At the Shrine of Democracy
Category: Uncategorized
Heading across SD on my photo tour
The family and I are about 1/3 of the way through our Saturday photography tour across South Dakota, with a quick pit stop in Chamberlain for gas & photos of the Dale Lamphere statue “Dignity.”
A snapshot from Marty Jackley’s big event last night with Chad Greenway & Mike MIller
A snapshot from Attorney General Marty Jackley’s big fundraiser for his Gubernatorial Campaign with South Dakota professional athletes Chad Greenway and Mike Miller held last evening in Sioux Falls.
His opponent, Congresswoman Kristi Noem, has her own event with local businessmen and physicians on June 19th, as both candidates are on the campaign trail in earnest.
Argus Leader Fake news/Intern firing story getting more on-line coverage, as reporter seemingly blames Argus staff.
The Argus Leader fake news/intern firing story is taking on a further life of it’s own after a website pursued the story to identify the author of the 11 articles that the Argus Leader pulled after determining that some of the information in them might be questionable.
In the article, surprisingly, the reporter cast some of the blame back on the Argus staff, claiming “the assignment should have never been assigned” to her, “nor was it looked over or questioned by an editor before publishing.”
Really? (I’m not buying that excuse, either):
The Sioux Falls newspaper, which is owned by Gannett and part of the USA Today network, fired the intern reporter, Allie Knofczynski, but didn’t name her, after a local school principal cried foul, stating she was never interviewed for a May 31 story in which she was quoted. The Argus Leader published a June 1 note announcing a review into the reporter’s work and retraction of the May 31 article quoting the principal.
When iMediaEthics contacted Knofczynski to learn more, despite having blogged and tweeted about the incident, she claimed privacy and blocked us on Twitter.
and…
iMediaEthics wrote to Myers to ask why the newspaper didn’t name the reporter in question, what the reporter’s position was, and what the review of the articles will include.
and…
“If you could please leave me alone, I’d appreciate it,” she e-mailed. “My life and work does not concern you. If you must know, I talked with a secretary at the front desk but rushed through the assignment to keep up. However, the assignment should have never been assigned to me, nor was it looked over or questioned by an editor before publishing.” She added, “Just FYI, I have blocked and reported your tweets. I hope you can respect my privacy.”
iMediaEthics responded, asking why she is now claiming privacy and blocking and reporting tweets given that she publicly tweeted and blogged about the incident.
Read that here. (Check out the link, as it’s an interesting story.)
The tweet they’re mentioning links to the blogpost in question…
There are many sides to every story.https://t.co/JeXe1WugOB
— Allie Knofczynski (@AKnofczynski) June 5, 2017
What were they citing when they mentioned she blogged about it? Knofczynski did express her thoughts about the environment she was working under (which we might assume was the Argus) on her own website:
And I was ready to do anything to make up for my mistake, by the way. Recant the article, write a public apology, do anything. Nothing could apparently solve this. Being fired is a “learning experience,” but how am I supposed to learn by getting kicked to the curb? If I’ve learned anything, it’s that I’m not cut out for hard-news journalism if it means navigating cut-throat political games and fast-paced perfection. That’s not me.
A different website, poynter.org, covering the Argus Leader action against the intern also noted..
Although Knofczynski is not listed on The Argus Leader’s staff page, a Twitter user by the name of Allie Knofczynski describes herself as a student at the University of South Dakota in the nearby town of Vermillion. According to her Twitter bio, she’s the opinion editor at The Volante, the student-run newspaper at the University of South Dakota.
Ally Krupinsky, the editor in chief of The Volante, declined to comment on Knofczynski’s status at the newspaper. Knofczynski is listed as the author of dozens of articles for The Volante, the last of which is dated May 1.
Was it a simple mistake that was blown all out of proportion? Should an Argus editor have questioned it before publication? Is the Argus a den of “cut-throat political games and fast-paced perfection'” as the author seems to claim?
What do you think?
Update… In case you’re curious, here’s a partial list of the “hard-news journalism” stories authored by this intern that are no longer available on their website:
Two local students competing at National Spelling Bee
Free pizza for life? It’s a revolutionary idea
Tote-ally Gorgeous Boutique closing next month
Walmart adding online grocery option in Sioux Falls
School plants tree to remember special education …
Highway signs to honor fallen patrolman
Pizza Patrol closing in eastern Sioux Falls
Carpenter Bar offers cozy setting, classic tastes.
Support Grows for Rounds’ Legislation to Provide Relief to Community Banks & Credit Unions
Support Grows for Rounds’ Legislation to Provide Relief to Community Banks & Credit Unions
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, today heard from a panel of community bank and credit union CEOs about the negative impact federal regulations are having on their ability to serve their customers. Specifically, the panel agreed that two of Rounds’ bills to provide regulatory relief to small-and-medium-sized banks, The Home Mortgage and Disclosure Adjustment Act (HMDA) and The TAILOR Act, would be beneficial to their consumers.
Rounds to the panel: “You’re business people. You’re going to make money. You’re going to spend the money when it comes to regulatory requirements. But then you’re going to pass it on to somebody else, who is going to take that cost. And I think that is the part that sometimes gets lost, particularly on smaller banks.”
Rounds asked the panel about HMDA, which he introduced this week with Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.). HMDA would provide relief by exempting community banks and credit unions from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) revised Regulation C final rule.
