Hunter: South Dakotans up to Eyeballs in Newspapers

I may complain about the paucity of local media, but Madison Daily Leader publisher Jon Hunter contends South Dakota's newspaper market has more players than most places. In his Monday editorial, our man Hunter congratulates the Garretson Gazette and the Native Sun News on ascending to the noble ranks of "legal newspapers" (i.e., getting to publish legal notices from local government entitites, the convenient racket that the newspaper association uses to protect its market share from innovators who would save tax dollars by publishing meeting minutes and new ordinances online).

In the process, Hunter notes that "There are now 119 weekly and 11 daily newspapers in South Dakota, the most per capita of any state in the nation."

Given our new official population of 814,000, that's one daily for every 74,000 South Dakotans. Turn the number another way, that's 13.5 daily newspapers per million population. According to data from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, that gives us press coverage almost as good as Switzerland (which has 14.0 dailies per million). Of the 25 countries with higher daily-per-million ratings, most are pa-dinkally places like San Marino, Liechtenstein, Aruba, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Our Norsky forebears also outnews us (19.3 dailies per million), but South Dakota beats Sweden (11.0), Denmark (7.2), and the United States as a whole (6.0 dailies per million, or one paper per 167,000 people).

Think of South Dakota as a single community that just happens to be spread out across 77,000 square miles: we have 11 daily newspapers serving a population about the same size as Indianapolis or San Francisco. Yahoo's directory pops up fifteen papers for San Francisco. Mondo Times lists four Indianapolis papers.

But does quantity mean quality? That depends on how you define quality in newspapers. If we're talking reach and impact, only two of those 130 publications, the Rapid City Journal and that Sioux Falls paper approach statewide status (though I get the feeling from the Web that the Mitchell Daily Republic is trying). Most of the rest do what they do reasonably well, covering their local events, but rarely reaching beyond their county borders.

If we're talking breadth of viewpoints, well, we're eating mostly white bread. Most of the newspapers Jon Hunter counts are of the same genre: community booster rags with lots of pics from the kids' basketball games and the local Tour of Gardens, spiced with the occasional contrarian letter to the editor. (Monday's Madison Daily Leader letters: advice from the Car Care Council in Maryland on keeping our cars ready for winter, and tips from a local nursing home manager on good Christmas gifts for old folks.) Most South Dakota newspapers operate in tiny media monopolies with no alternative voices on paper to challenge them. The closest thing to a regular alternative press may be the college weeklies (and note: after 108 years in print, DSU's student newspaper, The Trojan Times, is going all digital).

Compare that to San Francisco, where the mainstream San Francisco Chronicle dominates, but where dozens of alternative newspapers coexist and serve the same community with different ethnic and political viewpoints.

And as we love to point out, of those 11 South Dakota dailies, only the Madison Daily Leader is independently and locally owned. Local control matters, especially when it comes to news. When the money decisions are made elsewhere, you end up with the biggest papers in the state not maintaining bureaus in Pierre to cover state government.

Having lots of newspapers is great. South Dakota's newspapers tell stories that no one else is going to cover. But the lack of local ownership, diversity of voices, and breadth of coverage leave room for improvement. Keep printing, Jon!

DWC Botches Facts on Reid Nay to 9/11 First Responder Bill

Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, patriotic champion of 9/11 first responders... unlike Senator John Thune.

Or, Note to Cons — when attacking check your facts first.

Tyler Crissman steps to the conservative mic this afternoon and gets mom's spaghetti all over his sweater. In an attempt to deflect criticism from major Dakota War College ad-buyer and Senator John Thune for his unpatriotic obstruction of medical compensation for sick and dying 9/11 first responders, Crissman fumes that the Left blogo-hemisphere hasn't criticized Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for his own nay on the Zadroga bill.

Why, oh why, wouldn't we liberals have issued such criticism of the Senate Majority Leader?

Fifty-seven Democrats voted for the bill and 41 Republicans opposed it. Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, switched his vote to 'no' at the last moment, a parliamentary move that allows him to bring the measure up again for a vote ["9/11 health 'Zadroga bill' fails in Senate test vote," AP via SILive.com, 2010.12.09].

I eagerly await Mr. Crissman's retraction. Or maybe they'll just delete that post and all the comments that follow. Revisionist deletion is the Dakota War College way.

Meanwhile, if you're from Nevada, call Senator Reid and tell him to keep fighting for H.R. 847. If you're from South Dakota, call Senator Thune and tell him to stop fighting H.R. 847.

-------------------
Update 19:04 CST: Dang it! How are we supposed to sustain a healthy blog snarkfest if we go issuing corrections and apologies and straightening out our facts? Mr. Crissman replies promptly with a mea culpa... and corrects my shoddy geography. Harry Reid is indeed senior Senator from Nevada, not New Mexico as I originally stated.

Adelstein: Powers Not Fit for Sec. State Flunky

Senator Adelstein gets double attention this morning. On Mount Blogmore, the Rapid City Republican raises some grave concerns about the patronage that has killed Dakota War College and elevated Pat Powers to director of operations for the Secretary of State.

