Kranz Watch

I was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon a guest column written in the opinion pages of the Argus Leader, dated January 15, 1986, that takes David Kranz to task for his Democratic cheerleading. Kranz is the so-called dean of South Dakota political reporters, and has been systematically scrutinized by this blog for his biased reporting. The guest column I refer to above was written by Lowell Hansen, who at the time was lieutenant governor, and running for the Republican nomination for governor. Hansen lost the primary to George Mickelson later in 1986. It's remarkable how Hansen's column, published eighteen years ago, strikes almost precisely the same themes regarding Kranz and the Argus Leader that I've been striking on this blog for the past year.

The piece by Hansen is headlined "Columnist's political prediction, Argus Leader fail to tell the whole story." The entire piece follows:

A recent political column by Argus Leader City Editor David Kranz promoting former Ambassador Richard Kneip for governor deserves a response.

Everybody has biases -- even writers -- and I understand and accept that. But Kranz goes too far.

When Kranz was the editor of the Mitchell Daily Republic, he was an unapologetic promoter of Democratic candidates for political office. During the golden years of the Democratic party in South Dakota, folks like Kneip, Jimmy Carter, and George McGovern beat a path to Kranz's door. In Mitchell, they used to have a saying: "When George McGovern sneezes, it's Dave Kranz who catches the cold."

And that's fine. Everybody is entitled to have a preference. But, when that someone has access to thousands of readers, the public deserves to know where he's coming from.

In predicting Kneip would be elected governor, Kranz unobjectively ignores several well-known factors.

First, Kneip caries the highest negative name recognition of any non-incumbent South Dakota politician. People generally feel he had his three terms as governor before he ducked out to work for Carter, and that's enough time on the taxpayers' payroll.

More importantly, there is a prevailing attitude of distrust for Kneip among even Democrats, as evidenced by two very attractive Democrat primary challengers.

Taxpayers remember the excesses of the Kneip administration, his nonstop campaign for a state income tax, the cement plant mess, the bankrupt railroads and on and on. It was a good time for Democratic cheerleaders like Kranz to have an inside track to state government but a lousy time for taxpayers.

Kranz further continues to promote long, marathon political campaigns when he knows more than 80 percent of South Dakota voters favor short campaigns.

A recent poll conducted by Decision Making Information confirmed the folly of long political campaigns in South Dakota. After spending thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours campaigning last fall, the three most "active" Republican campaigners for governor all lost statewide support, one by as much as 10 percent.

So what is his motive? To measure public opinion or make public opinion based on his view of who should be governor. You decide.

But my problems with the Argus Leader go far beyond Kranz pursuing his Democrat political hobby.

With the exception of a few years out of state for college, the Army, and ranching, I've spent my entire life in this city. I've seen the good times and the bad, and I've seen our locally owned and respected paper bought up by out-of-state interests. That's where the trouble began.

A few months ago, two other concerned citizens and myself met with the editorial board of the Argus Leader to express our concerns about the negative way in which they treat our city.

We felt the Argus Leader attitude was seriously affecting our state's image as a positive market and that the paper did not reflect the interests of its readership. There was no political basis for this meeting but rather a concerned community attempting to communicate with this major media.

The Sioux Falls Argus Leader management takes criticism very poorly. Basically, they told us to mind our own business and they'd run things the way they wanted.

I knew that I was doing myself little good when I met the editorial board, but I didn't know that I'd be unleashing Kranz.

Now, personally, I like Kranz. He reminds me a lot of Howard Cosell. Like Cosell, he wants us to believe that "he tells it like it is." But, also like Cosell, He's "never played the game." He'd like to believe he's on the inside of every campaign. When he's not, watch out, you'll read about it in his column on Sundays.

Last year, as your lieutenant governor, I made 156 public appearances in South Dakota. Not once throughout our state did I hear one positive comment about the Argus Leader. Not one.

In spite of those 156 public appearances, Kranz says I am not active. This reflects an apparent Argus Leader policy to discredit those who speak up or disagree with their views.

In the coming weeks, you can be sure the Argus Leader will continue to promote their favorite candidates for public office. However, Republicans know better than to be duped by Democratic Party cheerleaders or a newspaper that too seldom reflects the interests of South Dakotans.

In the quiet of the voting booth, Republicans and Democrats will nominate those candidates they feel can best lead our state.

Next time you read about me in the Argus Leader, please take a moment to remember "the rest of the story." We have too many important things to accomplish in South Dakota than to bow to a media chain which thrives on negativism and people's problems in order to turn a profit each month.