Our view: Hypocrisy? Did DFL overlook a few facts?
June 23, 2011 at 7:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
Several times every week, it seems, the News Tribune receives news releases from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and others taking Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack to task for a vote or a comment or just for his general political leaning.
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Well tossed mud sling pie back DNT, guess your in it for the mud tossing fest too, guess we wouldnt know what kind of correspondence you get unless you print it. stop your hipocracy.
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What mud-slinging? Can you quote what you’re referring to? Seems like independent facts to me.
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It’s OK Phil. The DNT was irresponsible in printing the first article without checking the facts and got called out on it. They’re attempting to set the record straight, but it’s still not enough for me to re-subscrbe. The DNT has a long history of publishing far-left slanted and often erroneous articles to appease the Duluth DFL majority. Apparently they have chosen this tactic because they do have to sell papers. Partisan articles that do not tell the whole story must sell more. Truth should be more important, as they attempted here, but of course damage has already been done-both to the paper’s credibility and Congressman Cravaack, and it’s doubtful the left will believe anything printed in this article.
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Oberstar had to FLY from Blaine to Minneapolis?
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AND back to Blaine! (But of course his time is/was too valuable to be spending it stuck in traffic.)
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Thank you News Tribune for printing the ccmparison! When the original article was printed I went looking for Oberstar’s expenses but could not find them – I’m so glad you were able to. Congressman Cravaack is doing an incredible job. It’a amazing how hard people will try to discredit good work.
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Thank you for the clarification, but who was responsible for putting the original article on the 1st page and for the headline? It sure appears that all they did was take the word from an organization who had much to gain by trashing Cravaack. That is NOT journalism – when you don’t even check the facts, simply repeat what you’re provided with, and report what your (the reporter’s) personal opinion supports. This kind of political
bias is what hurts the DNT- and it has been more than evident when it comes to Cravaack and Oberstar.
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Understand, the news editor and the opinion editor are polar opposites with regard to politics and the truth.
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Perhaps this will get the DNT to implement a review or journalistic process instead of copying and pasting press releases from the DFL and trying to pass it off as “news”. Everything they say (same goes for the Republicans and Independents as well) needs to be viewed with a skeptical eye, and verified before printed. These organizations are political spin machines, whose sole interest is increasing their power. They do not care if they bend or twist facts to make someone look bad. Here’s hoping this results in a change in policy at the DNT, because as a few others have pointed out the DNT currently has a reputation of being a DFL propaganda platform more than a reliable news source.
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Perhaps this will get the DNT to implement a review or journalistic process instead of copying and pasting press releases from the DFL and trying to pass it off as “news”. Everything they say (same goes for the Republicans and Independents as well) needs to be viewed with a skeptical eye, and verified before printed. These organizations are political spin machines, whose sole interest is increasing their power. They do not care if they bend or twist facts to make someone look bad. Here’s hoping this results in a change in policy at the DNT, because as a few others have pointed out the DNT currently has a reputation of being a DFL propaganda platform more than a reliable news source.
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I apologize for the double post. My comment did not appear 4 minutes after I submitted it so I re-submitted it. Then multiple showed up. Wish there was a way to delete the duplicate.
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Well, kudos to the paper for an attempt at correcting the record. Regardless, as they say in the court room “You can’t unring a bell.” Funny, I don’t recall any investigative report on Oberstar’s spending records — ever. Don’t fall asleep at the switch, dear newspaper, otherwise the nickname “Duluth Snooze-Tribune” will be heard as much up here, as it is in the Twin Cities.
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Nice to see Oberstar was spending so much quality time in Blaine, and Minneapolis. I bet if you question what he was doing there, he would call you a flat-earther.
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It’s a wonder anybody even wants to run for office anymore. Cravaak hadn’t been in office even a month when the sniping started. Give the guy a chance to prove himself (good or bad) before starting up the “sniping machine”. Very few seem concerned at all with good factual analysis before speaking…..they just throw verbal bombs like selfish kids do on the playground before learning to be more thought to issues, and even offer suggestions as to how to do things better before attacking.
If Cravaack spent less overall on his travel expense, and less overall than any other Minnesota Respresentative, what in the world is there to complain about ? As long as he is in fact getting out and meeting with people in his district he’s doing his job. You may disagree with him politically, but he is doing his job. We live in a democratic republic, not a direct democracy. Just because Cravaack doesn’t vote or espouse the opinion you hold dear doesn’t mean he’s not doing his job. We elect people to use their own good judgement, tempered with sound public opinion and vote accordingly.