The employment of a patently dishonest person in an office requiring absolute objective fairness is outrageous. One example, that comes to mind—that I copied before he tried erasing his multiple calumnies—is the false charge against my company—not just me personally—of giving “80,000 to Democratic candidates.” This on it's [sic] face was untrue, since he knew, or should have known that this would be illegal. The CORPORATE dollars were given on a BALLOT issue—else they would have been illegal. They were used successfully to defeat the “no exception” abortion on the ballot.

There are a number of other cases of total untruthfulness. This was not just the case with me, but others as well. Ragging on me for years, month after month—even when I was out of office—indicates a public hatred that renders Mr Powers unfit to occupy an office that requires impartial treatment of citizens. Treatment that we have come to regard as only natural in that office with the last three occupants, all whom I knew well both politically and as an active operator of a large complex corporation, many “not for profits”, numerous LLCs and Rapid City Enterprise funds [State Senator Stan Adelstein, blog comment, submitted 2010.12.14, under Kevin Woster's "From War College to SOS, in a cloud of nuked archives," Mount Blogmore, 2010.12.13].

Such is the risk we bloggers run. Mr. Powers has made a number of enemies with his political blogging. Now elevated by political chum Jason Gant to a particularly sensitive public office, Powers himself will now face harsh scrutiny to see if he can go beyond stepping away from the blog mic and develop the reputation for strict adherence to the law and fairness that were the hallmark of outgoing Secretary Chris Nelson and his staff (far too many of whom are clearing the decks to make way for Gant's appointees).

----------------------
Bonus Blog Snark: Mr. Kurtz says the delete-fest continues at Dakota War College, as he says a comment he submitted linking to Adelstein's charges was deleted by DWC committee-blogger Tyler Crissman. Mr. Crissman replies that "Forces beyond our control made it necessary for us to take that story down." Evading responsibility, hiding behind vague, unnamed forces—sounds like dark Powers at work. (I also can't link to Crissman's response directly, since their new new theme omits comment permalinks. Sigh.)

Madville Times Tech Changes -- Suggestions?

In the coming weeks, I plan some significant technological changes on the Madville Times. I'd like your input.

I may be liberal in politics, but I can be darned conservative when it comes to information technology. I'm still using Windows XP. I still set my Start menu to the Classic settings so it looks like the customizations I made on my NEC Ready 120LT when I got it eleven years and two laptops ago.

When it comes to blogging, I've stuck with Blogger for over five years and with the same basic three-column template ("Thisaway Blue" by Dan Rubin with three-column modification by Ashwini Khare, blogger beta templates) for over three years.

I approach I.T. change with trepidation... but I'm ready to do it. Here's what I will change:

1. The Big Change: I'm going to move from Blogger to Wordpress. I still believe Blogger is superior to Wordpress.com for free blogs. However, as I look at Wordpress.org, the paid Wordpress platform, I am finding enough plugins, coding options, and keyboard shortcuts (yes, the ability to use the keyboard and keep my hand off the mouse is that big of a deal to me) to be comfortable with switching. Doing what I want to do with Blogger would also cost me a couple bucks more a month... and I'm darned cheap.
   
2. Layout: I will keep the three-column layout, but I am going to move the main content to the left and put both sidebars on the right (see drawing). That layout lets the main content load before all the links and graphics in the sidebars. That allows you and search engines alike to get the main info first. If you're on a skinny screen, you're less likely to have to scroll to read the main content.
3. More Layout: The template will change. Fonts, colors, and sizes may switch here and there.

Now let me be clear about what I'm not changing:

1. I'm still writing. My blog, my voice, my responsibility.
   
2. I'm deleting nothing. You'll still be able to read over 4400 posts and over 18,000 comments right here. I'm also attempting to import the full content of the Madville Times into the new platform.
3. I will still include South Dakota blogrolls and RSS feeds in the sidebars, as well as recent comment feeds, graphics, ads, the tip jar... probably more stuff than a good Web designer would advise. But I think of my sidebars as bookshelves, a South Dakota library for anyone interested. Maybe I'll clear some clutter by creating separate pages, but I still want to feature as much of the South Dakota blogosphere on the front page as I can.
   

Now I recognize that changing the format of the blog can make folks like grudznick really cranky. I thus welcome your suggestions. What would you like to see me do? Design preferences, widgets you find useful on other blogs, things you want me to keep, things you'd like me to do more or less of (photos? videos? on-site reporting? weather?)... I'll listen to pretty much any suggestion short of "STFU". If I like your ideas, I'll add them to the blog-migration to-do list.

Design, content, you name it—the comment section is open for your thoughts. Or you can send me a private note. Fire away... and stay tuned!

Thune Flack: Herseth Sandlin Doesn't Buy Groceries

I was going to leave this alone, but some Republicans just can't win with class.

The Thune campaign successfully backed sock puppet Kristi Noem against Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. They got someone nice and Palin-y in the chute to run for Senator Tim Johnson's seat in 2014 (assuming the Palin and Teabagger fads can last that long...and gods help us if they do).

But gloating over their Ice Queen coronation isn't enough. The Thune campaign now feels compelled to play Oprah and tell Herseth Sandlin how she ought to live her life after an election defeat:

Andi Fouberg, press secretary for Sen. John Thune, said Thune was very visible in the wake of his razor-thin loss to Sen. Tim Johnson in 2002.

