Posted: October 23, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Obvious Bias in Billings Coverage
Every Republican candidate in Montana is walking around saying that the problem is the Democrats’ spending and taxes in Helena. Of course, anybody who actually informs themselves in a smart way knows that this is the complete opposite of reality. Montanans waited for thirty years for tax cuts and spending reduction from Republicans who talked a big game, before Dems finally took over and did it, and returned a nice rebate check to every homeowner and have reduced spending so efficiently that the Wall Street Journal, the right-wing rag, has credited them for it.
But you wouldn’t know it by reading the Billings Gazette, because it’s owned and run by conservatives. As an example, let’s look at a headline and article today about a recent issue.
To review, here is John Kerry’s Goose-gate coverage in 2004 in the Gazette. Not an unfair article at all. It calls him out for what he was, a wealthy urban ivy-leaguer trying to burnish his “regular guy” credentials, not to mention a terrible campaigner.
Flash forward to Roy Brown’s identical blunder, a 2006 goose hunting photo, all decked out in camoflauge. At the time he took the photos he had not ever hunted in Montana, at least not as far back as license records go, which is 1989, and probably further.
Knowing that the press would not cover this, a Democratic group called Values, Energy and Growth PAC brought Roy’s fraudulent photo to the attention of voters by running TV ads and mail. And here is how it was all covered in today’s Gazette: with the headline, “Dems paid for attack ads, fliers.”
And of course, it doesn’t even mention the TV commercial, nor the incriminating goose photos, nor the fact that Roy never hunted or fished until he needed some “gun crowd” photos produced on the eve of his run for Governor.
Rather, the story in the Gazette is all about how a Democratic Party-funded group went after poor Roy. In a previous about negative mail in the Van Dyk/Brown race, the Gazette quoted Roy as saying that negative mail was making his wife cry.
Worse, there is little discussion in today’s article of the fact that the GOP is doing exactly the same thing to Kendall Van Dyk, under the direction of several GOP veteran operatives and their shady groups called “Montana Business Leadership PAC” and “Jobs for Montana PAC” and “Better Government PAC”.
What is especially troubling about this lack of fair coverage is that Roy is walking around Billings saying that Montana democrats are “spending and taxing too much”, which is the complete opposite of reality. Just ask Denny Rehberg and Newt Gingrich, who are on record crediting the current administration for miraculous fiscal restraint, enabled by legislation that Democrats in the legislature presented to the Governor, not to mention the help of a full slate of Democratic state-wide officials who cut their own budgets too.
Not a single article in the Gazette has addressed this basic “taxing and spending” lie that underlies Roy’s entire campaign, and that underlies also the third-party campaigns against Kendall Van Dyk by the GOP and its associated conservative groups, and that also underlies the entire GOP legislative campaign around the state this season.
We are all getting goosed by the Billings Gazette.
I only goose people when I have my man purse on.
The more I look at the two pics the more I think John Kerry is a real hunter but they both look fake
If you look for bias against Democrats/Republicans in the media, you will find it. If you look for favoritism you will find it. If you look for anything resembling news, which this entire incident is not, you will not find it.
I’m not going to parse that sentence. But here’s the funny part – you go on to say that the Democrats have been successful at achieving Republican objectives, and that we should be happy about that. As with the whole man-purse affair from the beginning, you are devoid of self-awareness, and like Christine O’Donnell at the Widener debate in Delaware when she made the audience laugh (she thought it was because they agreed with her), you’re just a tad on the clueless side of things.
Oh geez. Now you’ve gone and REALLY done it THIS time, Cowgirl! You got Tokarski’s knickers in a knot! Oh wait! I didn’t MEAN that! I apologize all to hell for the inadvertent sexual slur! I mean, I can’t PROVE that T wears knickers! Are there manly knickers????? Or just the frilly kind? DAMN it’s hard to be PC with so many idioms in this darned English language! How bout it, mark? Are you comfortable in knickers?
Sounds like you got your snoot in a bottle.
Uh dude. Your reply was to yourself. So, do you have your snoot in a bottle?
Nah, just his head up his ass. Tokarski can occassionally be a Buttinski. Who knows why. If he hates Cowgirl so much, why does he even post here? I don’t get it. Doesn’t he have his OWN site somewhere? Maybe he reads this one to see what it’s like to actually have a site that gets traffic! Not much traffic over at Big Sky Buttinski I guess! (disclaimer: I don’t know for sure if that’s the name of Tokarski’s site)
By Wulfgar:
“Uh dude. Your reply was to yourself. So, do you have your snoot in a bottle?”
Oh-oh. Looks like the Troll crawled outa the dark to peek over the edge of the bridge again…
strange, (or maybe not so) that your current ‘infamous-osity’ is that you’ve blogged from w/i a state office (nothing illegal about that. What bothers me is that certain people seem to find it ‘of vital importance’ to ‘discover your real identity’, as if that wouldn’t be a violation of your basic rights as am American Citizen, but, there we go, since when did Republicans give a toss about your basic ‘freedoms’ as a Citizen? they’re hoping you’re using a ‘State ‘puter’! this is something so idiotic, something only a ‘Pub’ with the intellect of the infamous ‘Dubya’ could’ve drubbed up! of which speaking, he of whom only lately has been whining how much he misses ‘presidential perks’, he ought to be thankful he isn’t prosecuted as a ‘war criminal’, which isn’t unlikely, as there is no statute of limitations on that ‘handle’
I didn’t hear Democrats claiming Republican bias when the Gazette endorsed Jon Tester… Beth Baker… or the dozens of other democrats the gazette has back through the years. I didn’t hear you crying wolf when Mr. Lutey wrote about the Tea party.
The claim of bias just doesn’t pass muster.
No one is complaining about endorsements in editorial pages, the arguement is that bias is in the news section. Of course, who could argue that Jon Tester is anything but authentic.
Oh and shame of Republicans for implying that Kendall Van Dyk is associated with President Obama. Shame on them for talking about his proposed new tax on energy companies.
Dear Enema, pull your head out for a moment, girl, and explain in detail how Van Dyk has ANYthing to do with Obama! You’re an idiot.
The entire Republican strategy of trying to tie local and state level Democrats to Obama and Washington is a complete fraud.
They simply lack the courage to tell it like it is. While driving down Tenth Av. South the other day, I saw a campaign sign for Jim Whitaker, a local Pubbie. On his campaign sign (and I’m NOT making this up), it said “A vote for a democrat is a vote for Obama”. I was dumbfounded. I can NEVER in my lifetime remember a time when there was a negative statement on a friggin’ campaign sign ferchrissake for an individual! You see, they have so demonized the first black president, that Obama’s name has become a code word itself. They can’t come right out and say that “a vote for a dem is a vote for that n*gger and his n*gger loving party”! So, they do the next best thing. It’s simply incredible! I defy any Pubbie out there to present an example of a negative statement on a freakin’ campaign sign for an individual prior to this! It just ain’t there. The Pubbies and their teapartly stupid, partly racist pals have gone absolutely insane. Their hatred has consumed them to the point where they have simply become treasonous. Crazy people are NOT the best policy makers.
If a picture is worth a thousand words… how many words would two pictures of KVD with Obama be worth?