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:
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:

"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.
Read that all here.

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

Anonymous said…
All Republicans to declare an embargo on the Argus and cancel their subscriptions....the liberals who run the paper have been spitting in the face of the GOP for a couple decades now
Anonymous said…
God Bless Governor Rounds. How big of an idiot do you have to be not to see how they hate Republicans. To heck with giving them money. STARVE THE BEAST.
Anonymous said…
Not only does the Argus Leader routinely bash Republicans, it also operates as a public relations firm for liberal causes and Democrats. Just read one of Peter Harriman's "news stories" slobbering all over Stephanie Herseth and explaining how wonderful she is... Why any Republican would give the Argus money is beyond me
Anonymous said…
the new Argus "format" is also an embarassment to journalism. whoever thought of it should be given the Rumsfeld treatment
Anonymous said…
Boo hoo, poor Argus. Can this be right? They're crying over not getting Rounds' campaign money after they spend four years trashing the guy?
Anonymous said…
And not advertising in their papers really hurt his chances for re-election,didn't it?!
Anonymous said…
is it the argus leader or the arguse MIS-leader
Anonymous said…
And based on their editorial yesterday, they are still at it as far as "get Rounds" goes. I figure now they will be trying to soften ROunds up for the next two years in case he would try to run against Johnson. Our subscription runs out and we are NOT renewing. All I ever read in the ARgus now are the letters to the editor, and with the new format even those are hard to sort out anymore.

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.
Anonymous said…
Politicians come and go, but why can't we throw the bums out of the Argus Leader newsroom?
Anonymous said…
If enough people cancel their subscriptions and refuse to advertise in the Argus, maybe this corporate stooge from Gannett will send someone into Sioux Falls to investigate and find out that the Argus is controlled by the local Green Party.
Anonymous said…
All you need to know is that conservatives are critical of the ARgus Leader and that Steve Hildebrand's errand boy/employee Theron McChesney is praising the Argus Leader. How do you explain that?
Anonymous said…
is chuck baldwin still at argus? he was always a left-wing nut ball
Anonymous said…
Way to go Governor Rounds!! The Argus is a Liberal dream. I encourage all Conservatives not to adverise with the Argus.

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.
Anonymous said…
I can't wait to see the "Rounds for Senate" ads in the Argus in 08.
Anonymous said…
No serious person can claim that the Argus is an unbiased news source. They have always played favorites (pro-Daschle and Herseth, anti-Janklow and Rounds).

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.
Anonymous said…
Way to go Governor.... The only way that randall will get reined in, a/k/a fired, is when his liberal hogwash starts costing Gannett money... Sounds like that's already started... If other business people follow the Governor's lead, it will soon be bye bye Randall... Good riddence!
Anonymous said…
Forgot to mention.... I can't believe there hasn't been more outrage from the Catholic community against the Argus...

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.
Douglas said…
Good heavens, I must be failing in my liberal reorganization of the media world. I mostly like the format of the Rapid City Journal and I detest the new Argus format.

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.
Anonymous said…
All great comments. 3:22...we simply refer to them as the "Argus Liar".

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...
Anonymous said…
I disagree with the poster who said that Rounds refusing to advertise in the Argus is like blackmail.

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?
Anonymous said…
After 15 years of subscribing to the Argus, I finally dumped it at the end of Sept. Their inability to write a piece of non-fiction is second to none. Despite hating the Argus, I drug my feet for a long time before dropping it because I was afraid I wouldn't know what was going on. However, it has not been difficult at all to keep up with the news. I would encourage everyone who is fed up with the Argus to dump it. I'm still smiling everyday, knowing that they won't get one more dime from me.
Anonymous said…
Where is capitalism when we need it? If people are soooo upset with the Argus Leader, or any other publication, why not start an alternative? It seems to have occurred in Rapid City. Why not Sioux Falls? Does no one have the balls to do so?
Anonymous said…
Do you really think the Argus execs sit around worrying whether Rounds spent money there? Please.

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.
Anonymous said…
It's a cult thing or Group think. Take your pick.
Anonymous said…
The question of whether Rounds has been out of line, has been answered at the voting booth. the voters have SPOKEN, deal with it same as we did when clinton won. he won, hes prez, move on!

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.)
Anonymous said…
argus and freedom of the press?

Anyone look here?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argus_Leader

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