Election day News-ish

If you're a political junkie, then the idea behind the Colorado Model is nothing new to you. A partisan (For now Democrat, as the Republicans haven't figured this out) pseudo "news" (News-ish) organization backed by deep pocket donors spends a lot of time running "news" (News-ish) stories that are really thinly-veiled attempts at trumpeting the party line. These news-ish stories are almost straight in nature, except they do a poor job of attribution for one side, or they make fanciful claims that aren't backed up by facts.

It's a good model, one that worked in Colorado and which has been transplanted to Texas for the 2010 election and beyond. Unfortunately, for Democrats, the candidates selected were sub-par, so it appears that any serious gains will be forestalled, for now.

The result?

The news-ish agencies are blowing their tops....


(A Kinder, Gentler Tea Party in Houston, Michael Berryhill, The Texas Observer)

The King Street Patriots served cookies and pledged allegiance at their rally, and had a nice young woman of color sing “God Bless America,” and dabbed their eyes at the beauty of it all, but underneath, they are an angry bunch of white people who believe they have been swindled.

(As voters go to polls, GOP lawyers prepare legal challenges, Jesse Zwick, The American Independent)

The RNLA’s insistence that voter fraud is widespread isn’t helping, said Wang. “They create an environment in which people don’t trust the system and we’re already in a time where there’s a real serious lack of trust in government and its institutions and this makes it a whole lot worse,” she added. “If people don’t have faith in the outcomes of elections, that’s really damaging.”

Be it editorializing in news stories or accusing Republicans of partaking in the exact same tactics as Democrats this type of pseudo-journalism isn't doing anyone any good. What's sad is, on occasion, these groups can play it straight and just report the news. Kind of like FoxNews, MSNBC and other ideological news outlets.

What they all don't realize is that they're at their best when they put the news-ish to one side and focus on the news. News-ish articles intent on driving an agenda should be paid political announcements. The fine irony is that these organizations who, in many cases, seek to obscure the source of their funding are leading the charge against the "controversial" Tea Party groups by demanding they release the sources of their funding.

Full disclosure. It works for campaign finance and it should work for advocacy groups as well.

Added:

Two more: The Observer just can't help itself today....


"But with a heavier Republican majority, the remedies the Legislature seeks for the budget are also sure to be even heavier and more damaging for working people and the poor."

The evidence of actual fraud they presented was flimsier than wet toilet paper but nonetheless received considerable national attention"

Heh...