Michele Bachmann on Christian radio in 2004, speaking about the gay community and same-sex marriage:
"This is a very serious matter, because it is our children who are the prize for this community, they are specifically targeting our children."
(--radio program "Prophetic Views Behind The News", hosted by Jan Markell, KKMS 980-AM, March 20, 2004.)
Most of the Minnesota press ignored reporter Brian Lambert's characterization of their coverage of Michele Bachmann as a "fail." Bob Collins of MPR did not.
Bob Collins did not try to defend MPR from the charge that its coverage of the most important political career in the state of Minnesota-- sucked.
Instead of defending MPR's Bachmann coverage, Bob changed the subject. He got mad and wrote about how MPR's coverage of teen suicides in Minnesota was pretty damn good (in Bob's opinion.) "Lambert doesn't point out that (an MPR news blog) has focused on the complex issue of teen suicide for years," wrote Bob. Then Bob linked to the regular reports of Minnesota teen suicides at his news blog.
The problem is: Lambert did not identify MPR's "teen suicides coverage" as a "fail." Lambert was not claiming that MPR failed to report or deplore teen suicides. Instead, Lambert's point was that MPR's "Bachmann coverage" is a fail.
How did Bob respond to that charge?
According to Lambert, the Rolling Stone story is an example of "local journalism's Bachmann failure." That's a fair -- albeit debatable -- point."
But Bob would not debate that point. He just changed the subject.
I suspect that there's a reason that Bob wants to confuse the issues of "teen suicide news coverage" with "Bachmann news coverage." I don't think Bob wants to get into the details of why out-of-state coverage of Bachmann was better than MPR's--for years and years and years. Better, from Bob's point of view, to change the subject.
Anyway: I don't agree with Collins that MPR did as good a job on the Minnesota gay teen suicide tragedy as Rolling Stone did.
Rolling Stone makes its position clear: it believes that some Minnesotans holding political power or influence are "making war" on homosexuality--and that this climate of pervasive, condoned bigotry has led to bullying and suicides by gay teens.
"And so people have to make this call now... they need to demand that the people be allowed to vote on this in November (of 2004). Because otherwise, our children will be forced to learn that homosexuality is normal and natural and that perhaps they should try it, and that'll be very soon in our public schools all across the state, beginning in kindergarten." - State Senator Michele Bachmann, appearing as guest on radio program "Prophetic Views Behind The News", hosted by Jan Markell, KKMS 980-AM, March 6, 2004.
(CONTINUED)
Bob Collins gives himself and his employer a good grade on covering the teen suicide in Bachmann's district story.
But I think Lambert's the one who gets it right. The Rolling Stone story connects:
a) the politics of homophobia and an organized homophobic rhetoric campaign,
to,
b) the rise in the climate of bullying and harassment and the rise in suicides by gay teens.
So I think Lambert is right, I don't think there's any coverage at MPR, the Strib, and the PiPress that connected those dots.
Rolling Stone detected an organized campaign grounded in homophobia. Their reporting indicated that the campaign was carried out by people in positions of responsibility in community politics and policy making. Thene theyy correctly connected that political culture, to a rise in bullying, hate, and teen suicide. That's why Bob Collins and I cab both call the piece "excellent."
But Minnesota's leading journalists were cowardly and unprofessional in failing to identify Michele Bachmann's contribution to (and political exploitation) of the climate of homophobia in her district.
"It's part of Satan I think to say that this is "gay." It's anything but gay." - Senator Michele Bachmann, speaking at EdWatch National Education Conference, November 6, 2004.
The Bachmann hate stuff against the gays was handed to the Minnesota press years ago. (I was one of the people who collected it and directed Collins and MPR and others to it.) MPR and the other media outlets here in Minnesota wanted no part of it. Understand: we weren't asking them to take a stand against homophobia. All we were asking Collins and the others to do was report the fact that State Senator Michele Bachmann ws making remarks like the ones your're reading in these quote boxes, here in this article.
They wouldn't do that. Just wouldn't do it; Collins dismissed my concerns over what Bachmann was saying and Bachmann's agenda as "partisan."
Six years later, a piece in Rolling Stone did link Bachmann to the climate of homophobia that has poisoned policy making in district. It was both necessary and fair to make that link. Collins is wrong and Lambert is right: I'm unaware of any comparable piece produced by MPR, the PiPress, or the Star Tribune.
What Bob Collins fails to understand is: that the Rolling Stone was excellent precisely because it is willing to assign blame to the blameworthy.
Bob deplores the fact that "we" don't pay attention to this kind of ongoing tragedy until someone comes along and reports the story in a "my politics v. your politics" context.
