This week Minnesota media dropped the last vestiges of neutrality and went all in to try to save the sinking campaign of Keith Ellison, who as all the world knows by now is running for Attorney General. It was pathetic even by the low standards to which we have become accustomed.
One outlet in particular deserves mention for its political activism but first I wanted to bring to readers’ attention something that was said when the MPR/Star Tribune poll was released a couple of weeks ago showing Doug Wardlow ahead by seven points. The shock to the liberal junta cannot be overstated. This is the office they’ve held for 46 years (but don’t expect Republicans to reflect on their incompetence which is the cause for this).
Local media panic ensued: the DFL is their party.
In tweeting about that poll, former Star Tribune reporter, MPR freelancer, and “data” reporter David Montgomery gave the game away: “It seems clear right now that a majority of Minnesota voters will pick a generic Republican over Keith Ellison right now. Right now Doug Wardlow is, to most, just a generic Republican. Will he still be by Election Day?”
Translation: all hands on deck for the demonization of Doug Wardlow. He can’t be generic, he has to be something: Hitler? Stalin? (no, they were on the Left, same with Mao, Castro, Che, Allende, the list of murderers goes on). David Duke maybe? You get the drift.
And lo it came to pass. The Pioneer Press, which has been reduced to a terrible website more than an actual news outlet, lead the way. Others followed, to be sure, echoing the invented narrative by which our brave Daniel Pearls hoped to derail the Wardlow campaign.
Brett Kavanaugh-like, last Saturday the Pioneer Press ran a story that claimed Wardlow was a high school bully who was mean to sexual minorities (which keep multiplying and which the Left demands I respect because reasons). The chief accuser said nice things about Wardlow in subsequent years on social media but the corrupt and dishonest press is adept at never letting facts get in the way of a narrative needed by their preferred party.
Ellison pounced, to use a term exclusively applied by the media to Republicans, and tried mightily to give the story traction. He pretty much failed but not for lack of effort in the echo chamber of other local media outlets.
The Pioneer Press then followed up with a story setting itself up as the arbiter of the rancid record of the vile Ellison. It was headlined “Keith Ellison, Louis Farrakhan, and ‘cop killers’: Smear campaign or fair game?”
Imagine going to bat for Wardlow in the opposite direction. I tweeted in response to this propaganda “Doug Wardlow, David Duke & “white supremacy”: Smear campaign or fair game?”
You get the point. Some issues, some topics, would be fatal on their face but only for one political party and not the other. This isn’t news to Alpha News readers but the media bias on display this week against Doug Wardlow shocked even me. It’s a measure of how well he’s doing, I realize, but still indefensible.
The Pioneer Press then dug into the social media accounts of Wardlow’s wife, Jennifer. She’s a private citizen, not on the ballot, but any port in a storm. When was the last time we saw Minnesota media look into Tina Smith’s husband’s offshore tax haven in Bermuda?
To top it off, yesterday KSTP released a garbage poll purporting to show Wardlow behind by four points. This would be an 11 point swing from the MPR/Star Tribune poll. The swing didn’t happen. The poll has a discrediting margin of error of 5.3% and of its 1,000 voters sample, it included 400 registered and not likely voters. Hillary in a landslide.
The stakes for liberals in and out of media in the Attorney General’s race are high and the bias on display is certain evidence of such. Although it’s nauseating to see, we have to be thankful to Doug Wardlow and his campaign team for running an “always on offense” race that has prompted it.
When he loses, I predict stories about how racism and religious bigotry accounted for Ellison’s failure. Count on it: media, with their dripping biases, are nothing if not predictable.
Photo credit: Oxygen.com
John Gilmore
John Gilmore is an author, freelance writer & former opinion columnist for Alpha News. He blogs at minnesotaconservatives.org & is @Shabbosgoy on Twitter
