When the media boots it

Posted at 1:35 PM on June 14, 2006 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

Every day some annointed member of the MPR news department holds forth at the afternoon assignment meeting to discuss how well -- or poorly, as the case may be -- we did in the last 24 hours.

I'll spare you 99 percent of the details but this week I'm that person -- which usually is good for sparse attendance. Today was no different, but the one story that I think people actually would care about it -- if the media told them about it -- is the congressional pay raise issue.

This is a subject that use to get people all cranked up. But they don't get cranked up anymore. Some may say it's because they don't care. I think it's because they don't know. MPR didn't tell 'em about it. The Pioneer Press didn't tell 'em about it, and the Strib buried it with a single paragraph on page 3.

In no case, locally, -- at least as far as I know -- was a member of the Minnesota congressional delegation asked to defend or criticize the notion of taking 7 straight pay raises at a time when everyone else is expected to pony up for the cause, not to mention the procedure that Congress put in place to avoid going on the record in the first place.

All of this comes after I listened to Joe Klein on Midmorning today, who I thought was outstanding. One word he kept using was inspire. He talked about how some politicians provide inspiration. And how he couldn't wait to be inspired by somebody in the 2008 race.

It's been a long time, I think, since I've been inspired by a politician because I don't think inspiration is in their arsenal anymore. I think they placate voters more than inspire them. But maybe that's just me.

In any event, I think the media has a job to do and sometimes it makes politicians and their supporters mad. On this story, I think my profession denied the average person the opportunity to judge for him or herself, the merits of this issue because the media decided it wasn't an issue. I think they're wrong. I think it's a heck of jumping off point for a discussion about leadership and inspiration and lack of it.

But we can't do that if we don't provide it ourselves.

Not my profession's best day in an election year when we're supposed to do more than just tell you what people said.

Comments (5)

You wrote "the Strib buried it with a single paragraph on page 3."

Maybe I'm looking at a different edition than you were (mine has two small stars in the upper right corner of page 1, which I think is the code) but I see a fairly large headline "House members will get cost-of-living pay raise" followed by three paragraphs and a sidebar "How they voted" showing the votes of the entire Minn. House delegation as well as those members in adjacent regions of Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. I have no affiliation with the Strib but I'm not sure I would call that "buried".

Posted by DI | June 14, 2006 8:16 PM

... and I heard about it twice during end-of-work rush hour on MPR.

Posted by Victoria | June 15, 2006 10:29 AM

Where on MPR? The Current is the only place, as far as I know. And that's because I put it there. I did a search on all of our scripts for the date yesterday and there was no payraise stuff unless someone read some AP copy as filler. I think the story is worth more than filler, myself.

Posted by Bob Collins | June 15, 2006 10:34 AM

The Strib has a couple of stories on it, at least in their online edition.

http://www.startribune.com/587/story/491352.html

http://www.startribune.com/587/story/491004.html

Posted by Scott Silver | June 15, 2006 11:43 AM

Maybe on ATC?

Posted by Victoria | June 15, 2006 6:58 PM

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