Mark Miner for the win...

I may have to amend my postulation yesterday (link) that perhaps Rick's peeps are not being aggressive enough in getting the real story about Bill White's corruption into media stories...

The Corpus Christi newspaper lets loose some zingers (link). Excerpt follows...

Mighty small-tent of the Texas Democratic Convention last week to deny access to Mark Miner, campaign manager for the enemy camp of Gov. Rick Perry. The explanation — that the convention was a place to support Democratic candidates and Democratic issues without reservation — sounded a might Orwellian. This from what we thought was the party of live-and-let-live, pro-open-access freedom of expression ‘n’ more.

[SNIP]

Before the day was out, he e-blasted news releases including: “Statement from Texans for Rick Perry Spokesman Mark Miner on Bill White’s convention speech,” which began with “In delivering one of the most negative speeches by a nominee for Texas governor in modern history ...” And, “How to survive the Texas Democratic State Convention,” with helpful hints such as “A packet of NoDoz to help maintain consciousness during Bill White’s floor speech,” and “Some Tylenol to battle the headache of Bill White’s liberal political agenda ...” Included in the survival guide was a Top 10 list of “confessions you will not hear from Bill White during his convention floor speech,” starting with “I will raise your taxes,” of course.

Had the Democrats been more open and accommodating, they might have cut into Miner’s valuable propagandizing time and maybe he’d have been less prolific. Also, had they not kicked him out and thus violated our sense of above-the-fray fair play, none of said propaganda would have been quoted in this space.

Another perspective from the Dallas Morning News (link). Excerpt follows...

Miner was asked to leave, Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirsten Gray confirmed.

"We didn't feel it was appropriate," she said.

Miner said he was there to raise questions about White's leadership in Houston and the $2 million contract to BTEC for providing emergency generators afterHurricane Katrina (White's former company had purchased BTEC and White himself invested money in the company a year after the hurricane.)

Miner was inside the convention center, preparing to get guest credentials from a friendly vendor when he was asked to leave. He did. But Republican folks earlier did hand out a free newsletter to delegates, the Whitewash Report, where all the news stories were attacks against White.

Then there was that infamous chicken suit incident I missed out on when I was on hiatus (link). Excerpt follows...

From the peeps I have talked to... it sounds like Mark Miner just kept talking like a real pro and ignored the buzzsaw he had ventured into... and he still got his quotes in the news... what could have been a total disaster turned into only a mild disaster...

While doing a press conference on your opponent's front lawn while there is a campaign school going on there is a bit like Napoleon invading Russia in winter as far as decisions go... and let's not mince words... that generator back drop was not really very telegenic with those crummy BTEC signs they put on it... the whole stunt was ill fated from the beginning...

While all that is the case... my flippant speculation yesterday that Miner might not be pushing stories enough was just not supported by the evidence...

More likely the press just are biased beyond what they even realize. Some of them may even think they aren't biased because they occasionally ignore a White attack on Rick or pick up a Rick attack on White. What is strange though is that Bill White has a lot more room for exposure whereas Rick has just been through the grinder for the past year... not to mention campaigns in the past... Rick's laundry has been aired and re aired and re aired again... but Bill White is still unknown...

This Bill White not revealing his tax records thing for example...

The natural default for the media should be to push for more taxes to be released. Always... more information, more transparency... that is the journalist's duty... that is the call of the entire profession...

Instead... when it comes to Bill White the press look at his pathetic partial release of his taxes and say "we are satisfied..."

No... it shouldn't take Rick calling on Bill White to release his taxes every day for it to happen... it should be the working press doing their jobs and hounding him about it...

Where is the journalistic integrity? Where are the stories on Bill White's corrupt activities? Why did they bury the stories about Bill White's lawsuit against military voters?

Bill White was recently on a conference call with the media and announced he is "partnering" with the press (link). That sounds a little bit too much like this JournoList scandal for my taste (link). Excerpt follows...

The fact that 400 journalists did not recognize how wrong their collusion, however informal, was shows an enormous ethical blind spot toward the pretense of impartiality. As journalists actively participated in an online brainstorming session on how best to spin stories in favor of one party against another, they continued to cash their paychecks from their employers under the impression that they would report, not spin the agreed-upon “news” on behalf of their “JournoList” peers.

The American people, at least half of whom are the objects of scorn of this group of 400, deserve to know who was colluding against them so that in the future they can better understand how the once-objective media has come to be so corrupted and despised.

We want the list of journalists that comprised the 400 members of the “JournoList” and we want the contents of the listserv. Why should Weigel be the only person exposed and humiliated?

I therefore offer the sum of $100,000 to the person who provides the full “JournoList” archive. We will protect that person’s privacy and identity forever. No one will ever know who became $100,000 richer – and did the right thing, morally and ethically — by shining the light of truth on this seamy underworld of the media.

Bill White's conference calls with the press and comments about "partnering" with the media raise questions... are the press in Texas more than just informally in bed with the Bill White campaign? Are some of them actively on the Bill White team?

One of Rick's allies made a big stink to me a few months ago about how Gardner Selby and other Texas journalists are "fans" of Bill White on Facebook, but not a fan of Rick...

Selby is the one who oversees all of those laughably biased PolitiFact ratings... so his Facebook fanboy status of Bill White is not surprising.

Maybe I am making a mountain out of a mole hill... but it does seem like those little anecdotes... coupled with the Rasmussen Media Meter analysis showing that Bill White receives so much better media coverage than Rick... really make you wonder what is going on and why the press seem to determined to sink their own ships (link). Excerpt follows...

79.5% of the media mentions for White were positive, and only 20.5% were negative.

For Perry, during the same time frame, the coverage was far more mixed: 45.6% of the media mentions were positive, and 54.4% were negative.

Are the press hoping for a tight race? Are they just waiting until Labor Day before they write the stories that are damaging to Bill White? Do they see their subscriber declines and layoffs as inevitable... so they just throw away all pretense of objectivity... trying to go out with a bang...

Whatever it is... it seems to have escalated from when I was more in the game... not that the working press were objective angels back then... but in this Rick versus Bill White race and many instances I see in other races in other states these days... the bias is beyond the old acceptable threshold... and credibility of news outlets out among the people is suffering dearly as a result.