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Earth To Alix!

Posted by Lady Logician on Friday, June 06, 2008 8:23:53 AM
I've written about Channel 9's Alix Kendall a couple of times in the past.  For the most part, she reports the news straight up - until we get into campaign season and then the partisan in her slips into her reports.  Todays report was on the 2008 Senate race.  As all most Minnesotans know, the DFL State Convention is the weekend and they will probably endorse Al Franken at said convention.  In her report this morning about the Senate race, she mentioned that in addition to Franken, Jesse Ventura and Dean Barkley (Independence Party) were considering running to "replace Paul Wellstone who died in office.  What Alix didn't mention is that Senator Paul Wellstone died during the campaign six years ago! 

If it were not for the fact that Channel 9 has the most "competent" weather department I wouldn't watch this state and if it were not for weather and traffic reports I doubt I would watch local news at all.  However, Alix makes it all worth it.  She is an endless source of media bias material.
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J'accuse!

Posted by Lady Logician on Sunday, March 30, 2008 4:58:14 PM
While looking for examples of coverage of the allegations against AG Lori Swanson versus coverage of US AG Rachel Paulose I found this post from the Minnesota Lawyer Blog.  The comments left mirror many of the allegations in Ms. Lawler's letter to Deputy Olson in her letter dated March 14 (and covered in detail by Gary Gross at LFR).  The comments are all anonymous, but given what we know so far it is no secret why!

Anonymous said...
I am one of the attorneys who left the AGO for some of the reasons/concerns raised by Ms. Lawler. It is common knowledge in the Office that both Lori Swanson, as well as her predecessor, would often first decide what kind of lawsuits they wanted to bring (commonly based on whatever topic is hot in the media or being pursued by AGs in other states), assume that there MUST be someone operating in Minnesota to sue in this area, direct the staff attorneys to find a party to sue (or give them the names of parties to sue) and file a complaint within X time period and then orchestrate a big media splash and press conference to publicize the matter. While some people might applaud this as being "proactive," I had the same ethical concerns expressed by Ms. Lawler. Of course, my response to these questionable tactics was to simply leave the Office rather than "stir the pot" so to speak and be subject to involuntary reassignment or other retaliation. It is no wonder that the consumer enforcement division at the AGO (now "complex litigation") had 100% turnover in staff attorneys AND managers while I was employed at the Office. Now the staff attorneys who make up that division are primarily very young lawyers who don't have the experience or courage to challenge or question what they are being told to do, with the exception of Ms. Lawler. Kudos to Ms. Lawler for speaking out even though it will obviously cost her her job.

It is sad that the latest public vetting of the problems at the AGO aren't going to change anything (sorry Mr. Cohen). Believe me when I say that Swanson et al. have convinced themselves that they aren't doing anything wrong despite the continued hemorrhaging of attorneys and negative publicity and will defend their tactics to the death (otherwise known as the 2010 election year).

 
I would say that "hemorrhaging" is the correct term.  According to Ms. Lawlers letter (and confirmed with sources close to the pending investigation) 52 lawyers have left the AGO since Lori Swanson took over.  Given that the AGO employed 126 lawyers, that means that roughly 41% of the lawyers in that office let.  That is a far greater percentage than left the US AGO which is what led to the initial allegations against Rachel Paulose. 
 
Anonymous said...
Mr. Cohen--Having worked in the Minnesota AGO for several years (but no longer), and having worked on multistate cases, I appreciate what you are saying. AGs, like all politicians, prefer favorable press, and I agree that they sometimes may use less than "best practices" in terms of how they pick what cases to file, if they think they can get good press as a result.
However, I also think that Hatch and Swanson have taken that approach to a whole new level, and not a better one. Their attitude towards cases, in my observation, is much like their attitude towards their attorney staff--we were all interchangeable, like cogs in a wheel. And if one cog happened to manifest any independent thought, judgment or to protest (like Ms. Lawler), then the response was to simply remove the offending cog (or get it to quit) and replace it with another one that would do what it was told to do.
All too often, the Hatch and Swanson regimes have the same cavalier, wholly self-serving approach to case management--once the press glamour wore off on a case (which pretty much happened the day it was filed), then upper management lost interest, tended to not want to put appropriate resources towards it, and often drove the case towards settlement to just get rid of it. This didn't happen every single time, of course, but it happened way too often.
And that's what I hope people understand about this union issue--it's not just an employment law issue, as one high-ranking DFL'er has reportedly stated, but it's an issue about the quality of legal services that the State of Minnesota is getting from its own, in-house legal staff. Because if the staff attorneys aren't allowed to act like attorneys and exercise their professional judgment on behalf of their "client," which ultimately, is state agencies and the people of Minnesota, then the people aren't being served. No matter how many cases the AG files in a month.
 
