Argus skips positive AP story on Thune

To determine whether a newspaper has an agenda, it's important to pay attention to the news it does NOT publish as well as to the news it does publish. With that in mind, I direct you to the discovery of the latest bias event at the Argus Leader uncovered by the Daschle v. Thune blog. While newspapers around the state (Rapid City Journal, Mitchell Daily Republic, Yankton Press & Dakotan) ran an AP story in today's editions about John Thune's efforts to attract the Native American vote, the AL editors made what is to my mind a transparently conscious decision not to publish the story. Just as appalling is the fact that the AL has not yet reported that Native American activist Russell Means is campaigning for John Thune.

Recently, I had a conversation about local politics with a Native American acquaintence of mine who is an informed observer of the South Dakota political scene. He was surprised to hear that Russell Means is a Thune supporter, and hadn't heard that information at all. I think this is compelling anecdotal evidence of how effective it is for the AL to ignore news that might positively affect John Thune's campaign.

Clearly, as the Daschle v. Thune blog notes, the AL's willful bias is distorting the democratic process.

UPDATE: John Fund at the Wall Street Journal notes Russell Means' comments in the AP story cited above:

Senator Tom Daschle, the Senate Minority Leader, is worried that the overwhelming support that American Indians in South Dakota have given Democrats won't be automatic in his re-election race this year. Republicans are stepping up outreach on the reservations and have won the support of Indian activist and actor Russell Means. He's been telling tribal leaders that the Democratic Party have established a system that makes Indians beholden to the federal government -- with Sen. Daschle one of the primary beneficiaries. "I mean it's pure communism and it's an abject failure. Just like it was in the Soviet Union. It's failure. You've created a dictatorship by the Bureau of Indian Affairs," Mr. Means told the Associated Press.

Mr. Daschle responds that the federal government has an obligation to help the Indians because "we have Third World conditions" on the reservations. His choice of words is drawing heat in some parts of South Dakota. "It's a similar reaction to what would happen if Trent Lott said that about the South Bronx or Watts," says one South Dakota observer.