Thune, who then held the congressional seat that Herseth Sandlin does now, lived in Sioux Falls and was seen at the grocery store, at his children’s ballgames and in the community, Fouberg said.

“Senator Thune held a press conference the day after the 2002 election and had conversations with reporters throughout that week and beyond that,” she said. “There wasn’t really a period of silence” [Tom Lawrence, "Ousted Congresswoman Says She Has 'No Regrets,'" Mitchell Daily Republic, 2010.12.01]

Senator Thune, you pay Andi with an i $100,000-plus a year to say things like this? Our tax dollars at work? Try our tax dollars at jerk.

Andi with an i neglects to remind us that the "press conference" the day after the 2002 election was more likely Thune's concession speech, since the 500-some vote margin wasn't called in that race until the morning after the vote. And the Thune-Noem machine wasn't terribly interested in giving Herseth Sandlin any visibility right after they won, since Noem trotted out to give her victory speech hardly 30 seconds after Herseth Sandlin had begun her concession speech.

Andi with an i makes a whole whack of bogus implications with her other references:

• "lived in Sioux Falls"—still pumping the lie that Herseth Sandlin doesn't live in South Dakota. How many times does someone have to say she lives in Brookings for you to accept the plain fact that she lives in Brookings? Even in victory, is the lie so titillating, so addicting, that you can't give it up?
• "seen at the grocery store"—seriously? this matters? What do you want, Hy-Vee receipts? (Actually, speaking of receipts, we shouldn't forget that Herseth Sandlin was spending more money in South Dakota than Noem during the campaign.)
• "children's ballgames"—golly, we're sorry that Zachary isn't old enough for pee-wee football yet. Should Herseth Sandlin submit affidavits from neighbors who saw her around town with Zachary at McDonald's or the Children's Museum or other places?
  

Herseth Sandlin tells the press that she spent the past month at her home in Brookings, on a family Thanksgiving trip, and back at the office in Washington. She's been particularly busy there: in addition to making every vote so far in the lame-duck session, she's had to move her office, hand over office equipment, and let staff go, even though she's still on the job for another month. Whatever calls she's getting for jobs, the Lawrence article makes it sound as if Herseth Sandlin, the good boss, is more focused on helping her staffers make the transition and land on their feet.

Now I know the Thune-bots at Dakota War College are crushed to lose a fun headline-meme. (Heavens forbid bloggers lose easy snark and have to come up with original, useful news about policy.) But if Herseth Sandlin had taken the opposite route and made lots of public appearances post election, the Thune-bots would simply have resorted to some other slimy line, like "Who does she think she is? She loses but keeps trying to hog the spotlight. Why can't she leave the stage gracefully?"

In a political and media environment highly inclined to brush aside losers, outgoing Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin has been doing her job, helping her staff, and reclaiming some well-deserved privacy. And maybe, just maybe, Stephanie has been making up some quality time with a little boy who's a lot more important than providing fodder for those of us in the chattering class.

Blog Potpourri: Fine Turns of Phrase

We find all sorts of verbal artistry on display in the South Dakota blogosphere this week.

Exhibit #1: Doug Wiken discusses Senator Tim Johnson's capacity for playing the grown-up in the room on earmarks. Senator Johnson notes that the federal government now lists every earmark online. Our Senior Senator says declaring a moratorium on the current earmark process will take spending decisions out of the hands of elected members of Congress and put it in the hands of an unaccountable Washington bureaucrat. Senator Johnson says earmarks done right fill vital needs in rural South Dakota. Wiken says "those enamored with the boilerplate mythology of Thune and Noem" should pay attention to Johnson's much more practical assessment.

Exhibit #2: David Newquist launches another hefty assessment of the disadvantages South Democrats face and the action the party should take to effect change. He addresses the South Dakota inferiority complex, saying young Democrats with talent recognize that this state doesn't appreciate talent and that they can find other states that will give them better political and employment opportunities. But Newquist still sees hope for young, ambitious Dems like Ben Nesselhuf and Mitch Fargen to stay and make a difference... and it's not through electoral politics that force us to pretend we are Republicans:

Elections produce nothing but rancor and lead to nothing but oppressive gridlock through the power game playing. A reformed political party must understand that to contribute to beneficial change, it will have to work around the state government, not through it. The old Non-Partisan League, which formed in the Dakotas early in their statehood, has some lessons for our current time.

Just as the Non-Partisan League built its influence through addressing the actual concerns of farmers who realized that the railroads and grain companies were impediments to their lives, the Democratic Party must acknowledge the forces that keep so much of South Dakota in a state of thralldom. The Non-Partisan League challenged the stifling oppression by the business community through state-owned banks, grain elevators, mills, and banned corporate farming. Many people objected to the socialist aspects, but state government in South Dakota is dominated by the credit bank interests, so there is really no difference between the rule of state government and the rule by banks. The Party needs to strengthen and revitalize its presence in those enclaves in the state where it has its support, and it must work at the local level to build functioning relationships with the segments within and outside the state that make the creation of viable communities its priority. The election of sacrificial goats and/or scape goats to the state legislature is more of a distraction than a reasonable focus of political activity [David Newquist, "Flogging dead horses, inflating degenerate balloons, or what?" Northern Valley Beacon, 2010.11.17].

