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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2006-10-18

Well, Denver USED To Have A Centrist Newspaper

But not so much any more.

I submit as Exhibit A, today's Rocky Mountain News, page 5A:

Top article: Hefty 11th-hour funding from a well-heeled independent booster could help one Democratic challenger in her bid for an Election Day upset.

Got That? "Independent booster." Remember that.

Bottom article: The major Republican backer of the controversial Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads that torpedoed John Kerry in 2004 is providing the money behind a negative ad playing in suburban Denver's 7th Congressional race.

Got that? "Major Republican backer." "Negative ad."

Well, so . . . we've established the playing field here. What else do we find out?

In the top article: Heiress and philanthropist who directs charitable work through the Bohemian Foundation, founded by her family.

In the bottom article: Texas homebuilder Bob J. Perry, who has close ties with former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and White House political strategist Karl Rove, has recently pumped at least $7 million into groups supporting Republicans and taking out attack ads against Democratic congressional candidates

Getting the picture that the coverage may be just a LITTTTTLE bit slanted?

And then there's this, just for kicks:

Perry was the single largest contributor to the Swiftboat group in 2004. In all, he donated more than $8 million to 527 groups that election cycle. The Swiftboat ads featured a group of Vietnam veterans making unsubstantiated allegations challenging Kerry's record of wartime heroism. Kerry's hesitation to fight back was seen as major flaw in his campaign to defeat President Bush.

Since then, the word swiftboat has become a staple in the debate on the ethics of using non-supported allegations to attack candidates or ideas.

Yes, of course, that one's from the bottom article.

So, according to the Rocky Mountain News, an "independent booster" who is a "philanthropist" who directs "charitable work through her foundation" pours $720K into a race for a "Democratic challenger['s] . . .bid for an upset, while a "major Republican backer of the controversial Swiftboat Veterans . . ." and has "close ties to TomDeLay and Karl Rove" puts in about $246K to "take out attack ads."

Got all that?

Did you notice, by the way, how the first two numbers linked to Bob Perry were $7 million and $8 million?

Like I said, Denver USED to have a centrist newspaper.

One day after this election, some independent group is going to analyze the news coverage during this election cycle, starting at about Hurricane Katrina, and continuing through the exit polls, and conclude that the Democrats benefitted from the news coverage by anywhere from 10 to 12 points. In fact, over the weekend I had every intention of writing a lengthy analysis of the Denver dailies' coverage of the economy over the last two weeks . .

but it proved to be too difficult. WAY too much material to work with.

If this election, by some miracle, does not result in a Democratic landslide, it will only have been through the grace of God and the deep-rooted wisdom of the people of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan.
Posted by: Michael / 10/18/2006 12:06:00 AM

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