Last Monday I did a piece on how the AP has joined the local media in the Twin Cities in enabling a certain paid Republican operative and blogger named Michael Brodkorb, treating him as respectfully as they do Matt Drudge, even though (like Drudge) he's known for spewing bogosities.
And like the national press, the Twin Cities press isn't as forelock-tuggingly deferent to non-conservative bloggers; the same media that cites Brodkorb by name as an honest and "independent" source seem to suffer memory lapses where the contributions of lefty bloggers are concerned.
For example: Last week, a local lefty blogger attended a GOP presscon. The presscon was held to hand out the latest Al-Franken-bashing talking points (the first versions of which, mentioned in my earlier post, were being pushed by Brodkorb) to the ever-compliant local media. The blogger tried questioning Minnesota Republican Party Chair Ron Carey about the party's FEC fines and other nasty things. However, the StarTribune did its darnedest not to use the guy's name, even though his question gave Strib scribes Pat Doyle and Dan Browning a page B1 (and teased on the front page) story in its May 8, 2008 edition:
A left-leaning blogger tried to ask Carey about the party’s FEC reports at a news conference the GOP called last week to highlight Franken’s problems. Carey dismissed him, saying the press briefing “is something for our credentialed media here.”
Carey did not respond this week to Star Tribune requests for an interview about the FEC filings.
“Just like any political entity, the Republican Party of Minnesota continues to work with the FEC to make certain our filings are in compliance,” party spokesman Mark Drake said in an e-mail Tuesday.
For the record, Two-Putt Tommy is the blogger in question. Here's the question he wanted to ask Ron Carey:
Read the rest of this entry »
Login Here

67 Comments

Support this site!
Keep up with news
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search

RSS/XML Feed