Newquist clearly disagrees with my contention that we Dems should focus on fielding enough candidates for a primary in every race. But his suggestion is to focus on direct political action to benefit our communities. I (and the rest of us Dems) clearly have some thinking to do.

Exhibit #3: Bob Mercer discusses "The Soviet Takeover of Dakota War College." On reading the headline, I thought Mercer was referring to the turn of the blog from mostly rugged individual authorship to the new writers' collective (which, alas, includes some anonymous writers who need to cowboy up and put their names to their words). But Mercer's concerns about the Sovietization of the blog are less about creeping collectivism and more about the Soviet-style deletion of history and documents. Journalist Mercer appears to share concerns expressed elsewhere in the blogosphere that this self-censorship signals that, at best, six years of blogging was just a rough draft, now subject to revisionary pressure to suit ideological or commercial demands.

Dakota War College Epitaph?

Pat Powers has deleted all of his old blog content, leaving a fairly big hole in the hyperlinked, multivocal social narrative known as the South Dakota Blogosphere. I may have a broader post-mortem later.

For the moment, though, let us heed the dearly departed's words on Yankton Media Inc's deletion of some online commentary:

Nothing like standing behind your words of hate, eh?

How completely chickensh*t.

—Pat Powers, "Sounds like the Vermillion newspaper hates Republicans. And Kristi Noem. And possibly most South Dakotans," Dakota War College, 2010.11.09

Corrupting the Youth: Blogger Speaks to Deuel HS Journalism Class

In another sign of the erosion of our public school system, the Deuel High School Journalism class recently invited a certain well-known East River blogger to discuss propaganda. Fortunately, journalism and speech teacher Samantha Walder then invited me to repair the damage done to young minds.

Kidding aside, Mrs. Walder invited me to Clear Lake yesterday to talk about blogging with her eager journalism students. Deuel's journalists this year are all girls—the journalism class is offered the same hour as shop.

The Deuel HS Journalism class, intrepid reporters for the Birdwatcher, pay rapt attention.

In addition to learning traditional reporting and print layout, the Deuel HS journalists have been churning out an online version of the Deuel School District news since January 2009. Their blogging platform of choice: Blogger. Oh yeah.

Don't worry, parents: Mrs. Walder (right) was on hand to provide adult supervision.

An encouraging sign that Deuel HS is teaching media literacy right: their open wireless network. I was able to log into the network with my trusty little netbook and browse all sorts of webpages during my presentation, including my own blog. Some school districts have blocked the Madville Times and Blogger sites in general, much to their detriment. Not Deuel. The journalism students there have accessed and studied the Madville Times and other blogs in class. Exposing students to a wide range of online content won't damage their brains; to the contrary, it will make them smarter, more discriminating consumers and producers (conducers!) of online media.

Surely I was making an important point here.

I opened with a little history of my involvement with blogging, then spent the bulk of the hour answering student questions. They kept me going all period, asking about my favorite topics, motivations for writing, commenters, and other blog details.

Trickiest question: one girl asked if I thought Orson Scott Card had influenced the development of the World Wide Web with his incorporation of something very much like blogging into the plot of Ender's Game. How's that for a curve ball? I suggested Card might have been picking up on previous ideas like Vannevar Bush's famous memex. I couldn't think of the name on the spot, but I also mentioned the forgotten inventor of the hyperlink, Belgian inventor Paul Otlet.

The biggest point I wanted to make (and I might have amidst the excitable torrent of techno-journalistic observations that flowed forth) was that blogging has been a great learning tool for me. Blogging has focused my attention on South Dakota politics and history. Blogging has also expanded my social network and my definition of community. As I said to the Deuel journalism students, my neighbors aren't just the people here on the western shore of Lake Herman or around Lake County. When I say neighbor, I think of the kids in that Clear Lake classroom, their blogging teacher Mrs. Walder, the guys on Sunday's blog hunt, and everyone else in South Dakota... even that Noem lady.

And to top it off, one of the girls brought chocolate cupcakes. That's what education needs: more cupcakes! That, and more blogging, more authentic, public use of the Web like the online news produced by Samantha Walder's students on the Deuel Birdwatcher.

Chuck Clement, MDL, Continue to Run Interference for Big Spending Madison School Board

The propaganda from Chuck Clement and the Madison Daily Leader on behalf of the Madison Central School District continues. In previous coverage of our school board's proposal to build a new gym and renovate the high school, MDL has buried mention of key terms like new gym. Now Clement's coverage of the school board's approval of a public vote on $16.98 million shows more propaganda by positioning.

Madison Central business manager Cindy Callies guesses the new gym and high school renovation will cost taxpayers $2 per $1000 of property value. If you own a $150,000 house, that's $300. Farmers stand to pay an average $411 more per quarter section.

One would think that financial data would be top priority information for most readers and taxpayers. One would thus think the journalistic urge would be to place that information at the top of the story.

But what journalistic choice does the local booster paper make? We hear first that the school approved the $16.98 million bond issue (good). Paragraph 2 says we vote on Feb. 1 (good). Then paragraph 3 reports this vital news: "No person attended the school board meeting to speak for or against the resolution or ask questions of the school board members or district administrators."

Translation: None of you showed up to complain or ask questions, so you have no right to vote against what we want.

