South Dakota Politics

Kranz Watch

According to the Scripps Howard Foundation, David Kranz, the dean of South Dakota political reporters, is the joint winner of the 2004 Roy W. Howard Award trophy for public service reporting:

PUBLIC SERVICE REPORTING - Under 100,000 circulation

Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, S.D. (Stu Whitney and David Kranz). The newspaper will receive $5,000 and the Roy W. Howard Award trophy.

The Argus Leader won for a series of stories that examined former South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow’s liberal and questionable use of his executive powers to pardon convicted criminals and commute sentences. Judges said, "The Argus Leader’s dogged pursuit of the extent and nature of secret gubernatorial pardons is an outstanding example of public service journalism. As a result of their efforts, the public’s right to know has been broadened in the best tradition of a determined free press.”

Congratulations to Dave Kranz for winning this honor. Of course, the public's right to know does not stop at the newsroom door. The public also deserves to know whether Kranz has collaborated with various Democratic campaigns and politicians throughout the years in his capacity as a purportedly unbiased journalist.

Ed Schultz Watch

Ed Schultz, the North Dakota radio personality touted as the liberal Rush Limbaugh, scores some good press from the local newspaper in Norfolk, Virginia, where Schultz attended high school. The piece is headlined "Ed Schultz -- A progressive voice from Norfolk to America's Heartland." Excerpt:

Lisa Sinclair, general manager of local talk radio mainstay WNIS, said Schultz’s show probably would not be picked up by her station.

“We have not had great success with liberal hosts in the past,” she said. It can be heard locally on satellite radio providers XM (Channel 166) and Sirius (Channel 143), from 3 to 6 p.m. weekdays.

In the last week, the show has been picked up by stations in Chapel Hill, N.C., Gates City, Va., Huntington, W.Va., and Salt Lake City.

Two of the first guests on his show, after he was signed to The Jones Radio Network, were Democratic senators Tom Daschle and Hillary Clinton.

“They are probably the two most vilified people on conservative talk radio in America,” Schultz said. “This program, from time to time, is going to give those folks an opportunity to fight back.” It’s lofty company for the red-headed boy who grew up in Norfolk’s Larchmont section.

How wonderful it must be for those poor defenseless liberals to finally have an opportunity to "fight back." I guess there's simply no opportunities for liberals to fight back through media like NPR, the New York Times, CNN, and network television.

Where's the clout?

Senator Daschle's amendment to the FY2005 Budget Resolution, allowing an increase of $3.44 billion for Indian Health Service Clinical Services, died on the Senate floor yesterday, with 54 voting against the amendment, and 42 voting for the amendment. According to the Senate Republican Policy Committee, this amendment would increase spending for the Indian Health Service to $6.12 billion for FY2005. For FY2004, Congress appropriated $2.921 billion for the IHS. The President’s budget request for FY2005 is $2.967. The Daschle amendment would have represented a 1-year, 110-percent increase in IHS funding.

All of this leads one to ask where Tom Daschle's clout is, and how he can claim to have "delivered for South Dakota" when he couldn't round up the votes needed to get this amendment passed. Could it be that this amendment was purely empty political posturing in an election year, rather than an attempt at trying to accomplish something reasonable? Say it ain't so!

New post at TLM

My first post as a contributor to the group blog "Oh, That Liberal Media!" can be accessed by clicking HERE.

Humorous pic of the week

An enterprising counterprotester seems to have suspicions that Tom Daschle is behind the anti-Cheney protest during the Vice President's visit to Sioux Falls this past Monday.

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.

Herseth attends NYC fundraiser

Stephanie Herseth, a self-described conservative Democrat, attended a fundraiser yesterday in New York City. The fundraiser was hosted by Representative Carolyn Maloney, who represents the tony Upper East Side "Silk Stocking" district of Manhattan, the richest congressional district in the nation (the district has the nation's highest average household income, and 70 percent of those households are headed by unmarried adults). The district's zip code -- 10021 -- is the top zip code in the country for political contributions. Woody Allen lives here. Ritzy dinner parties are held here, where the nation's elite gather, who generally have nothing but contempt for the red state values of South Dakota. These folks are the most limousine of limousine liberals.

When Dick Cheney was here in the state on Monday to raise money for John Thune, the local newspaper and television press spent a large amount of time on the fact that people had to pay to see the event. Steve Hildebrand pounced on this. But of course, not a paragraph will be written in the local press about Herseth hobnobbing with her hip fundraiser friends on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Nor will there be a paragraph written by the local media about Tom Daschle's most recent fundraiser in Colorado, as reported by the Daschle v. Thune blog.

Instapundit links to TLM

The good professor at Instapundit takes note of the new blog "Oh, That Liberal Media," a blog I am proud to contribute to.

Internet fundraising

The AP's Dale Wetzel has an interesting piece today headlined "Internet fund-raising playing larger role in ND campaigns." Excerpt:

In South Dakota, Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Thune and Stephanie Herseth, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House seat formerly held by Bill Janklow, are both running advertisements on political blogs....

Herseth has raised thousands of dollars from the ad on the Daily Kos site, including about $21,000 in a single day, [Daily Kos blogger Markos] Zuniga said. Russ Levsen, Herseth's communications director, could not confirm the amount.

Brokaw for Veep?

As the Daschle v. Thune blog reports, Vice President Dick Cheney is in South Dakota today to raise money for John Thune. Speaking of vice-presidents, the Wall Street Journal's John Fund has a column today headlined "A JFK-NBC Ticket?" discussing the possibility of South Dakota's own Tom Brokaw as John Kerry's running mate. Excerpt:

Last year, the New York Observer reported that an ad hoc committee of his media friends, including executives Barry Diller and Howard Stringer along with writers Nora Ephron and Kurt Andersen, "weren't taking no for an answer" when it came to promoting a Brokaw candidacy for president. "He simply is the greatest draft choice you could ever possibly imagine," said Mr. Diller. "He's such a natural on so many levels that I can't imagine how you could create it otherwise. Of course it's absurd, but there it is." Ms. Ephron predicted last year that if Mr. Brokaw changed his mind, "$20 million would come pouring in in about a week." Mr. Brokaw demurred, saying through a spokesman: "I'm not running for anything." But Mickey Kaus of Slate reported last year that Mr. Brokaw remains intensely interested in politics and has thought about running for president.

John Thune, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Mr. Brokaw's home state of South Dakota, agrees. He says Mr. Brokaw has been intrigued by politics ever since his days at the University of South Dakota. "It would be a fascinating out of the box choice," he told me. A South Dakota Democratic state legislator assures me that Mr. Brokaw would be a good ideological fit for Mr. Kerry, with the added advantage that "no one thinks of him as a liberal."

Kranz Watch

David Kranz, the dean of South Dakota political reporters, finally mentions the term "blog" in his column, over a year after the emergence of SDP on the South Dakota political scene. Since then of course, the Dakota Alliance of blogs has emerged, including Sibby Online and the Daschle v. Thune blog. South Dakota radio personality Greg Belfrage often shares his thoughts online too. Kranz's piece is headlined "Daschle-Thune race heating up." Relevant graf:

Even though Thune is not in the middle of TV-ad wars, there is a campaign presence, including a message on a Web site blog with a his logo and the words, "Stop Tom Daschle's obstructionism."

This is Argus Leader journalism at its finest. There's no explanation of what a "blog" is, even though this is the first time Kranz has ever used the term in his column. Kranz doesn't refer the reader to where they can find the blog with the Thune ad, which seems like a rather egregious omission to me, and leads me to wonder why he omitted that information. The blog Kranz refers to, of course, is Instapundit.