Port: Politicians use hostility for the news media to escape accountability
MINOT, N.D. — These days, when a politician gets caught doing something stupid — some humiliating, and possibly even criminal act — they seek to deflect criticism by attacking the news media.
And often, the public, for reasons ranging from rank partisanship to a simple credulousness, falls for it.
So it goes with Bismarck School Board member Emily Eckroth.
Eckroth disgraced herself during a September traffic stop. While her husband, Ryan, was being tested for sobriety by a Burleigh County deputy (his breath test came in under the legal limit, and he was allowed to get a ride home), Emily Eckroth, who was visibly intoxicated, behaved so belligerently that she was detained in the back of one of the deputy’s cars where she purposefully urinated on herself and the seat.
When she was taken back out of the car so the deputy could issue her a citation for obstruction — a charge she recently pleaded guilty to — she proudly told the officer about what she’d done.