The specific cost information doesn't come until paragraph 6. In traditional journalistic terms, the placement of details in this story says it's more important for the Madison Daily Leader to continue its function as propaganda organ for the school district and create the impression of lack of opposition than it is to report on the specific details of the proposal that voters must study and decide on February 1.

I'll be attending a school tour in the coming weeks, even though I already know the building and its physical needs from years of experience. I'll be recording and reporting on my tour. And I'll be advocating the position that I've already formed: I'll support the bond issue when they drop the unnecessary multi-million-dollar new gym.

My coverage of this bond election will be fully biased and subjective. At least I can admit that. I look forward to the day when Chuck Clement and the Madison Daily Leader will admit the same.

Mount Blogmore Hunt: 12 Guns, 36 Pheasants, 60 Degrees in Hyde County

I ventured west to Holabird and the Nemec farm yesterday for the annual Mount Blogmore South Dakota Blogosphere Hunt. Most in attendance pursued the wily pheasant with shotguns; a few of us limited our shooting to camera. (Jeremiah Murphy, Kevin Woster, and Todd Epp used both!) Below is my humble photostream of a day well-spent walking fields in greater Holabird.



Perhaps the best moment of the day for the hunters: walking Nick's sunflowers and flushing so many pheasants I probably could have thrown my camera and knocked one down.

The best moment of the day for the birds: when Kevin jumped up on his truck at the east edge of the sunflower field and shouted "Done!" as our twelfth shooter took down our 36th bird. "Done! Limit!" rang the cry across the windless field. And as our voices faded, the pheasants raised their own cry, hundreds of them to the south, cackling, laughing at us and at their escape. It happened exactly that way, honest.

Nick and Mary Jo Nemec are gracious and generous hosts—thank you, Nemecs! And thank you to Kevin Woster of Mount Blogmore for organizing the day.

Liberal Blog Helps Patricia Stricherz Beat Gerry Lange?

Patricia Stricherz offers the following statement on winning a seat in Pierre with her surprise second-place finish in tonight's District 8 State House race:

Thank you all very much. Tonight, I have been given a privilege that few have been given — the privilege of accepting the voters call to service as Representative for District 8 State House. I accept it with gratitude, humility and confidence.

Finally, a word to all District 8 House Candidates. You are all great men and ran a good and respectful campaign. You stood for something you believed in, the citizens of District 8 and the state of South Dakota, and did something about it. Because of this you have my respect and admiration [Patricia Stricherz, e-mail, 2010.11.02].

That said, I can't help wondering: did the Madville Times help Republican Stricherz beat my favorite Dem and neighbor Gerry Lange? Stricherz beat Lange by 124 votes. Her strongest margin over Lange was right here in Lake County, where she outpolled him by 380 votes.

Lake County is the Madville Times' core market. Stricherz advertised here. She campaigned here in the comment section.

And now, barring a remarkable recount outcome, she's going to be my representative in Pierre. Wow. I'm serious: Representative-Elect Patricia Stricherz is the biggest surprise I've had all night.

Madville Times on KJAM AM 1390 Tonight!

Local radio gets a dose of real liberal media tonight: KJAM has invited the Madville Times to join its Election Night news team! I will be blogcasting live from the KJAM studio in beautiful downtown Madison tonight from 7 to 10. I will be tweeting election results and commentary at #sdvote2010 (and I invite the Twitter-inclined among you to do the same).

Best of all, at the :10's and :40's on each hour, Matt Groce may actually let me near the microphone! Think of it this way: Matt will be Al Michaels, news director Lauri Struve will be Dan Fouts... and I'll be Dennis Miller.

When I'm not at the mic, I'll be furiously clicking through the live election tallies streaming from Secretary of State Chris Nelson's awesome website. (Seriously, Republicans, you picked Noem over a guy this smart, who can do stuff this cool on the Web?) I'll also be taking and responding to comments here on the blog. If you've got questions or comments you'd like us to address on air, submit them in the Madville Times comment section, and Matt and I will try to work your comments into the program!

And who's making this electrifying nght of wall-to-wall election coverage and blog-radio synergy possible?

The Madville Times is going to sell a lot of beer tonight. Wisecracks are more than welcome in the comment section.

So get your local Election Night 2010 media overdose right here in Madison! Listen to Matt and me on KJAM, follow the tweets and blog feed, and contribute your two cents' worth here on the Madville Times!

RCJ Ignores Noem Conflict of Interest on Crop Insurance

The Rapid City Journal is one of the few major newspapers endorsing Republican Kristi Noem over Democratic Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. (Sioux Falls, Aberdeen, and Mitchell papers are backing the incumbent.)

RCJ bases its endorsement on bogus arguments:

1. They grumble that SHS hasn't been visible enough in West River, yet they say nothing about Noem's skipping the KOTA debate, the Rapid City Tea Party rallies, and even a visit from her own national party chair to stay home in East River and shoot birds.
2. They brand the stimulus a Democratic boondoggle, ignoring the good the stimulus is doing in their own backyard.
3. The biggest whopper: the RCJ editorial board chafes at Max Sandlin's lobbying but ignore the Noem family's own blatant conflict of interest:
   

   Some of Herseth Sandlin's decisions have been difficult for the congresswoman, when her personal and/or party's convictions cross with those of her constituents. Noem would have no such conflict [editorial, "Noem in Tune with West River," Rapid City Journal, 2010.10.31].