It doesn't seem to occur to Bob (as it did to Rolling Stone) that a particular type of politics--a particular set of political views-- is a contributing factor in suicides by gay teens in Anoka/Hennepin.
It's a well established fact, and everybody knows it: if you adopt 'a bad political agenda,' you can get other people killed. Is a political agenda that includes creating and maintaining a climate of homophobia "bad?" If Bob Collins feels that it isn't--he shouldn't report it. If Bob Collins feels that it is--it's his duty as a reporter and news commentator to denounce the hatred.
If politicians and the political people in the district pursue that kind of hateful agenda--MPR should have reported their rhetoric and remarks, the way Rolling Stone. MPR and Collins should have been reporting on that climate of hatred, that policymaking, all along--as it occurred. It's newsworthy and a matter of deep public concern: a place in Minnesota practicing the politics of homophobia...
Bob doesn't seem to "get" that--that conservative evangelical political activists are bringing their homophobic worldview into the political life of the area, and that ramps up the climate of intolerance in the area, and that contributes to bullying, shaming, and teen suicide. Oddly enough, Bob seems to conclude that because a "my politics/your politics" is involved...the issue of teen suicide is somehow apolitical...
It's interesting, because that means that people with "bad political agendas" (like promoting homophobia) can get MPR to avoid discussing the merits of their views--simply by politicizing an issue. If they introduce a "bad point of view" (for example, homophobia) into their partisan politics--MPR won't discuss the merits of their views, and in some cases won't even report those views (!)
Either he doesn't "get" that the politics of the district are contributing to hatred and shame--or he does get it, and didn't want to report on it. Again: Bob's piece indicates that he thinks the issue of teen suicide is apolitical. The Rolling Stone piece he praises indicates that it's not. The Rolling Stone piece does report that political activists and politicians contributed to a climate of hatred in Anoka/Hennepin.
A thoughtful and responsible professional can't arbitrarily divorce questions of politics from the human tragedies that result from horrible politics. None of us can arbitrarily divorce politics from human tragedy--where politics creates the human tragedy. That's one reason that decent people get involved in politics...to end tragedies.
There's a large body of very respected reporting that does recognize the direct link between bad political agenda and human tragedies--reporting on politics and health care, politics and miscarriages of criminal justice, politics and race incidents, reporting on policy and miscarriage of war.
It's Bob's position on the relationship between competing political agendas and human tragedy, that's flawed. Deeply flawed, repulsive.
I wish MPR and its personnel had summoned up the courage to connect the political exploitation of homophobia with the human tragedy in the district. I wish they would have reported that, as it occurred; as it was being ramped up by the most prominent politician in Minnesota and her supporters and sponsors.
If they'd been willing to make the connection between institutionalized homophobia in Bachmann's district over the years, hatemongers might have been held accountable for the human consequences of sowing hatred.
I really wish that Collins and MPR had shown some courage-- instead of hiding behind a "we're not going to get involved in all that big pro-Bachmann/anti-Bachmann roil" policy.
It's not just a local partisan squabble. One side of the "squabble" is wrong.
MPR's supposed to cover that, because it's not just "a roil between pro-Bachmann/anti-Bachmann" people. It's about the human consequences of allowing people to sow hatred in Minnesota.
In November of 2004, Michele Bachmann commented on the leader of a teacher training workshop who cites discrimination as a cause of suicide among homosexual youth. She said that he had "failed to acknowledge other psychological factors that could contribute to homosexual youth committing suicide, like family problems or abuse or maybe the fact of what they're doing."--- Senator Michele Bachmann, speaking at EdWatch National Education Conference, November 6, 2004.
Yeah...that's right...State Senator Michele Bachmann, later presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, now Congresswoman Michele Bachmann...
..was telling Minnesotans that one reason gay teens might be committing suicide is because they're gay.
Bob Collins and MPR didn't report that stuff. The blogs reported that news, as it occurred:, not MPR or the PiPress and the Strib. Bob should recognize that some people's political views can indeed contribute to other people's deaths. That's not debatable.
"This is not about hating homosexuals. I don't. I love homosexuals." - Senator Michele Bachmann, appearing as guest on radio program "Prophetic Views Behind The News", hosted by Jan Markell, KKMS 980-AM, March 20, 2004.Interviewer: "Answer the question, do you hate homos?"
Bachmann: "No, but ask my kids! (laughter)" - Senator Michele Bachmann, Tom Barnard Morning Show, KQRS, broadcast May 12, 2005.
LINK:
Here's MPR's Collins on why Lambert's wrong...
http://minnesota.publicradio.o...
LINK: Here's Lambert on why Bachmann coverage (not teen suicide coverage, Bob, but Bachmann coverage) was a fail...
http://thesamerowdycrowd.wordp...