In case you were wondering, the Mesabi Daily News, the largest newspaper on the Iron Range, will not be endorsing Al Franken. That’s my logical assumption, anyway. They’ll have some sort of mock interview process, probably involving a peasant boy dressed to appear like Al Franken. But I think the fix is already in.
A center-right newspaper to begin with, the editorial page of the MDN has been used as a battering ram against Franken at every stage of the campaign, from trying to pump up Mike Ciresi’s failed run, to a last-minute strained embrace of Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, to this odd editorial touting gadfly candidate Priscilla Lord Faris for her “good campaign.” Yes, that would be the campaign in which Lord Faris provided harsh attacks against Franken used verbatim by Norm Coleman in his ads and then showed pictures of her shaking hands with Hubert Humphrey at her wedding … because, you know, her dad was a famous judge.
The next stage will be the benevolent MDN showering flower petals upon Coleman for his bipartisan support of every Iron Range project concocted by lobbyists and consultants known to man. That’s what really revs up editors at the MDN: Computer generated graphics of things that do not exist. I know we need the jobs, but we must never forget that actual Iron Range lives are presently touched by war, a bad economy, a collapsing health care system and a massive national debt that’s selling out our kids.
Yeah, I’m sure there’s a good spin on that, too. Just like Lord Faris’s “good campaign.”
Al Franken deserves a fair hearing for his stance on these vital issues and blogs like mine cannot yet outshout traditional media up here. Still, importantly, you can’t assume people will vote based on the editorial slant of the big local paper. The MDN endorsed Bush and the Iron Range people politely disagreed. I expect they will do so again today and in the future.
Amen.