No such conflict? Bull-roar. In addition to surviving on farm welfare payments, Kristi and Bryon Noem sell crop insurance. Crop insurance has been recognized by Republicans and Democrats as a "textbook example of waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending." Crop insurance companies have regularly made three to nearly five times the benchmark rate of return on their policies. A 2007 report from the Government Accountability Office found that from 1997 to 2006, 42 cents out of every federal dollar spent on the crop insurance program went to the crop insurance companies, not to farmers.*

In response to this waste and inefficiency, the 2008 Farm Bill includes a new Standard Reinsurance Agreement that cuts six billion dollars from the crop insurance program and applies some of those savings to reducing the deficit. Those savings come in part by capping commissions for crop insurance agents like the Noems.

Those caps don't kick in until next year. Put Kristi Noem in office, and she'll have a chance to repeal those caps before they cut into her family's crop insurance profits. Wouldn't that be a nice little anniversary present for Bryon?

No conflict of interest there, is there, Rapid City Journal? Noem is clearly in tune with West River and South Dakota values of taking every penny we can from Uncle Sam.

Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin has explicitly addressed concerns about her potential conflict of interest... in the pages of the Rapid City Journal itself. Kristi Noem has said nothing about her own direct business interest in the federal crop insurance program that she'd like the chance to vote on. In manufacturing its endorsement of Noem, the Rapid City Journal is holding the GOP challenger to a much lower standard than it applies to our incumbent Congresswoman.
----------------------------------------
Bonus endorsement ding: RCJ concludes its Noem endorsement by saying "This country needs elected officials with positive, proactive solutions." That's funny: Kristi Noem hasn't offered any positive, proactive solutions. She hasn't even offered a clear agriculture policy.
----------------------------------------
*That same 2007 GAO report suggest another possible connection between Noem, crop insurance, and the Farm Service Agency. The GAO found that the Farm Service Agency was not conducting enough inspections to prevent bogus crop loss claims. Crop insurer Kristi Noem served on the state committee of the Farm Service Agency in the 1990s. What government connections might Noem have made then that are now helping her crop insurance business?

Madville Times: 76% South Dakota Audience

From my morning site stats, a breakdown of Madville Times visitors by state:
Over three out of four visitors from South Dakota: not just random Googlers, but neighbors interested in finding out what's happening in our fair state. That's just the way I like it. Keep reading, neighbors!

Perhaps I can boost that South Dakota percentage tonight, with coverage of the Chamber of Commerce candidates forum! I probably won't be able to blog live—Madison Central administration is unlikely to let blogger access their network. But I'll put out a transcript and commentary as soon as possible!

Barbour for Daugaard: Here Comes the Fox News Money!

Update 2010.10.27 08:59 CDT: That's what I get for wishful thinking. I review Daugaard's pre-general filing, and sure enough, there's RGA PAC, in for $51, 456.60, about the same as the $50K Heidepriem got from the Democratic Governors Association. Haley Barbour also stopped in Wyoming to stump for Republican Matt Mead, who is ahead of Democratic challenger Leslie Petersen by at least 30 points. So much for worry.

-----------original wishful post-------------
Republicans must be getting nervous if they feel the need to send to send Republican Governors Association chair Haley Barbour all the way out to South Dakota to stump for Dennis Daugaard. Perhaps they timed this visit to change the narrative from what they perhaps anticipated would be a really bad KELO debate for Daugaard against hard-punching policy aficionado Democrat Scott Heidepriem. (I haven't seen the debate yet, but Bob Mercer calls it a "clear victory" for Heidepriem.)

Or maybe Barbour and Team Denny timed the visit to keep RGA's Fox News money off the campaign finance books for as long as possible. Reviewing Daugaard's pre-general and supplemental campaign finance filings, I saw no sign of donations from the Republican Governors Association. RGA gave the Rounds-Daugaard campaign $100,000 in 2006. RGA also has a million dollars from Fox News to spread around the country for Republicans in need.

Heidepriem and Daugaard each reported a quarter-million cash on hand for the last week of the campaign. Actually, amazingly, Heidepriem reported just about $10,000 more cash available for the last push than the GOP favorite who started raising cash three years ago. Daugaard has already burned up his cash advantage, and in debates, Heidepriem is taking a mighty swing at showing Daugaard does not have the policy-wonk advantage one might expect from a sitting liuetenant governor. I still get nervous about wishful thinking, but Haley Barbour's last-minute visit, and the RGA/Fox News money he may bring, may show Daugaard really, remarkably, unexpectedly, is a Republican in need.

---------------------
Don't forget, kids: If Mr. Barbour does bring Fox money, you need to tell us about it within 48 hours.

Noem Misuses Website in Misleading Guns Flyer

I reported here last week that South Dakota's Republican candidate for U.S. House Kristi Noem violated the terms of use of Project Vote Smart's website by citing VoteSmart.org in a partisan advertising flyer. (She also, as it turns out, cited it incorrectly, relying on the more politically advantageous yet not updated secondary source instead of referring to the updated primary source.)

