It is additionally heartwarming that CBS has discovered Red State America, which South Dakota could be a model for. I just wonder where CBS has been for the past 18 or more years, when the Souix Falls Argus Leader has had Daschle college friend David Kranz as it's top political reporter. The Argus Leader has been the big foot media of South Dakota with all the state's smaller papers and media outlets following its lead.
Below I've excerpted just a couple articles on this bias, which I discovered after intensive investigative research, say 3 minutes using Google, because I remembered an article about this bias in reading about the Daschle v Thune campaign last summer.
Clearly, CBS just cannot stand it, that non-liberals are now getting their message out and having an impact. One funny thing I found out, is that Daschle had 515 campaign staffers to run his campaign. Thune had 18 and the GOP had 70. Ignored by SeeBS.
Clearly, the bias at the Argus Leader is institutional. The people making the decisions about story placement and headline writing know that what they do has a major impact on public opinion in South Dakota.
Somehow, their decisions almost always cut in favor of Tom Daschle. Who makes these decisions? The editors. Who are the editors? The executive editor is Randell Beck, but the executive editor is more involved with the long-range visions and goals of the newspaper, and has less to do with the day-to-day decision-making. The managing editor and the assistant editor are involved in the day-to-day decisionmaking on things like story placement and headline writing.
Interestingly, the assistant editor of the Argus Leader is a fellow by the name of Patrick Lalley, who in the early 1990's was the editor of the now defunct Sioux Falls Tempest, a free alternative weekly. I believe Lalley may have even founded the Tempest. The Tempest was known as the Sioux Falls version of the Village Voice, and advocated issues from a far-left perspective. There's certainly nothing wrong with advocating left-wing views, but there is something wrong with advocating left-wing views under the cloak of "objectivity."
I'll be looking up old copies of the Tempest in the coming weeks to investigate whether Lalley has left a paper trail that might explain what's behind the institutional bias at the Argus Leader.
More at the link: http://southdakotapolitics.blogs.com/south_dakota_politics/2004/week18/
MORE KRANZ/ARGUS BIAS
EXPOSEDwww.southdakotapolitics.blogspot.com
Sunday, August 17, 2003
KRANZ WATCH: Today's edition of the Chicago Sun-Times contains Bob Novak's report on Tom Daschle's claiming of the "homestead deduction" for his $1.9 million home in Washington, a tax exemption that is available only to those who list their home as their "principal" residence. Novak also published the same report yesterday on townhall.com. Novak's report followed up Jeff Gannon's scoop.
In his Sunday column today, David Kranz, the dean of South Dakota political reporters, ignores this news item regarding Tom Daschle, but does manage to plug Tom Daschle's new book, "Like No Other Time," due out this fall.
David Kranz's pro-Daschle bias, despite holding himself out as an objective observer of South Dakota politics, has long been a topic on this blog.
More at the link: http://www.sdakotagop.com/newsdetail.asp?iNewsID=189
Great insight. Thanks!