Lambert acknowledged that the Minnesota political press has failed to cover Michele Bachmann's career properly. Lambert looks at the leading news icons of the state (the Pioneer Press, the Star Tribune, and Minnesota Public Radio) and concludes that their pretense of coverage is a "fail."
You should read the article if you want to understand how professional political reporting in Minnesota works--or doesn't work. The article represents a respected member of the Minnesota press breaking the silence to acknowledge chronic, habitual media cowardice in this state.
(Lambert doesn't use the word cowardice. But it's appropriate in the context of Lambert's explanation of year after year of rotten journalism by the PiPress, Star Tribune, and MPR.)
I spotted one error in Lambert's article. Lambert tells his readers that local blogger Karl Bremer is one of group of locals "who delivered the best day-to-day coverage" of the Bachmann story at his Ripple in Stillwater blog.
That is a factual error. I looked at Karl Bremer's Ripple in Stillwater blog yesterday--I looked back at past posts and found no "day-to-day coverage" of the Bachmann story there.
I have no problem with Lambert recognizing Karl for something he has actually done. But I do have a problem with Lambert reporting something that simply didn't happen, something that Karl simply didn't do.
It was sloppy reporting for Lambert to include Karl Bremer and Ripple In Stillwater on a list with people who really did put in all these years of gathering and publishing day-to-day coverage of Bachmann.
Lambert should run a correction, and identify it as a correction. He should remove Karl's name from the list of people who really did devote years to providing Minnesotans with day to day coverage of Bachmann. And Lambert should substitute the names "Eric Pusey of the Minnesota Progressive Project," "Ken Avidor of Dump Bachmann" and "the City Pages" as three sources who really run day-to-day news on Bachmann--throughout all those years when Lamberts' peers in the professional press wouldn't. (There is at least one professional Minnesota reporter whose consistent work on the Bachmann story deserves public recognition--that's Andy Birkey of the Minnesota Independent. Lambert should have mentioned Birkey and the Minnesota Independent, comparing their regular coverage to the "fails" at the Strib, the PiPress, and MPR.)
Karl Bremer should get the credit he seeks for the things he actually did--it misleads readers to give Karl credit for something he wouldn't do, didn't do.
Anyway: read Lambert's article, if you're a Minnesotan and you want to understand the kind of press we've got...
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