Project Vote Smart has issued the following public statement condemning Noem's misuse of its name and service:

Kristi Noem, a candidate for the South Dakota U.S. House seat, has used Project Vote Smart’s name and programs in a negative attack against Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, who is running for the same office. This kind of negative campaign activity is precisely the sort of tactic that Vote Smart attempts to counter with its factual database. By using Vote Smart’s name to give credibility to these attacks, Noem is cheating the public out of their need for trusted, abundant, accurate information.

Project Vote Smart prohibits the use of its name and programs, including the Political Courage Test in partisan political advertising. All candidates in South Dakota have been notified of this policy in writing. Additionally, this policy is posted prominently on the Project Vote Smart website (www.votesmart.org).

This kind of behavior occurs in less that 00.05 percent of all races nationally. It is our policy to condemn this misuse of Project Vote Smart’s name and reputation and to alert the public to any misuse of our name or programs for negative political activities [Project Vote Smart, public statement, 2010.10.18].

Now notice that Project Vote Smart isn't a partisan outfit telling you for whom to vote. Their whole website (including their new VoteEasy app for evaluating where all the candidates stand relative to some of your own positions) is dedicated to helping voters get the facts about all of the candidates, without spin or weasel words. They are liberals and conservatives working together (novel concept!) to give all of us voters an alternative to "the issueless rhetoric and often misleading attacks that define contemporary American politics."

This assessment of the Noem mailer isn't a negative attack from some big-money otuside group. This assessment simply points out a fact: Kristi Noem's guns flyer violates the policy and spirit of Project Vote Smart.

So Was That a Public Ceremony?

On the front page of the Tuesday Madison Daily Leader:

Blog Trashes Conscientious Journalist with Wild Distortion

Alternative headline: Tea Parties More Rational than Dakota War College?

The Rapid City Journal's newest political reporter, David Montgomery, made an error in a story he wrote in Saturday's paper. Writing about Senator John Thune's presidential aspirations, Montgomery miscontextualized a quote from the Murdo Marauder. Our senator said something about not being "particularly concerned about how that may play here," that referring to running for President, and here referring to South Dakota, whose voters have a historical tendency to get owly* with local pols who presume to get all presidential.

Full disclosure: David Montgomery attended a picnic at my house in 2009. So did Steve Sibson. Make of that what you will.

Then Montgomery discovered he got the here wrong. Thune meant Washington D.C., not South Dakota. Montgomery saw, as did some RCJ commenters, that the miscontextualized quote could be interpreted as Thune poo-pooing the home crowd. Montgomery moved quickly to fix the error, not just editing the story, but posting a lengthy apology and explanation (on a Saturday, same day of publication):

The mistake is entirely my fault. I’ve removed the inaccurate quote from the story, deleted comments responding to it and am writing a correction.

It’s particularly regrettable because people are already interpreting that quote as saying Thune has abandoned South Dakota. Even in my original, incorrect misunderstanding of the quote’s context, that’s not what I thought he was saying — I thought he was saying he’s not worried that running for president might cost him his reelection.

But given my mistake, people attacking Thune for this quote are entirely wrong. I hope no one uses that out-of-context quote to attack Thune; if blogs or the media do so, I’ll gladly contact them and tell them as much [emphasis in original; David Montgomery, "Making Mistakes," Mount Blogmore, 2010.10.02].

Check that out: Montgomery not only takes full responsibility for the error and fixes it, but promises to take ongoing responsibility to stamp out any rumors or political spin folks might try to wring from the original erroneous text. Problem solved, political fracas averted, right?

Wrong. Not satisfied with an apology, and evidently feeling the need to break up the tedious stream of recycled press releases, Dakota War College runs this headline: "Reporter trashes Thune, gets caught and tries to pass it off as an oops." Brookings blogger Pat Powers proceeds to wildly distort the affair. In Powers's world, Montgomery wrote a "hit piece." Demonstrating the power of generalization and imagination over facts, Powers claims without examples that Montgomery "has always been a Herseth Sandlin apologist, almost never offering anything other than gushing and glowing for our embattled congresswoman." He also issues the standard DWC headline distortion, saying Montomgery got "caught," while providing no evidence to suggest the correction was motivated by anything but Montgomery's perhaps late source-checking.

The DWC peanut gallery proceed to pile on with unsubstantiated accusations that scratches their "Rush told me the media was evil!" itch.

Meanwhile, leaders of Rapid City's two battling Tea Parties take a much mellower view of Montgomery's error. Their comments appear in the comment section beneath Montgomery's correction and apology:

Barb Lindberg Says:
October 2nd, 2010 at 11:26 pm
Hey David... Just wanted you to know how I appreciated you making the adjustment and correction on the Thune article. It says a lot about you – at least in the eyes of those whose “word” is still their signature. We’re in crazy times right now, I can relate with the “fish bowl” effect of what you say and do. It always amazes me when the critics and doom sayers so quickly jump at the first sight of blood. I appreciate also your heart and intent in not wanting to thwart John’s representation to his constituents. Without sounding “sappy” “WELL DONE”

Ed RandazzoSays:
October 3rd, 2010 at 7:57 am
Good going, David. We can all empathize with you feelings on this, as we have all made mistakes... [from the comment section, Montgomery, 2010.10.02].

