I’ll give it where it’s due – Argus (and others) not happy about Johnson staff snub of SD Media.
I have to admit, the Argus didn’t necessarily play favorites this time – Dave Kranz himself is calling out Julianne Fischer as being a liar (but in a nice professional way):
The line from Sen. Tim Johnson’s media staff has been “South Dakota first” when it comes to communicating about the Senator’s situation.
Well, that isn’t always the case.
and…
Now you are thinking, “Oh, poor Kranz. What a whiner.” That’s ok. But when Fisher talked about South Dakota being first when it comes to the Johnson situation she was apparently just kidding.
Read that all here at Argus Leader Voices. The Rapid City Journal’s Bill Harlan has similar sentiments over at Mt. Blogmore:
Julianne had asked that her e-mail be off the record. Normally, requests to go off the record precede the information. In this case we honored it. The Johnsons had agreed to talk to Woodruff because of his personal experience with a head injury sustained in combat in Iraq. Woodruff has reported extensively on the subject since then. His report will help others in similar circumstances. It’s for a good cause.
However, the conservative South Dakota War College blog got Julianne’s e-mail and reprinted it in its entirety. So there it is. Cat out of bag.
and…
“Bill, I can only promise you that the Johnsons went into this with the best of intentions,” Julianne wrote in her e-mail to me. “They wanted to help people.”
I don’t doubt that. Barb and Tim Johnson have faced three serious illnesses with grace and courage. And they can make a good case for granting Woodruff extraordinary exclusive access.
Still, we were misled. Boo hoo I guess.
Read that all here. (Thanks for the mention, Bill.)
Something you can gather from all of this; No matter how professional and impartial they are on the surface, members of the South Dakota media are furious. One person privately opined that “Anger does not adequately describe my initial reaction to reading it.” – And those are comments coming from the media themselves.
I’ve even heard one report that some members of the media are so irked by this that they’re even going to boycott next Tuesday’s event.
No matter how Johnson’s staff tries to spin this – The Johnson media team completely screwed the pooch on this one. This action may have instantly evaporated the good will and delicate handling that they had become accustomed to during the Senator’s illness. This does not bode well for a political campaign team that was held out as one of the best in the country in 2002.
If you think about it, ABC News knew more about Johnson’s condition for months than the voters of South Dakota, the people who employ Tim Johnson.
That can’t be a message they want to go into the next campaign with.
As the state’s media has already gotten the impression, and the voters are soon going to pick up on; I guess that shows where us lowly South Dakotans sit as far as Johnson’s media representatives are concerned.
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Comments
When a US Senator’s staff lies to reporters that’s very significant. It says a lot about the way they do things in Johnson’s office.
The two Bills — Harlan and Fleming — are have a bit of a tiff on Blogmore over this. Wonder how that will affect The Breakfast Club.
Yeah, they’re mad right now, but it won’t last. The media has nowhere else to go but Johnson when it comes to a candidate to support. They’ll suck it up and provide the media cover all liberal candidates need and deserve because they couldn’t stomach the alternative.
when will cranz and the Brothers Wooster learn? KELOland and their Blogger army control everything now.
It is no secret that some of us tried to advise Johnson’s staff to include South Dakota in his recovery. In fact we were criticized for suggesting as much.
Now there is no excuse is there? Now we will suffer through posts claiming this isn’t a story.
Allowing South Dakota to be apart of Johnson’s recovery from the beginning can not be recovered in an one hour exclusive to a network!
What a blown opportunity.
Get a life! It must be a pretty boring news day if we are crying over something so insignificant. I am sure that Nightline will handle his illness very professionally and be able to give it the amount of time appropriate for someone of Senator Johnson’s stature. I guess that when someone of the other party does something that we don’t like we can complain ad nauseum. Can we all just grow up .. at least a little bit?