The Argus Leader ran this headline yesterday morning: "Ethanol push is gathering steam; Herseth, Midwest legislators offer blending bill in U.S. House."
Rep. Herseth co-sponsors a new bill with a bunch of other Congressmen and it's headline news. Yet, when Senator Thune passed his own ethanol bill out of committee a few weeks ago, the Argus never ran a story on it. We're still dealing with the same old Argus--promoting Democrats and ignoring Republican acomplishments.
UPDATE: To clarify, I mean that the Argus didn't run a story soon after Thune's ethanol bill passed out of committee. That's a problem, because the fact that a freshman Senator had his own ethanol bill sent to the floor of the Senate is a big story. That the Argus later folded that information into a bigger story about ethanol is fine, but it clearly deserved its own story, much like the Herseth story from Friday. What also underscores the double standard is the fact that Thune's ethanol bill passed out of committee, a big event, and Herseth just signed onto to some other legislation. The big (Republican) story (getting something done) doesn't get the ink it deserves. The borderline meaningless (Democrat) story (of course she co-sponsored an ethanol bill) gets a headline. On the subject of ethanol reporting, note this SDP post from last year, which notes how hard the Argus tried to tout Daschle's "clout" even when there was no evidence of it:
Ethanol is a hugely important issue in this year's Senate race in South Dakota. Since ethanol is so important, it is illuminating to observe the coverage of the issue in the Argus Leader, the state's newspaper of record. Last fall, when the energy bill with its ethanol provisions was poised to pass in the Senate, and which the President was prepared to sign into law, the AL had a front page, above the fold, horizontally placed story with the headline "Daschle lends clout to energy bill" (Nov. 20, 2003). That is a laudatory, cheerleading headline, which goes far beyond reporting the fact that Daschle supported the energy bill, and into the realm of pamphleteering. Worse, the headline was misleading. The fact is, Daschle didn't "lend clout" to the energy bill. The National Journal quoted Democratic sources to that effect:
But Democratic senators and aides close to leadership today said Daschle feels he has done enough in announcing his support for the bill and will respect the fact that a majority of Senate Democrats strongly oppose it. "He doesn't owe [Senate Majority Leader Frist] anything," one Democratic source said today.
The energy bill ultimately failed due to a Democratic-led filibuster.
Today, when Tom Daschle's efforts to tack the ethanol amendment onto the internet tax bill failed miserably, the story about it in the Argus Leader did not make the front page, above the fold. It was relegated to a different section of the paper. There was no headline like "Daschle fails to deliver on ethanol." It seems that when Daschle succeeds, or is even on the brink of success on an important priority, it's front page news, but when Daschle fails, it's kept off the front page.
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