When David Kranz, the dean of South Dakota political reporters, publishes a story that is embarrassing to Tom Daschle, the first thing I do is brace myself for the coming onslaught of pro-Daschle columns. Since I think it's reasonable to believe that David Kranz collaborates with the Daschle campaign, Kranz writing a negative story about Daschle means he has to make up for it the following week with some major pro-Daschle spin.
Last Sunday, much to my surprise, Kranz actually reported the fact that Tom Daschle had called Tim Giago, a Native American journalist who is making an independent bid for the Senate, to beg him to get out of the race. I was surprised, because it is unusual for someone who reports the news as a political stratagem for Tom Daschle to report a story that is embarrassing to Daschle. As I said, I braced myself for the coming pro-Daschle onslaught. And Kranz didn't disappoint. Yesterday's column, headlined "Politicos see no danger of Daschle losing clout," is ridiculous. It's classic Daschle cheerleading. It's obviously an attempt to squelch what Kranz and Daschle must consider an effective line of criticism by the Thune campaign, namely, that Daschle will not remain the Democratic Leader even if he is re-elected.
It's not as though that criticism of Daschle was made out of thin air. Even one of Tom Daschle's former staffers has publicly questioned whether Daschle can still lead the Democrats. As DVT has reported, the Democratic base is in an uproar about Tom Daschle's leadership. DVT has also noted a January story in The Hill quoting Chris Dodd as saying “There is an appetite out there for Democrats to start answering in a more aggressive way … policies that we disagree with.”
Sibby Online and DVT have both responded to yesterday's column by Kranz. Sibby notes this quote from Stuart Rothenberg a month ago:
Arlington, Va.: Is there any incumbent Senator of either party who would be a good bet to be defeated this time around?Stuart Rothenberg: Only two are really vulnerable at this point: Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who was appointed to her seat by her daddy, and Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) who has a terrific opponent in John Thune and has lost the "clout" issue that saved his SD Democratic colleague, Tim Johnson, in 2002.
(Emphasis added.) Charlie Cook has also recently said that the "Daschle as power-broker" argument has diminished. Of course, none of this was reported by Kranz in any of his Sunday columns.
David Kranz is held out to be an impartial observer of the political scene in South Dakota. But yesterday's column is one in a long line of columns that encapsulate partisan journalism. I don't have a problem with partisan journalism, as long as those who practice it don't pretend to be objective. The problem is that David Kranz pretends to be objective. And sadly, we can only expect more of this partisan journalism cloaked as impartiality as the year progresses. Perhaps it's time once again to discuss the reasonableness standard, in trying to come to grips with whether it's reasonable to believe that David Kranz is now and has in the past collaborated with Democratic political candidates. Stay tuned.
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