This A.P. story about Michael Brodkorb and "Minnesota Democrats Exposed" is a corker both for its liberal bias and its condescension towards bloggers. You'll see several examples of these faults as you read through the piece, beginning in the opening paragraph with its contrast of Brodkorb's interest in Senate Democrat Al Franken's tax delinquency with what the reporter obviously believes are Franken's more substantive issues.But it goes on from there --- labeling Brodkorb's describing Franken's serious financial crimes (easily found but which had remain undisclosed by the MSM) as a "furious political assault"; conceding Brodkorb's effectiveness in having "knocked Franken off balance" but attributing it (through a Franken spokesman) as being part of "the right wing noise machine"; making Brodkorb's revelations seem somehow soiled because some of them might come via tips from...yipes... Republicans; and using the term "outing" as a pejorative for Brodkorb's admission that he was himself a Republican.
Finally, check out these two paragraphs near the story's conclusion:
[Brodkorb] first asserted himself as a political force in the 2006 election cycle by reporting that Democratic rising star Matt Entenza had hired a private investigator to investigate fellow Democrat Mike Hatch. The revelation eventually forced Entenza out of the race for attorney general.
Hatch was a main target that year, too, with Brodkorb portraying the Democratic candidate for governor as divisive and mean-spirited. When Hatch was accused of calling one reporter a "Republican whore," his temper became the story, and Hatch went on to lose narrowly to Pawlenty.
Note how the A.P. reporter (Patrick Condon) manages to put the actions of Entenza and Hatch in the background compared to the revelation of those actions. Progressive politics, at least in Condon's mind, shouldn't be concerned about a Democrat's dirty tricks (proven) or a Democrat's abusive and profane temper (proven) or a Democrat's tax dodging (proven), but rather about those "jobs, health care and global warming" that the story began with.
With all this said, even Condon's reporting faults cannot conceal some very interesting facts. The most important of which is that solid, well-researched, investigative reporting is becoming more and more the province of conservative bloggers rather than of traditional journalists.
