The Daily Digest: 9-22-06

Posted at 11:25 AM on September 22, 2006 by Tom Scheck (3 Comments)

18 times leads the digest.

The Star Tribune says blogger Noah Kunin tried 18 different passwords to get into Scott Howell's site. That pretty much goes against his recent statement, doesn't it?

The incident (if you're just coming out from under a rock - Democrat Amy Klobuchar fired a campaign staffer for viewing an unreleased Mark Kennedy ad that Kunin directed her to view).

MPR and the Pi Press get all technical on us with stories about legal matters.

WCCO advances the story from Wednesday night. Kare-11 basically uses Wednesday's lead for their Thursday night broadcast.

Pat Condon, with the AP, writes a story saying this is the first speed bump Klobuchar experienced this campaign season.

Kennedy's folks are trying to take advantage of it. Their website is still shutdown. That has led for a tit for tat from liberal and conservative bloggers. DFLSenate says Kennedy's website is nothing more than a publicity stunt and gets all technical on us. Minnesota Democrats Exposed says he's disappointed with the liberal bloggers (Michael Brodkorb is a part-time consultant to Kennedy's campaign and a devoted Vikings fan).

Amy Klobuchar is in the lead sentence in an E.J. Dionne column in the Washington Post.

You can't walk down the street without getting hit in the head wth a poll. The U of M has a poll saying Klobuchar is ahead of Kennedy. WCCO has a story on it.

The Pi Press and MPR have stories on (guess what?) the MPR/Pi Press poll on the governor's race. The poll says it's a tight race between Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty and DFLer Mike Hatch.

Cathy Wurzer, with MPR's Morning Edition, was busy this morning. She talked to the campaign managers for Hatch, Pawlenty and Hutchinson. You can listen here. She also interviewed a Business Journal reporter who says Pawlenty is getting the bulk of corporate contributions. You can listen to that here.

Pawlenty went down to Jackson (C'mon, hum it to that Johnny Cash song. You know you want to)

Pawlenty's campaign manager is also asking supporters to watch the media. Let me get this straight, the governor of this state, who gets tons of coverage and interview requests, is upset about coverage. Hmmm?

Hot off the presses. Pawlenty "commends the jurors on making a difficult, but appropriate ruling" on sentencing Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. to death.

A Mike Hatch win would make some gay rights groups happy. That may be news to some.

The Mankato Free Press focuses on rising college tuition.

DFLer Patty Wetterling, Republican Michele Bachmann and I-P member John Binkowski debate the issues. WCCO and MPR have stories. So does the Star Tribune. You can listen to the debate here.

The AP has a story on muslims rallying around Keith Ellison's campaign for congress. Minnesota Monitor wonders why some big name DFLers aren't.

Maybe Norm should have gotten the NRSC post that went to Senator Dole.

Republican Rod Grams tries to make an issue out of Jim Oberstar's voting record.

House Republicans want some form of drug reimportation.

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher wants to revoke a gun permit from a Bill Finney supporter. I'm getting the sense that these guys don't like each other. Well, they'll appear together at a debate. Here are the details:

WHEN: Tues., Sep 26, 2006, 12:30 PM WHERE: Securian Center, downtown St. Paul, Sixth and Robert. SPONSORS: Securian Financial Group, Inc. and the St. Paul chapter of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) TOPICS: The candidates in the contentious Ramsey County Sheriff campaign answer questions about the future of law enforcement in the East Metro and strategies to promote efficiency and reduce duplication of services among the many local law enforcement agencies.

Finally, a piece about Bill Hillsman in the Dallas Morning News. Hillsman was the ad man for Jesse Ventura and Paul Wellstone. He's now working for Kinky.

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Comments (3)

Wetterling needs to come out more strongly in these debates. The biggest threat to Bachmann is Bachmann herself and Wetterling needs to take advantage of that.

Posted by Minn | September 22, 2006 1:11 PM

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This:

"Kennedy's folks are trying to take advantage of it. Their website is still shutdown. That has led for a tit for tat from liberal and conservative bloggers. DFLSenate says Kennedy's website is nothing more than a publicity stunt and gets all technical on us. Minnesota Democrats Exposed says he's disappointed with the liberal bloggers (Michael Brodkorb is a part-time consultant to Kennedy's campaign and a devoted Vikings fan)."

...is a remarkable statement.

Here's where we're upset: Kennedy's website stunt was lame, and it was rather easily identifiable as being lame, even by people who don't know all that much about computers. Yet, you've presented it as a simple tit-for-tat with a "balance" quote from Mr. Brodkorb about how disappointed he is with pro-DFL bloggers (complete with a Vikings non-sequitur; does he enjoy long walks on the beach and monster truck rallies too?). He's always disappointed with pro-DFL bloggers. Mark Kennedy is not always "shutting down" his site. Those two things are in no way, shape or form equal, and if you couldn't grasp the technical stuff, then you should have found someone who could have before equating it as a tit-for-tat matter; which it is clearly not.

If you think the public won't understand the difference between the two, or that they lack the ability to grasp the technical aspects of what you cannot, well...here's a suggestion:

The Kennedy campaign claimed to have shut down their website due to security concerns that, they claim, have something to do with the recent actions of local blogger Noah Kunin. However, their actions appeared to be entirely cosmetic as the protective measures consisted of nothing more than a webpage redirection; something that can easily be circumnavigated by clicking a button or two on your browser. Several local blogs detailed exactly how (and how easily) this could be done.

This whole ordeal is a perfect example of the type of media coverage that plays just as large of a part in people's cynicism towards politics as does the silly behavior of politicians. This isn't about liberal vs. conservative bloggers or getting after MDE. It's about finding out what really happened and providing the type of tough coverage that gives incentive to our politicians to not do things like make believe their site faces some sort of security risk. Kennedy's campaign literally lied to our faces (yours included) the entire time his website was "down". That sort of crap has to stop. Getting back to the tit-for-tat coverage; hell, give us an issue and we'll tell you what Mr. Brodkorb will write before he writes it. Ron Carey too. What we can't tell you is exactly what Kennedy's campaign did on their website and neither can your readers, and that's what needs to change.

cp

Posted by Mr. Sponge | September 23, 2006 10:10 AM

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whoops. this:

The Kennedy campaign claimed to have shut down their website due to security concerns that, they claim, have something to do with the recent actions of local blogger Noah Kunin. However, their actions appeared to be entirely cosmetic as the protective measures consisted of nothing more than a webpage redirection; something that can easily be circumnavigated by clicking a button or two on your browser. Several local blogs detailed exactly how (and how easily) this could be done.

...was supposed to be in quotes as an example of how to write about the issue.

cp

Posted by Mr. Sponge | September 23, 2006 10:12 AM

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