Say Anything Blog

I used to look forward to Sunday mornings.  I would get up, grab some breakfast, and settle back with the thick Sunday newspaper so I could catch up on all of the latest political and sports news.  It was a good way to relax before hitting the links or catching some football.  I didn’t have to work so I could take my time going over the local, state, and national scene.  Ahhh…the simpler days of our youth.

  I don’t read many newspapers anymore.  I’ll pick up a Wall Street Journal from time to time and I would probably buy the Washington Times if it was available in my town, but I basically avoid the newspaper unless there is a gripping sports story or some kind of local event that I need to follow such as the Fargo flood.  The reason I avoid papers like the Grand Forks Herald and the Fargo Forum is because they are no longer reporting news, they are attempting to shape it.

  I know what I’m getting into if I put on a conservative or liberal show.  Entertainment is entertainment and most of these shows (Hannity for example) don’t hide what they are.  Yes, they report the news, but you can count on their opinions being thrown in.  The newspapers have an avenue to express their opinion and that is located on the editorial page, but they have extended their opinion by carefully choosing what goes in the news and what is to be avoided.  A journalist should report as much news as possible and let the reader shape their own opinions.

  Some examples I can personally cite revolve around the three big newspapers in North Dakota.  These papers are the Bismarck Tribune, the Grand Forks Herald, and the Fargo Forum.  All three of them have shaped the news in their own way and I for one find it to be reckless. 

  Congressman Earl Pomeroy (Pelosi Puppet-North Dakota) told the state that Duane Sand had made some statements regarding social security that weren’t too popular in the senior citizen community.  The media gleefully reported it without checking their facts and ignored what happened next.  Apparently the date that Pomeroy cited of Sand making such a statement was when Sand was in a submarine under the surface of the ocean.  Guess what?  Pomeroy told another one of his tall tales.  Sand revealed it to the media and Pomeroy even admitted Sand didn’t say it.  Do you know what the papers did?  One sentence in the Fargo Forum buried on one of the middle pages.  The great defender of the elderly was caught lying and the papers don’t want to call him out on it. 

  The Grand Forks Herald loves to sell papers that push the popular University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux hockey team.  They actually have excellent coverage of the team and they present the players in a way that the fan can quickly get to know them.  Here’s the twist though, the powers that be at the Herald are venomous opponents of the nickname.  They have allied with the power mad NCAA, the liberal UND administration, and a few radicals scattered throughout the country.  They attack the name on one hand and sell their paper based on the team on the next.  It’s blatant hypocrisy.

  The recent tea party in Bismarck was a huge success.  1200 people gathered at the state capital to respectfully sound off on our lack of representation in Washington.  What did the Tribune do?  Buried deep in their paper was one picture and a small caption.  One of the biggest rallies in state history and they ignored it.  If ten people would have gathered at a coffee for Kent Conrad, it probably would have made page one.  Laziness?  Maybe.  Another example of where the Tribune is trying to shape the news.  Ignore it and people will think it was a flop.

  I once called the Fargo Forum and asked them why they chose to cover the Sand/Pomeroy/Social Security situation the way they did and do you know what they told me?  They had a lack of manpower.  Hmmm…sitting Congressman lies…err…pardon me…misspeaks and the paper has a lack of manpower? 

  I called the Herald once and asked them why they didn’t cover a particular GOP event and they said they didn’t find it newsworthy.  I mentioned they had a 1/5th of one of their pages dedicated to the new paint job at the Crookston Lutheran Church, but they are ignoring an event that gathered a couple of hundred people.  They told me that they have to make “tough decisions.”  I guess attacking the Fighting Sioux nickname fulltime is one of those tough decisions.

  I’m not going to call the Tribune and I’m going to tell you why.  It is because it doesn’t matter anymore.  These papers are all dying.  They are decaying and while some part of me finds that to be a shame, another part of me believes it is their shift to the far left that is killing them.  Ask your friends what they think of the Forum or Herald and I’ll bet you half of them don’t read these papers or they think they’re a joke.  If it wasn’t for the sports page or the classifieds, they would already be dead. 

  The Internet has given us the ability to pick our news sources and to receive news in rapid fire fashion.  I can’t blame the newspaper for engaging in a losing battle with the Internet.  Many of them have adapted and created very user friendly web sites.  The fact that they are local gives them an advantage over a monster website like the Drudge Report, but even this is in jeopardy because local sources like sayanythingblog.com, dakotabeacon.com and dakotapolitics.com are here.  Classified ads (aka revenue) are already moving to specialty websites.  Many people already shop for cars and apartments on these special sites.  Again, the end is near.

  Now many newspapers will survive in the online world but even that will be tough.  I might be willing to subscribe to a website like the Wall Street Journal, but I’m not paying one cent for the Grand Forks Herald or Fargo Forum.  I can pick up the local news on 1100 or by simply staying engaged in my community.  I would be willing to consider a paid online subscription to the Herald if they actually reported the news in a fair manner.  Report on Pomeroy?  Absolutely, he is our Congressman.  Ignore his challenger?  Unacceptable.

  Liberal media sources usually fail and fail miserably (Air America, MSNBC, and CNN).  They offer no new ideas and they engage in a radical anti-America agenda that anyone with a clue can see through.  We exercise our right to switch the channel and life goes one.  Air America is an afterthought and the two radical news agencies are taking on water.  We have always given the newspapers the benefit of the doubt because they have things that we need (local stories, sports, and classifieds) and because many of us are in the habit of reading the paper.  The rise of the Internet and alternative news has crippled the papers and their own radical leftist agenda is killing them.

  I don’t want anyone to be unemployed (except people with the last name of Obama, Frank, Pomeroy, and Pelosi), but I also don’t appreciate these papers operating as propaganda vehicles instead of just reporting the news.  I honestly believe if one of these papers went back to reporting the news, pursuing even handed and fair reporting, and leaving their radical agenda at home, they might be able to stabilize.  I have no faith in that happening.

  Someone said that Obama was going to drag us into the future kicking and screaming and many of us said if it was his dangerous and radical agenda that we would fight him every step of the way.  We are doing that.  The leftist newspapers aren’t fighting him at all and won’t even report that a debate exists.  Their reward?  An out of business sign.