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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Strib has a strangely truncated article on lobbyist money for Governor candidates; the name Siefert being tellingly absent.

This link. When I accessed it I got the "By PAT DOYLE, Star Tribune = Last update: March 30, 2010 - 9:47 PM" time-stamp version. (I could not find any earlier Google or Bing cache for it.)

It ended this way, this third of three page:

[...] But, he [Tom Bakk] added, "I suspect I probably wouldn't have gotten as many contributions if I had said I'm not going to be here next year."

Pat Doyle • 651-222-1210

LAWMAKERS HAVE EDGE IN RAISING FUNDS
Until Sen. Tom Bakk dropped out of the race last weekend, the DFLer from Cook far and away had the most contributions from lobbyists: more than $48,000. Of the remaining candidates seeking endorsement:




[Big f**king blank left here after the colon -- presumably where previously tabular information likely was originally posted before senior editors, presumably, got hands on things and the tablular approach got scrubbed.]




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I kid you not.

Three online pages. With a slant. Then ending where a table would have been and should have been placed as sufficient to have told the entire true and unslanted story - a tight, concise table, wholly without bias - the table was scrubbed. Go figure.

The pictures were of nobody but DFL candidates, and unfavorable pictures to boot. Mark Dayton side-lit and shadowed, camera tilted out of plumb put at the lead of the article, headlined this way [between dotted lines]:


.............................................................................
Home | Politically Connected | State Politics

Lobbyist cash flows to candidates with clout

[highly unfavorable Mark Dayton photo]

Lawmakers running for governor often get donations from those who hope to influence public policy.

By PAT DOYLE, Star Tribune
Last update: March 30, 2010 - 9:47 PM
.........................................................................


The STRIB suggestion being somehow that Mark Dayton, in the featured photo spot, was somehow being tied to lobbyist money [and a presumed accompanying wrongful influence]. Yet -- Buried in the story, mid-way, this actual bit of actual truth:


But other DFL candidates like Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, Matt Entenza and Mark Dayton, who are not in the Legislature, receive few if any lobbyist contributions. Republican Emmer's report says he got $125.

This is a sad, sad, sad, awfully sad excuse for journalism.

It slants the story, pure and simple. That brand of "reporting" is a big part of why the family no longer buys the paper.

The table would have had to include Siefert, right?

Table got scrubbed. Go figure.

In the middle of the article the fact that John Marty refuses to take any lobbyist money did not get reported, but buried unsaid, while they used a Marty quote for their smear of other pictured candidates.


"When they say it doesn't have any impact on their behavior, that's bogus," said Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville. "When somebody treats you nicely, that does have an influence."


Tom Emmer saying he got $125 in lobbyist money was reported. Yet, zippo about Siefert, the GOP frontrunner. If Emmer stated any comparative comments about his and Siefert's relative lobbyist contribution positions, or made comments or inferences, it must have not been deemed newsworthy, by STRIB.

Then, another Strib item, a separate post about the upcoming Marty announcement of a Lt. Governor name, look at how they worked the photo of Marty to look dreadful. It looks as if deliberately photoshoped in terms of extreme darkness, contrast, and bad color, to make it look that bad.

As if doctored somehow. If it was not doctored, there should be enough cash to buy a truer set of cameras.

They are slanting "reporting" and need to be called out big time for doing so.

A start -- how much cash has Siefert gotten from lobbyists? You tell me. Strib didn't.


_______________footnote_________________
Compare but two of the photos, one, Kelliher, from the referenced "lobbyist" item and Marty, from the report he would announce a Lt. Governor selection today.


Kelliher, STRIB version.



Kelliher, cleaned up to look decent.



Marty, STRIB version.



Marty, cleaned up to look decent.


Then, look at what, from their presumably extensive photo files, the senior editors picked to use as photos of Mark Dayton and of Matt Entenza.





Give me a break.

Give me journalism.

Not STRIB.

Journalism.