Polinaut: May 1, 2006 Archive

How not to get elected? Don't tell anyone you're running.

Posted at 7:36 AM on May 1, 2006 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

A guy in the Indianapolis Star has a column on the grief he gets when he doesn't mention all the candidates running for office. Poor guy. We must remember to try to get the name of the guy holding a gun to his head forcing him to be in the news business.

I'm one of those media people who thinks if someone is running for office, they're worth putting in the newspaper or on the radio (I have no hope for TV news, so I won't bother). Sometimes they've very interesting people and they talk as though speaking the English language, which -- for the record -- those who are considered "actual" candidates do not, for fear of saying something that could be used against them.

Sometimes they're nuts, or at least have -- shall we say -- unconventional ideas. I remember one guy running a few years ago (we usually give everyone 5 minutes late in the campaign), whose campaign seemed to be based around his "invention" of a giant claw that would come out of a parka sleeve whenever you fell through thin ice -- thus guaranteeing, apparently, the survivability of the kind of person most likely to vote for the person in the first place.

But for the most part, MSM (mainstream media) are kingmakers, determining who is a "legitimate" candidate, based on their electability. And their electability often is determined by whether their political affiliation begins with a "D" or an "R". Frankly, I don't know what the media is afraid of; but they often seem to be afraid of something, when the word "fringe candidate" comes up.

Don't believe me? Then explain how Sue Jeffers became a candidate worth covering, only after she switched from Libertarian to Republican? Granted, she created a nice buzz for political wags while poking a finger in the eye of the Republican bigwigs, but what does that have to do with service to voters? You know, the thing we're paid to provide?

So I have a soft spot for many candidates who can't get coverage. (Want me to prove it?)

But there are exceptions.

I got this messsage over the weekend from a candidate.

I am working hard to establish my candidacy and I am looking for fairness in reporting. I thought that MPR is supposed to be an objective public news organization. But, when there are no Republican candidates profiled and you have already declared the race over for the Republicans, can you really truly call yourselves objective? Seems that there is a strong political bias here and that is disappointing as it interferes with fair reporting. In this case, does the public really get treated fairly when you can selectively discount candidates before a race has even begun?

It's from a candidate for Congress. He may well be working hard, and I'm sure he is, but he never told the people from whom he demands coverage that he's running. Call me crazy, but I've never viewed that as a good first step for would-be office-holders.

First, let me take you back to March 29, 2006, the first of several identical posts on the subject.

That reminds me. I'm getting occasional cryptic phone messages from people who wonder why they don't have a page yet in the Campaign 2006 section.

The reason is:

(1) I don't know who you are.
(2) I don't know you're running for office.

If you're running, send me a statement of your candidacy (for the snapshot section), a mug of yourself, as much personal information as you'd like to share (date of birth, where born, where do you reside, married? To whom? Kids? How many? What religion (I'm not actually sure why this is relevant but some candidates think it is so I include it), political experience (if any), education (don't bother including high school unless you didn't graduate or get a GED, Web site (if you have one, of course)

And once I set it up, if you could stay in the race for longer than 4 days, my life will have a little more meaning to it.

Last week, I heard this candidate was running. So I set about trying to find him. I stopped by the GOP Web site looking for a list of candidates. This would be the same GOP whose spokesman, Mark Drake, couldn't name the candidates when quizzed after Sabo dropped out. I did find one page that lists the names of the candidates, but no other information. So Drake and his party haven't exactly been digging to fill in the gaps since they came up empty on the big question two months ago. Think about that: your own political party doesn't know who you are, and doesn't provide any information.

I then went to a couple of Republican blog sites where nothing escapes their notice. But in this case, this person's candidacy apparently did. Nothing.

I went to the secretary of state's page. Nothing.

I tried the Federal Election Commission. I figured if the candidate was raising money, he'd have filed an April quarterly report. Nope.

I then turned to the next most powerful journalistic resource on the plent. Google. Nothing. (Note: The spiders have since crawled and revealed the appearance of a Web site). Cool. There's at least the underpinnings of a Campaign 2006 page there.

This is a process, by the way, which I repeat about 6 times a week as I hear through the grapevine that someone is running in a particular race. Maybe it'd be easier if you just added me to your mailing list, folks.

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The Colbert Report retort

Posted at 8:38 AM on May 1, 2006 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)

OK, I'll admit it. Years ago -- during the Reagan presidency -- I was invited by my boss in Boston to fly to Washington to attend the White House Correspondents Association dinner. In fact, he was taking the whole editorial staff then. I was young. I was stupid. I passed.