Dorthy Savarese, Chairman, President & CEO, The Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank, said in response: “We set up priorities for major projects in the bank, and it sort-of makes me sad that on top of introducing basic banking checking accounts and some things that serve our consumers more effectively, that we have to have the HMDA preparation as a major initiative taking up time, technology, and taking it away from the things that we could do to server our customers.”
Rounds also asked about The TAILOR Act, which he introduced earlier this year and would allow federal regulators to more precisely tailor the regulations they issue based on the risk profile of the institutions. When Rounds asked the panel about the effect The TAILOR Act would have on their consumers, the panel unanimously agreed it would be beneficial.
John Bissel, President & CEO, Greylock Federal Credit Union, said: “I think scaling things appropriately makes sense.”
Is Billie Sutton going to have a harder time on his side of the fence than he thinks?
Interesting noting this comment on Facebook from an opponent to energy independence (the Keystone XL pipeline for the rest of you). They’re not exactly enthused with the candidacy of Billie Sutton to be the Democrat’s offering for Governor in the 2018 election.
In fact, the criticism smacks of some of the same type of criticism that Rick Weiland leveled against Jim Abbott, when Abbott was derided as a “DINO” because of his status as a businessman and sometimes donor to Republicans, such as Bill Janklow.
Arguably, the same party purists can be said to have significantly impacted the armor of Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. Toeing a careful line to keep both the right and the left happy while in office, Herseth made some votes her far left base didn’t like, triggering them to field a candidate against her. While Kevin Weiland ultimately withdrew, it exposed a major chink in her armor, and may have signaled the beginning of the unravelling of her base.
In Sutton’s case, the opposition within his own party is starting to spin up because they don’t view him as “Democrat enough,” because of portions of his voting record, as well as his stated opposition to abortion.
There have been rumors of another possible candidate looking at the race, but the information on that is pretty murky at this point, which gives indication that it hasn’t progressed beyond ‘talk,’ at the same time Sutton is already out approaching donors.
Might the Democrat party purists come up with a more liberal alternative to Sutton? We shall see.
Shantel Krebs fundraiser coming up in the Black Hills on the 22nd with Craig Ericks, Lynne DiSanto, Tina Mulally, etc
My e-mail box popped up tonight with one of the first Shantel Krebs fundraiser invitations I’ve seen. This one is for an event on June 22nd with a couple of people who challenged Republicans in the primary this past election season, such as Tina Mulally, as well as State Representative Lynne DiSanto:
So, you can eat meat, shoot a gun with Shantel, and try to rope Craig Ericks.
But you might want to give him some lead time to make it fair.
Your favorite photography spots in the hills?
I took this photo on a sunny September day back in 2013, and it has been pretty hard for me to top in capturing one of our state’s great attractions. Primarily, because I haven’t been back out that way for pleasure in a while. I’ve thought that a trip out West to take pictures is long overdue, so I’m packing up some of the kids, and heading out west this weekend to do just that.
I’ve never officially been through the Badlands, except on my way to Rapid City, so that’s one planned stop on my whirlwind photo tour. And I’m planning on Mount Rushmore as well.
Are there any other necessary stops I should be considering which aren’t coming immediately to mind? I’ve got a Saturday to do it in, so I can’t invest a lot of travel. I want to know – is there a hidden gem to snap a picture of along the way before I head home?
Advertising Space Available at the SDWC… Don’t miss out!
Now that we’re a year out from the primaries, as well as the State Party Political Convention races, it’s a good time to remind candidates, ballot issues, and interested organizations that if you’re looking to reach an audience that is among the most public affairs minded and politically engaged in the state, the SDWC has openings in it’s advertising line-up, including the #2 position in the main column. Once these top level spots are filled, that’s it, and they may be locked up through the election.
Advertising on the Dakotwarcollege.com website is based on a first come, first serve basis for the available positions. Advertising slots in the main column are 300 x 350 pixel ads, which may scale slightly depending on WordPress theme, and may be either static image, animated .gif, or flash file, as long as the file size is within acceptable file parameters, does not impede the loading of the website, or interfere with existing code.
Our non-campaign season traffic has been up, and averaging around 2500 unique individual visits daily. At times of flurried activity, the SDWC has reached as high as 9000 or more unique visits in a day (And that’s visits, not hits). In fact, last Wednesday, we spiked around 4400, so, traffic is good.
If you want to get your message in front of our state’s highest elected officials and opinion leaders, information on ad prices, ad positions, and required ad commitments may be directed to the webmaster by clicking here.
And while I’m on the subject, whether your business is politics or retail, organizational or service, if you find yourself in need of high quality print materials such as business cards, postcards, or brochures, collateral items such as signs, banners, pens, or pins, or anything that helps you promote your business – give me a call for a quote today.
In fact, this week has been big on Car magnets in preparation for the 4th of July Parades. If you’re going to be in a parade, a giant magnet with your campaign logo isn’t a bad idea.
I’ve done some business printing over the past couple of years, and I’m working on expanding that base, since printing a postcard for a business is no different than printing one for a candidate. And gosh darn it, my prices sometimes come up in the neighborhood of 1/3 to 1/2 of many commercial printers.
So, if you find yourself needing high quality full-color business cards, post cards, brochures, car magnets, banners, full color yard signs, etc. drop me a note today.