered the fact himself from financial filings or had received a leak from a rival campaign. Similarly, Rick Klein, the senior political reporter for ABC News, declined a request to reveal how he uncovered last week the 13-year-old Planned Parenthood contributions of Mitt Romney's wife. Both stories may have resulted from impressive investigative reporting or from "oppo dumps" selectively leaked as a package of facts, gift-wrapped and tied with a bow."
John McCain’s gaffe singing "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran" was dished up by Matt Drudge (who brought us Monica Lewinski, remember?) after no one really noticed. Scherer recounts:
"Reporters covering the Murrells Inlet, S.C., rally last month, where McCain jokingly parodied the old Beach Boys song "Barbara Ann" with the words "Bomb Iran," didn't think the joke was news. Only one writer, Scott Harper, from the local Georgetown Times, mentioned it in his story, and he relegated it to the 17th paragraph. "I didn't think Jay Leno would be talking about it," he said.
"The Associated Press reporter on-site ignored the joke altogether, and focused his story on McCain's pledge to brief the public about Iraq on a biweekly basis if elected president. The reporter for the Sun-News, a local Myrtle Beach newspaper, also led with the press conference pledge and left out the joke. But then someone -- we don't know who, exactly -- sent a carefully edited video of the joke to Matt Drudge, who runs the most popular news blog in America and the premier outlet for anonymous political leaks from Republican insiders.
"The next day, the Drudge Report headline blared, "McCain Sings: 'Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran.'" Hours later, the Associated Press echoed Drudge by sending a new story over the wire, headlined "McCain Jokes About Bombing." By then the news was everywhere. Leno, Jon Stewart, each major television network and the big newspapers eventually mentioned the clip. That afternoon, McCain was caught on defense at a campaign appearance in Las Vegas, telling reporters to "lighten up and get a life."
(See the rest of the article by Scherer by following this link or the one above.)
So this is how it’s done. Guys like Patrick Condon act as legitimate outlets for the kind of slimy innuendo guys like Brodkorb get paid to dig up.
And we end up talking about a non-issue like the incompetence of Al Franken’s accountant rather than the 32 American patriots who died needlessly in Iraq this month.
And next month, thanks to people like AP’s Patrick Condon and the Republican Party’s Brodkorb we’ll be talking about some other "scandal" like a $400 haircut or a house party attended by a former radical wacko or---someone’s marriage or love life, or their parking tickets.
There’s a very real corrosion of democracy going on here, and we just can’t stop ourselves. We’re aided and abetted by journalists like the AP’s Patrick Condon who are getting desperate now. Reporters are losing their jobs as the newspaper business sinks into a sea of indifference.
Newspapers like the Minneapolis Tribune and television stations like our local CBS affiliate WCCO used to have bureaus in Washington staffed with serious reporters who had the time and the mission to dig into issues of national and regional importance.
Today it goes from some Republican opposition researcher’s lips to Matt Drudge’s ears, and the next thing you know we’re talking about blue dresses and oral sex instead of the economy and the war Iraq.
Is it any wonder we ended up with a needless $600 billion war? We were too busy watching John Kerry windsurf and trying to decide if that made him an "elitist." How can we solve the problems of a national health care system run amok when we’re talking about Jeremiah Wright?
And now that the economy is in a shambles and we should be holding Norm Coleman responsible for his unwavering support for George W. Bush--when that should be our discussion of the day, we’re reading puff pieces like this about opposition researchers as payback for doing the dirty legwork for people who used to be called journalists.
And hey Mr. Condon, there are blogs on the left in Minnesota that are engaging in the debate. We’re just trying to focus on issues that matter like war and veterans, healthcare, civil rights, jobs, you know, all that policy junk?
Two final questions must be asked of the Associated Press and Patrick Condon: what stories have been written that were the result of opposition research fed to him and the AP by Brodkorb and the Republican Party and how do you defend them?
And finally, why aren’t you writing about the important issues of this campaign like the economy, the war, healthcare, education, oil?
As we say here in Minnesota, "where’s the beef?"
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