It wasn't that I didn't think Washington in April would be cool. It's that I was 20-something.... and didn't own a tuxedo, and the prospect of walking into a rental store to buy one would require me to admit that I didn't know anything about formal tuxedos for Washington galas. This -- at this time in my life -- was equivalent to pulling over at the SuperAmerica now and asking for directions.

Surely, I would end up with some frilly thing that would result in me being banned from society forever for looking too much like Sal Mineo. I'm not without the ability to see into the future, folks. A few years later, when I was married, the church broke out in laughter when we kneeled near the end of the ceremony because the tuxedo joint (or maybe I rented it from The Tuxedo Joint, I forget), wrote inventory numbers on the bottom of the shoes, which -- in polite society -- is equivalent to writing "I'm a dork!"

So I made up a story about having an inner ear problem and not being able to fly and I stayed home (another glimpse into the future: years later -- now -- I actually do have an inner ear problem and can't fly. But I digress).

The White House Correspondents Dinner, even by Washington standards, brings out the big guns. But its value has always been , up until recently, that everything's off the record. For one day, a few hours, it's just a bunch of folks in, roughly, the same line of work, having some fun, usually at the expense of the president who attends.

That's changed. Now C-SPAN broadcasts it live, and it's become a real news event. And, well, it's hard to keep the wraps on something when it involves about 500 reporters and the President of the United States.

So I think the good times are probably over for the event.

I say this because of the fuss over the alleged attempt by MSM not to cover the "Colbert story." Salon insists its another mainstream media cover-up of a failed presidency. Editor and Publisher has a somewhat more staid approach to its coverage.

What? You've never seen The Colbert Report? This is what he does and I'm guessing -- although I could be wrong (at least until the future) -- that the folks who signed him knew that because that's what this event has always been. Biting and satirical. (See City Pages article). But he may not be invited back.

Salon takes the mainstream media apart for failing to "report" on Colbert. The problem with reporting on satire, of course, is when you write it down and repeat it in another voice, it isn't satire anymore.

Plus, they'd screw it up if they tried.

As for the future, this tip for the president: get yourself a phony inner ear problem.

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Cover me, I'm going in.

Posted at 11:27 AM on May 1, 2006 by Bob Collins

Following up on a previous post about candidates who are less than savvy when it comes to getting publicity for their campaigns, it's worth pointing out that on Saturday, Wendy Wilde announced her candidacy for the 3rd District against Jim Ramstad.

Here's the header on the press release e-mail. See if you see anything odd:

From: Wendy Wilde For Congress [mailto:news@wildeforcongress.com]
Sent: Fri 4/28/2006 8:51 PM
To: news@wildeforcongress.com
Cc:
Subject: PRESS OPPORTUNITY: WENDY WILDE TO ANNOUNCE CANDIDACY FOR CONGRESS

FOR RELEASE Saturday April 29, 2006 Contact: Kathy Nelson
PRESS ADVISORY Phone: 952 941-6613

----

Give up? You're telling the media you're announcing for Congress at almost 9 p.m. on a Friday night for an event at 10 a.m. on a Saturday?

If there's one event you want to pull off just right, it's the one where you tell people you're running.

C2006 additions

Posted at 12:30 PM on May 1, 2006 by Bob Collins

Two new pages in the Campaign 2006 section.

Alan Fine -- Republican candidate for 5th District.

Wendy Wilde -- Democratic candidate for the 3rd District.

This would be easier if it weren't so hard

Posted at 10:37 PM on May 1, 2006 by Bob Collins

In the blogosphere and even in mainstream media, there's a lot of talk about the effects that blogs are having now in politics and in the dissemination of information. There should be, of course. Giving voice to people who were relatively voiceless before, is a good first step in having something to actually listen to; stuff that can actually make a difference.

The unrecognize factor in calculating where this medium is going, however, is the effect of blogger burnout. Most of them simply don't last too long.

Blogging is hard. Mainstream media is no picnic either, but you get to go home at the end of the day and, most of the time, there's more than one of you. Oh, and you get paid.

Bloggers don't have that luxury. With a few exceptions, they have to come up with their own ideas, research whatever needs researching, and then find the time in their lives to actually write. And then do that four or five times a day.

When you get right down to it, not many people can sustain that. A voice today, is gone tomorrow.

All of that is a preamble to telling you that Backbone Minnesota's voice is the latest to fall silent.