Emphasis added.  These are questions that seem to be getting asked only on blogs.  That is what I was getting at in my last post.  There are some serious questions being raised and our local media is curiously silent - someone needs to find out why.
 
If these allegations are indicative of the troubles at the AGO, then a new set of questions arise.  How far down the managerial chain does this attitude go?  If it is indicative of all of upper management, then who prosecutes this case?  For these are the kinds of cases the AGO should be investigating! 
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Political Double Standards?

Posted by Lady Logician on Sunday, March 30, 2008 4:25:32 PM
I have never been a fan of unions - I have seen too many abuses (growing up in Chicago) by unions in their attempts to unionize businesses to tend to want to give then any leeway.  That is why when the story of AG Lori Swanson's attempts to block the unionization of her office first surfaced, I gave her the benefit of the doubt.  That was until Amy Lawler bravely came forward and told her story to the Eric Black at MinnPost and then subsequently was placed on "administrative leave" by the AG's office for doing so.  It was at that point that I started paying attention to this case.  The local televised media covered Lawler's suspension, but didn't dig any further into the story or her allegations.  The Star Tribune devoted a couple of stories to the suspension but didn't dig much either.  The St. Paul Pioneer Press didn't cover Lawler's allegations or suspension AT ALL.  The only ones that really seemed interested in digging into the allegations raised by Lawler and others were MinnPost, Minnesota Public Radio, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Delano) who has repeatedly asked Rep. Tony Sertich (DFL-Chisholm) to open legislative hearings on the issue and a multitude of center right blogs like Let Freedom Ring and the lefts favorite Minnesota Democrats Exposed.
 
Contrast that with the extensive coverage given to Rachel Paulose last fall.  The Star Tribune had 20 stories on Paulose versus 7 on the Swanson allegations.  KARE 11 was Paulose 22 - Lawler/Swanson 3 counting Friday's announcement of the Legislative Auditor's investigation.  WDFL, er WCCO had 50 stories on the Paulose allegations to 3 for Lawler.  KSTP had 32 stories on the Paulose allegations versus 4 for the Lawler suspension.  Only the PiPress gave almost equal coverage to the stories. 
 
So what is the difference between Lori Swanson and Rachel Paulose?  Both are female lawyers who were high profile AG's - one state and on federal.  Both are very aggressive - you have to be in their line of work.  Both have (according allegations) rather brusque management styles.  By all accounts, Ms. Paulose was a competent fairly well liked attorney who made a couple of mistakes and made amends for them.  Ms. Swanson, on the other hand, is universally feared by her employees (see next post).  She has been accused of asking her employees to falsify time cards, give improper advise to clients, file frivolous lawsuits and generally engage in ethically questionable behavior.  So why the disparity in coverage? 
 
The allegations against Ms. Swanson (see LFR where Gary has a copy of the letter sent to Deputy AG Olson), if accurate, are stunning in their scope.  The letter is a peek at an office where political power was wielded like a weapon and woe to anyone who questioned the tactics taken or the orders given.  It seems to me that this just the kind of story most reporters would give their eye teeth to have dropped in their laps and yet our local media seems curiously silent on the issue.  Where are the investigative reporters in this town?  Why has NO ONE outside of MinnPost, MPR and the blogosphere done any digging into this story?  Why is the local media "covering up" for a DFL State AG when they were so eager to go after a Republican appointee US AG? These are questions that all media consumers need to be asking themselves. 
 
More and more our local media outlets continue to give the impression that they are nothing more than a PR arm for DFL Party.  They continue to lose viewers and readers and they don't seem to understand why.  While I don't know what it will take for them to finally "get it", I simply can not let slide the most recent example of media bias that Minnesotans have come to expect from their local media.
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Hang 'Em High

Posted by Lady Logician on Thursday, March 20, 2008 7:29:56 PM
Much was said in recent weeks about the "punishment" that has been meted out to the "Over-ride Six".  Now we see that they are not the only ones being "punished" by the folks back home.
 
There were no embarrassing scandals or ugly fights at the House District 58 convention last weekend, but, still, two longtime incumbents -- Reps. Joe Mullery in 58A and Willie Dominguez in 58B -- walked away without getting the official nod from their own party. Instead, activists in 58B chose Bobbie Joe Champion, and Wellstone Action staffer and Minneapolis School Board Member Peggy Flanagan forced Mullery to a no-endorsement, kicking off a primary race.
 
