Would you like some cheese with that?
SD Progressive hates it. SDP loves it.
And add me to the love it pile.
I think I've noted on several occasions (as in my 2005 top 10 political stories of the year), that it doesn't look like the Argus Leader cares much for the Governor.
And as related by the publisher Arnold Garson to Gannett News, amazingly enough, after being beaten on by the Argus for the last two or three years, Governor Rounds exercised his right in choosing how to spend money out of his personal campaign funds. And he refrained from spending it with them:
To the Governor, I say "good for you."
I mean, if it's escaped anyone's notice, at times the Argus has gone past objective investigative reporting on state issues of concern and especially in the case of editor Randall Beck's many editorial columns snidely bashing the Governor, they have a tendency to alternately be mean spirited diatribes or scoldings.
No one is expecting hearts and flowers all the time (it is the media, and it's expected that sometimes we don't like what we hear) but often the nasty tone has gone beyond what anyone would consider "South Dakota."
Think of it this way. If I go past the ice cream store, and the owner spits at me all winter, should he have a basis to complain when I prefer to buy my ice cream from the Schwan's man instead? I think not.
So he spent his money somewhere else? Argus, don't play the shocked victim. It's unbecoming. You should have expected it.
And add me to the love it pile.
I think I've noted on several occasions (as in my 2005 top 10 political stories of the year), that it doesn't look like the Argus Leader cares much for the Governor.
And as related by the publisher Arnold Garson to Gannett News, amazingly enough, after being beaten on by the Argus for the last two or three years, Governor Rounds exercised his right in choosing how to spend money out of his personal campaign funds. And he refrained from spending it with them:
When the election was over, Arnold Garson, publisher in Sioux Falls and vice president for the Gannett Pacific Group, sent an e-mail to me showing both the cost and the payoff of this investigative project. The e-mail said:Read that all here.
"On the one hand, our tough reporting on the governor's unchecked personal use of state airplanes was one of two news projects that have cost us having any kind of relationship with the governor. (The other project is our still-ongoing effort, including lawsuit, to obtain the names of persons invited to the state-funded Governor's Pheasant Hunt.) He won't meet with the editorial board for any purpose. He has attempted to shut down our reporters' access to all his state departments. And in his recent re-election campaign, he specifically outed the Argus Leader and its weeklies from the political advertising buys his campaign staff placed in every other daily and weekly newspaper in the state. I figure that cost us about $50,000.
To the Governor, I say "good for you."
I mean, if it's escaped anyone's notice, at times the Argus has gone past objective investigative reporting on state issues of concern and especially in the case of editor Randall Beck's many editorial columns snidely bashing the Governor, they have a tendency to alternately be mean spirited diatribes or scoldings.
No one is expecting hearts and flowers all the time (it is the media, and it's expected that sometimes we don't like what we hear) but often the nasty tone has gone beyond what anyone would consider "South Dakota."
Think of it this way. If I go past the ice cream store, and the owner spits at me all winter, should he have a basis to complain when I prefer to buy my ice cream from the Schwan's man instead? I think not.
So he spent his money somewhere else? Argus, don't play the shocked victim. It's unbecoming. You should have expected it.
Comments
Seems they just keep shooting themselves in the foot and then crying about it. I wish another paper would take them on!
The problem is that many people believe everything they read in a newspaper and don't look past the headlines. And those are the ones that the Argus is targeting and with whom it's successful.
The best reason, I have heard, why Rounds does not give out the Governor's hunt list is, why should we give our best prospective business owners list to the competition, the other States can get their own prospects.
Thanks to all Conservatives, you are the bright light in our Great State!
By the way, I have never been invited on the Hunt.
Ever since Randall Beck came on board, the Argus has shifted its focus from "reporting" the news to "creating" the news. Now I understand that the press has a watchdog role, but there should not be some new Argus-created "outrage" every Sunday!
Rounds did not run one ad in the Argus in 2006 and I doubt he ever will.
The happy news is that the new Argus format, both in print and on the website, is costing it subscribers in droves. I don't know why they thought this new format was a good idea - it seems like you could just look to the NY Times, Washington Post, etc. to find a model of a successful format.
Eventually the other shoe has to drop for the Argus - you cannot be successful if you serve as the SD Democratic Party's newsletter with a format everyone hates and an editorial staff made up almost entirely of out-of-staters whose only experience with the State is in that newsroom.
I should just say: I don't have a problem with a paper writing editorials taking whatever position they want. People can take editorials for what they are. But the reporting of the news should be unbiased and dispassionate - and disconnected from the editorial page. You get the sense when you read the Argus that first they choose a target, then they write the lead editorial, and then they send out a reporter to write a story that backs up their view.
SF is ripe for competition in the print media market.
There's no doubt in my mind that Bishop Carlson was removed from this area because of his relationship with the Argus... They kept going after him, and he kept retaliating until the Church decided it was just better to move him away from the fire...
I'm sure the new Bishop will be fine, but I'm convinced the Argus ran our old one out of town.
I don't notice a whole lot of difference in news coverage between the Argus and the Journal. The editorial pages are different, but the Mitchell Daily Republic seems to have the most rabid right perspective of all of them and it does appear to taint their news coverage.
Cutting political ads from any media because they don't bend over backward to cover a politician's rear has an element of blackmail in it. Interesting that somebody decided to make that fact available.
Of course, Rounds could have skipped advertising completely and contributed all of his campaign funds to the Rounds Insurance Hall of Fame and Distillery and he probably would have beaten Jack Billion anyway.
I would like to note that another blogger has brought up the fact that Rounds wouldn't debate with the Argus Leader as a mediator. Here's what happened: the AL was supposed to have someone sit in and ask a question at one of the gov debates. Rounds asked that the AL person be removed on the grounds that the paper had already taken a political stance by endorsing Billion. The tv station putting on the debate agreed, and had them removed from the debate. I thought that was pretty sweet.
I would like to explore the idea of starting a new newspaper in the SF area with the purpose of providing an unbiased source of news. The paper would not include an editorial, because I really don't see why South Dakotans would care what a newspaper's opinion is. The paper would not be right leaning, like FOX(admittedly fun to watch), but would be completely unbiased. I think dems would go for it, too, because I wouldn't say the AL has necessarily helped them as a result of their credibility issues. An endorsement by the AL is often referred to as the "kiss of death". Just my thoughts...
The whole idea of free speech is that you can say what you want uninhibited - but YOU HAVE TO PAY THE CONSEQUENCES.
The Argus has the First Amendment right to bash Rounds in its news coverage. And Rounds has the First Amendment right to buy his ads - his political speech - from someone else.
Rounds is under NO OBLIGATION to buy ads from the Argus Leader.
How many ads did Jack Billion buy?
The rules have been in play on state owned vehicles as long as I can remember.
Rounds isn't exactly a leader by any stretch of the imagination. Wasn't his first special session about insurance?
BIG SURPRISE!
Where's our BIG bike race for the Black Hills, Gov.?
Only thing missing from most of the posts is directly blaming Dave for going to college with Daschle.
Some Republicans have a hard time with the truth.
but the ARGUS? i never thought my dream would come true...that someone would come to town and KILL THEIR PAPER. now, guess what? they did it to themselves.
its just a blog now. Editorials, plus editorials that are made to look like news. this lalley guy? Hey bud, you got some real issues. I mean, is there anyone or anything this guy DOES like? its like he read his job description and it says "lash out at least daily."
ps, those ears in the photo? cmon man, if youre gonna drive on the interstate, shut the doors! (a snide way of saying get another pic big guy.)
Anyone look here?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argus_Leader