Well, today's edition of the Argus Leader contains more evidence that the editors at the AL can swing into action at a moment's notice when they want to. (In other words, when it helps the Daschle campaign.) The story at issue is headlined "McCain, Bush cited in Senate patriotism flap" and it's about what Senator John McCain said, or more accurately sort of said, on the Ed Schultz show yesterday. I hasten to add that Jon Walker, the reporter who wrote the story, is not the problem here. He's a principled, conscientiously objective reporter who is simply carrying out an assignment from his editor, Patrick Lalley. Patrick Lalley is the AL editor responsible for what political stories are covered (and more importantly what political stories are NOT covered). Patrick Lalley's guiding principle of political coverage rests on his notion (as Lalley himself has written) that Republicans are "evil."
Here's the relevant excerpt from the AL article:
McCain was a guest Monday on a talk radio show hosted by Ed Schultz of station KFGO of Fargo."We have differences of opinions with the Democrats," McCain said. "We are not enemies. The real enemy is out there - al Qaida and others that are trying to destroy us."
"But is debating war policy 'emboldening' the enemy?" Schultz asked.
"I think that debating a war policy is a legitimate exercise in democracy," McCain answered. "We are entitled to and must respect each other's views even if we disagree with them. Wars throughout our history have been disagreed with by certain elements in our society. That's what we fight for."
I'll wait for a later post to expound on the fact that even the Argus Leader editorial page said Daschle's comments at the 11th hour could not possibly be viewed as legitimate dissent.
Apart from the debate over Daschle's Iraq war comments, it's important to explain who Ed Schultz is. Ed Schultz, of course, is the North Dakota radio personality touted as the liberal version of Rush Limbaugh, and this blog has kept an eye on him since he began his nationwide broadcast that nobody listens to. In fact, no South Dakota radio station carries Schultz's nationwide broadcast, which leads one to ask how many degrees of seperation had to occur for the Argus Leader to even know about John McCain being on the Ed Schultz show yesterday. Oh, Patrick Lalley just happened to be listening in on the Ed Schultz show yesterday? Of course not. Undoubtedly, Daschle campaign manager Steve Hildebrand or one of his minions got in touch with Lalley to alert him that John McCain was going to be on the show and was going to be asked about John Thune's "emboldens the enemy" comment. Ed Schultz is friends with Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, (it was Dorgan who was instrumental in getting Schultz's nationwide broadcast off the ground) who in turn is one of Senator Daschle's closest allies. There can be no doubt that this was a carefully orchestrated setup of John McCain by Daschle and his allies in order to get a favorable story in a friendly newspaper back in South Dakota. The Democrat-Argus Leader collaboration can be readily observed, a phenomenon explained by Daschle's media strategist in a 1997 article in Campaigns & Elections magazine. Relevant graf:
The press ate it up. Our campaign systematically doled out the information piece by piece to reporters in D.C. and South Dakota. The result was a series of damaging articles. ... We used the headlines generated as validators for our ads.
So, clearly the Democrat-Argus Leader collaboration effect can be readily observed here. Another indication of how badly the Argus Leader editors want Daschle to win is how quickly they report a fellow Republican who says something negative about John Thune, and how the Argus Leader totally ignores what a fellow Democrat says that's negative about Tom Daschle. Earlier this month, Zell Miller, a Democratic Senator from Georgia, had this to say about Tom Daschle:
"[Tom Daschle has] taken the party so far to the left that I can't even recognize it."
Of course, the Argus Leader didn't say peep about this comment critical of a fellow Democrat. Zell Miller has also implicitly criticized Senator Daschle and the fact that his wife is a lobbyist in his book entitled "A National Party No More." Relevant graf about the propriety of congressional spouses being lobbyists:
"Talk about 'gathering ye rosebuds while ye may.' It gives a new meaning to 'pillow talk.' I cast no aspersions on the ones who do this, nor do I doubt their honesty. But in a business where 'perception' is just about the same as 'reality,' it looks suspicious as hell. It looks like someone's riding the gravy train. It does not pass the smell test."
The Argus Leader, of course, didn't say peep about this either. The AL double standard is readily apparent. When a fellow Republican says something negative about John Thune, it's front-page news in the very next day's edition. When a fellow Democrat says something negative about Tom Daschle, it's ignored.
Now watch Argus Leader executive editor Randell Beck, who seems to be living in an alternate universe lately, say that the AL has reported Zell Miller's comments "at least twice."
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