Voicing honest opinion differences respectfully always brings new light to issues and that’s a great thing. Taking political jabs, sniping, issuing sound bites with no supporting facts so you can make the evening news rarely if ever brings any new light to an issue and only suceeds in bring more acrimony and ill will to the table……we have enough of that thank you.
Aparantly, the only way to deal with this is for our citizens to start ignoring the inflamatory political jabs and asking good hard follow up questions to make the verbal bomb throwers explain in detail how they came to this conclusion and see if they have good solid facts on their side.
This travel expense issue is the perfect example. The initial article about Cravaacks expensive ride doesn’t hold much water (in my opinion) when you add other supporting facts to it and see it in the total context. But it made the headline of the DNT didn’t it. And I think that was the entire mission all along.
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A month? He hadn’t even been sworn in and we saw articles about who would run against him in 2012.
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Sam, if your “theory†had an ounce of credibility, News Editor Robin Washington and Reporter Brandon Stahl wouldn’t have a job at the DNT after printing the original piece of political hack journalism and giving it the front page exposure. Simply stated, the damage is done and the DNT news department is as left as they come.
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This isn’t the only issue the DNT has and continues to be biased on. There are certain hot-button topics where apparently they’ve made up their minds to choose sides. Then to support their position, they basically reprint press releases as “news” and leave it at that, with absolutely no information from opposing views allowed. It’s been happening for years. The only surprise here is that they admitted it.
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Mark, It’s easy to claim our Congressman hasn’t been to your part of the district when you do not state what part that is. If you want to see him, you have the opportunity to do so on Wednesday night in Ely where he will host a town hall meeting. I also have a question, how often did our last congressman make an appearance in ‘your part of the distrcit’ or hold a town hall meeting that was open to anyone who would like to attend?
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You need to crawl out from your rock occasionally, Chip has been to Virginia many times. Most recently the 4th of July parade.
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They claimed nearly 1800 miles in travel that should have covered most of the cities and towns in the district! When is he coming to Duluth for an “Open” non invite only meeting? He was here on Memorial Day which was not much more than a 2012 election campaign stop on the tax payers dollar kind of like what people bag on Oberstar for doing..
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According to Wikipedia – Minnesota’s 8th Congressional district covers 27,500 miles. 1800 miles is a small percentage. I’m sure they will have an open to the public town hall meeting in Duluth at some time, something the old congressman NEVER did.
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Why would a decent man like Chip want to grovel in the mud with the Credo Creeps that assault him when he goes to Duluth?
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Anybody who has issues with The Duluth News Tribune should cut to the chase and contact …
Forum Communications Company
Address: 101 5th Street North, Fargo, ND, 58102
Phone: 701-235-7311
Phone: 701-451-5628
Fax: 701-451-5633
email: news@westfargopioneer.com
(Note) The 701.235.7311 number is your best bet until June 2nd. Apparently someone is on vacation.
As I explained to Forum Communications, these issues have been addressed at the local level in the past, to no avail. Its time to go over the heads of the DNT and straight to their keepers.
DEMAND MORE FROM YOUR NEWS SOURCE.
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According to ‘The Office of Transportation Data & Analysis –
Minnesota Department of Transportation
there are approximately 31,860,738 total miles of roadway in the 8th congressional district. If we take only the Interstate, US Hwy, and MN Hwy miles the approximate total is 2,413,916. The number of miles the Cravaack team had driven in the article is 1800, approximately .075% of the total. They have many more miles to drive before they cover the entire district. I for one am very glad they have a decent new vehicle to travel in. I’m also thankful that they don’t consider driving through all those corn fields and forests a waste of time as some do. As for where the vehicle May be parked, I’m guessing it would be at the congressional office in North Branch.
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It sits at the Congressional office until the mobile office crew takes it to contact constituents. You’re engaging in what shrinks call projection, you would cheat, so everyone else must be cheating too. CHEEZE you libs suck!
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Why didn’t he just buy a used car? That’s what most of the taxpayers have to do these days.
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I live in the 8th district and have a year old car I purchased new. I like being the minority.
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Congressional MRA pays for leases not for buying used cars. It’s the rules, get over it!
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