(Randazzo proceeds to some criticism of not working harder to boost SD conservatives like Kristi Noem; Montgomery, ever the journalist, uses the comment section to ask Randazzo what impact he thinks Thune could have on Noem's campaign.)

So the Rapid City Tea Parties, arguably the most radical conservatives in the state, read Montgomery's apology and see responsible journalism. Dakota War College reads the same text and sees a political dupe trashing Senator Thune. DWC's rabid response against the Tea Parties' mild shrug and turning to other issues bespeaks the ill turn of the quality of Brookings's loudest blog and its mudthirsty commenters.

I've seen trashing. I've been trashed (with greatest frequency by lily-livered anonymi at DWC). I gain nothing by defending a professional journalist (we bloggers get our cred from trashing paid reporters... right?). But Montgomery's one erroneous line was not a trashing. If Montgomery had intended it to do damage to Thune, he'd have let it hang out there longer and then buried the correction and apology. Now, I can't even find a version of the line in its original context online, and Montgomery has very publicly vowed that he will straighten out anyone who does try making anti-Thune hay from the original error.

The only trashing taking place is at Dakota War College. Montgomery is an asset to South Dakota's all-too-small Fourth Estate, yet the venomous, ad hominem peanut gallery manufactures indignance and screams rumor and resign! What childish rot.
---------------------------------
*Update: Note that it's professional journalist Bob Mercer who, six days prior to the Montgomery article, said of Thune's presidential aspirations, "John however seems to forget from where he comes." Now why didn't DWC scream "trashing" about that?

Press AWOL on Huge Veblen Dairy Bankruptcy Sale

Last week David Newquist said the traditional press just doesn't have the time or motivation to cover agriculture. Here's support for that contention: I'm hearing from my sources that the bankruptcy auction to liquidate the environmental atrocity known as Veblen East went forward last week. The buyer, "Vista Family Dairies LLC," apparently bid $21,300,000: $800 for each of 5000 head of cattle and $17,300,000 for the facility. That's the minimum requested bid for the cattle and $1,300,000 more than the minimum requested bid for the facility. The bid is also less than half the $50 million Veblen East cost to build.

No information for Vista Family Dairies LLC is available online, not even corporate papers or fictitious name registration on the Secretary of State's website... and if I'm reading state statute correctly, Vista Family Dairies LLC needs to have such papers filed before conducting business like bidding in a bankruptcy auction.

Vista Family Dairies is likely not the happy family operation its name implies. I'm betting it's Veblen East owner Rick Millner, who is surely scurrying around northeastern South Dakota and beyond trying to find investors who don't know his history of fleecing business partners, stiffing suppliers, and driving dairy operations into the ground through bad business and environmental practices.

And those potential investors won't know the history of either Millner or Veblen East because the local media haven't covered it. In all my blogging about Richard Millner's troubled dairy operations, I have relied on primary source, court documents, and AgWeek. Emily Arthur-Richardt of the Aberdeen American News did a good job in 2007 on the story of the Veblen East Dairy getting built with money from rich foreigners buying their way to the front of the line for green cards. However, on Millner's environmental violations and bankruptcy, the South Dakota press has been mostly silent. (Readers, you are welcome to submit links and articles to prove my memory faulty!)

By one account, polluting Veblen East and its bankrupt twin dairy Veblen West make up 15% of South Dakota's dairy industry. If a hospital or credit card call center that made up 15% of its industry in this state polluted the neighboring watershed, went broke, and was auctioned off to a mystery LLC, the media would be covering it... wouldn't they?

The Veblen East auction and pending Veblen West bankruptcy activity are big financial and environmental news. On this important story, the professional press are AWOL.

Newquist Knocks Noem (and Farm Subsidies, Monsanto, Media, Bloggers...)

The good Dr. Newquist is blogging a relative blue streak lately, doing determined battle with boorish KELO commenters and related forces of intellectual and cultural decline. His Monday post on farm subsidies and Kristi Noem runs to 2300 words, without any lengthy blockquotes from other source. It's all Newquist... another reason I like his blog.

The post encompasses much—less polite or patient reviewers might say it rambles. But rambling is good for the intellect. Dr. Newquist begins with his ambivalence toward farm subsidies, then connects his concerns about the decline of journalism and democracy, the "yammering" of the blogosphere, and finally, the unreadiness of Kristi Noem for Congress. He assesses Noem's performance on farm issues and other questions at the Corn Palace and State Fair debates and concludes Noem doesn't have answers on farm subsidies or anything else:

In my lifetime, journalists who did not prepare for assignments got fired. Students got failed. Noem did not prepare....

The Republican tactic of performing an Orwellian portrayal of Nancy Pelosi as an enemy and then mounting an entire congressional campaign on their cheap ad hominem attempt to hide the real issues under a smear is put to work by Noem in South Dakota.

It is not a question of whose ideas are better for agriculture. It is a matter of who has informed themselves about what the issues are and how they affect the state. As she did with the traffic tickets, Noem has chosen to blow those issues off, too. She does not present herself as one who knows what is taking place in agriculture or who really cares [David Newquist, "The End of Farming and What Kristi Noem Proposes," Northern Valley Beacon, 2010.09.13].

Read Newquist's full post here. It's worth your time.