(Note: edited on 8/10/06 - I got part of the details of this wrong yesterday, but the point is the same)
This campaign season the Star Tribune has decided that merely proffering its hilariously rigged Minnesota Polls is simply not enough. They have also taken on the role of self-appointed "watchdog" of the various political campaigns now ongoing in Minnesota. Today's entry is an especially risible example of begging the question.
The Star Tribune takes on an obscure Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee press release, which alleged that Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty has been calling Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kennedy a "weenie" for distancing himself from President Bush. They take the DSCC to task for conflating statements that Pawlenty made in a different context.
It's all well and good, but there's a problem. No one, except for those who get press releases from the DSCC, would have even known the charge had been made; in nearly every case the pressies didn't run any stories because there was no story. But now, since the Star Tribune has ostentatiously aired the report and branded it false, it has given the false charge currency by mentioning it to an audience many times the audience of the DSCC.
The feature might as well have said, "Pawlenty denies asking Kennedy if he's stopped beating his wife." Put another way, it's the same as killing a mosquito that had landed on Kennedy's leg by shooting the mosquito while it's still on Kennedy's leg. Solves one "problem," but retails another to a wide audience. Another nice performance by the Strib.
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