Here you have two DFL incumbents who have voted pretty much in lock step with their caucus and yet they could not regain the endorsement of their BPOU.
 
I expect Lori Sturdevant's scathing indictment of the SD 58 convention to be in the Star Tribune in coming days......NOT.
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More Liberal Media Bias

Posted by Lady Logician on Monday, March 10, 2008 4:56:52 PM
As if we really needed more ammo.....
 
Take a look at the opening paragraphs of these stories about Govern Elliot Spitzers current legal troubles.....
 
Star Tribune
Gov. Eliot Spitzer, the crusading politician who built his career on rooting out
corruption, apologized Monday after he was accused of involvement in a
prostitution ring. He did not elaborate on the scandal, which drew calls for his
resignation.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a
high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a person
briefed on the federal investigation.

CNN
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is under investigation for allegedly meeting with a
prostitute in a Washington hotel, two sources with knowledge of the
investigation tell CNN.

 
MSNBC
Gov. Eliot Spitzer apologized to his family and the public on Monday, but did
not not elaborate on a bombshell report that he has been involved in a
prostitution ring.
 
Now check the opening paragraphs in these stories....
 
CNN
A Republican senator pleaded guilty earlier this month to a misdemeanor
disorderly conduct charge stemming from his arrest at the Minneapolis-St. Paul
International Airport, according to state criminal records.
Republicans and Democrats are marshaling potential candidates to run for Rep.
Rick Renzi's congressional seat in case the Arizona Republican bows to pressure
to resign in the wake of an FBI raid last week on his family business.
Embattled Republican Sen. Larry Craig will announce his resignation from the
Senate Saturday, a GOP source in Idaho said Friday.
Senator Larry Craig, Republican of Idaho, will ask a judge this week to reverse
his conviction for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer in a
Minneapolis airport bathroom. He should prevail. Mr. Craig did nothing illegal,
and the law he was convicted under should be held unconstitutional.
Republican Rep. Rick Renzi was indicted Friday on charges of extortion, wire
fraud, money laundering and other matters in an Arizona land swap scam that
allegedly helped him collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in payoffs.

In every single one of the Spitzer stories it takes 4 to 6 paragraphs for the news organizations to off-handed mention that Spitzer was a Democrat where every single one of the Renzi and Craig stories listed above it is in the opening paragraph!
 
This bias is not limited to the treatment of Spitzer, Craig or Renzi.  One only needs to Google William Jefferson and Tom Delay to find even more examples!
 
This is yet another drip, drip, drip in the further erosion of media credibility...and they wonder why people chose to get their news from other sources.
Tags: Media bias  
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Happy To Pay....

Posted by Lady Logician on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 12:25:22 PM
In the mornings, while getting the Junior Logician ready for school, I usually put on one of the local news broadcasts to see what the weather is going to be for the day.  This morning, I had on Fox 9 News (as I usually do) and I heard something that actually made me stop what I was doing.  Going into commercial, anchor Tom Butler, teased a story that was coming up about the Transit Bill.  While their reporting on this story was not unexpected, it was what Mr. Butler said that brought me up short.
...and coming up, now that the House and the Senate have over-ridden the
Governors veto on the Transportation bill, find out how much in new taxes you’ll
have to pay...

The emphasis that was put on the "you'll" was what caught me as there appeared to be a certain amount of joy, happyness or excitement in his voice.  It struck me as just a little odd that a supposed "neutral observer" would take such delight in the fact that the taxpayers of Minnesota had just been told to "bend over and grab your ankles" by the state Legislature!
What really got to me though was that for the first time in this whole debate, a local media outlet actually listed out many of the new taxes including the 1/4% metro area sales tax increase that is solely for transit.  This is the first time that I have heard any of the local media outlets talk about the fact that light rail was going to be a beneficiary of this bill.  Heck if you listened to people like Rep. Lieder and Rep. Abler (more on him later) you would have thought that all monies for this bill were going to make our roads "safer" and that those who told you otherwise (like talk radio and bloggers) didn't know what they were talking about!
This in a nutshell is why the voters of MN are looking to new media outlets for information about what is happening in the legislature.  They realize that the local media are willing participants with the DFL in pushing these tax increases down our throats. 
Stay tuned to True North - there are two more BIG tax bills that are coming.  Rep. Lenczewski's Tax bill and the Universal Health Care bills are both supposed to come to the floor this week and True North will be there to cover it for you.
Tags: Media bias  
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