Polinaut: February 24, 2006 Archive

A green card, a crash course in the Constitution, a little help on the citizenship test and we might have someone who can stir up this campaign... finally

Posted at 8:36 AM on February 24, 2006 by Bob Collins

I had some stronger-than-usual coffee and a double dose of blood pressure medicine this morning because I wanted to watch the Today show this morning and I can't face Katie Couric without help. But I wanted to see the interviews with some of the Olympic winners and losers.

The Polinaut is always looking for someone to inject a little life -- a little personality -- into the game, err... the politics game... you know, the one without the new scoring system.

Got one.

What is news? Beats the heck out of me.

Posted at 9:17 AM on February 24, 2006 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

Sometimes the ability of politicians and political candidates to control the news through the use of a fax machine scares me. I often wonder who the heck is at the other end of those machines who grab the press releases from candidates and dutifully run to the computer to type up a story, rush to the studio to read it, or quickly paste it on the blog.

Ford Bell is the latest candidate to say something he's said before that didn't, apparently, get news coverage and get it because he later sent out a press release saying the same thing. He had a news conference to also say the same thing... again.

The Star Tribune bit on the four-page release (which, for the record, I tossed in the recycling because it wasn't new) from Bell announcing he wanted soldiers out by Christmas. So did the Pioneer Press. And if it's in the newspaper, you can bet it's on the TV and radio stations. Even the bloggers are going whole hog on it today. (Thus proving that the media that is supposed to be an alternative to mainstream media, is still too dependent on it).

It's a decent story. One worth looking at.

So how come the folks who think it's news because he sent out a news release, didn't think it was news when he said it before? It's been almost a month since he said it.

Go to this page, go to the right column where it says On the Issues and click "Iraq."

Listen.

And while you're there, click all the other links too. And see what will be reported as news weeks from now.

It was an interview that MPR's Tom Scheck did on January 26. Tom went to the news conference and apparently was one of the few political reporters who had (a) previously asked Ford Bell what his position was on the most pressing issue facing the country today and (b) knew the answer so when it was reiterated yesterday, he recognized it wasn't a breaking story. Or even a story at all.

It's scary. Very scary. The news media gets pretty defensive over some of the criticism it gets, but a lot of it is deserved... especially the willingness to let the news come to them in news releases and press conferences before considering what's news and what's not.

Oh, by the way, Ford Bell is on Midday today at 11.

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