Say Anything Blog

Last month I called into a telephone press conference to which Rep. Earl Pomeroy and his staff had invited “all media.”  During that teleconference Rep. Pomeroy made a statement about how the “public option” would create more competition in the health care industry.  When he opened the call up for questions, I asked how a plan that would require to carry insurance and require us only to buy insurance policies through a government health care exchange would promote competition.

Rep. Pomeroy grew angry at my question, accused me of being an “arm of the Republican party”, and said the call was for “objective” media only (even though his staff had specifically invited a liberal blogger on the call).

Today a blogger for the Media Research Council at Newsbusters posted about my run-in with Rep. Pomeroy and had this to say:

Very often criticism of journalists is actually criticism of journalism. Effective investigative reporting entails asking the tough questions and demanding answers.  Powerful Democrats, including White House officials, have derided Fox News for this reason. But even conservative bloggers are not immune to the “extension of the opposition” charge for simply asking the tough questions.

Late last month Congressman Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., held a conference call on the administration’s reform efforts. Pomeroy reiterated his support for the House health care bill. Rob Port, of the center-right blog SayAnythingBlog.com, asked a question during the Q and A period, in which he displayed open skepticism that the “public option” would increase consumer choice in the health care market ...

That Pomeroy was displeased that Port asked inconvenient questions is hardly surprising. No elected official likes to see his positions challenged. The very troubling aspect is that he equated objectivity with complacency, investigative reporting with political favoritism—basically good journalism with bad.

What’s troubling to me is that so many seem willing to let someone like Rep. Pomeroy decide who in the media he will and will not answer questions from.  If I’d asked Rep. Pomeroy a proverbial “have you stopped beating your wife” question he’d be justified in his scolding of me.  But I asked him to defend his assertion that this bill, which he has now voted for, will create competition in the health care markets.

And rather than answer the question, he got angry and attacked the questioner.

What’s really sad is that the “real” journalists on the call asked a grand total of two questions between them.

Which is why Rep. Pomeroy, along with his colleagues Senators Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, get away with so much in Washington DC.  Most of the “reporters” here in North Dakota seem to care more about just copying down what they say they questioning what they say.

That’s not journalism.

I’ve never claimed to be a journalist.  I’m not on the scene with a notebook and a recorder.  I’m a commentator, at best.  But someone, sometimes, has to ask the tough questions.