All about Terri Bonoff

On April 12, at one of the most anticipated DFL endorsing conventions in years, a 30-year-old, ex-Republican, ex-U.S. Marine attorney from Plymouth with a compelling, immigrant American Dream story came out of political nowhere to win the Third Congressional District DFL endorsement after an eight-ballot showdown, over incumbent state Sen. Terri Bonoff (DFL-Minnetonka), the early-on presumptive nominee with name recognition, union support, and proven fundraising chops. The venue was Wayzata Central Middle School in Plymouth, in the heart of Bonoff's Senate District 43.

Yet curiously, in the post-endorsement issue of the Plymouth newspaper of record Sun Sailor, it was all about Bonoff.

The local weekly ran Bonoff's post-election letter-to-the-editor (in its own box, complete with three-column headline, pull-quote, photo, and prominent by-line), thanking supporters and her opponent, plus a news story of the endorsement. The news story by Joe Keiser covered the endorsement, but from Bonoff's point-of-view, featuring quotes from her but not from the endorsee, illustrated with a second copy of Bonoff's Senate mug shot but no photo of the endorsee.

It's as if the Sun Sailor narrowly avoided its own DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN moment.

I assume that Bonoff's endorsement opponent will eventually get some ink in the Sun Sailor. In the meantime, perhaps Bonoff can give him a few pointers on getting earned media.

Election coverage targets Minnetonka school board member

In a notable exercise of yellow journalism (at least for a newspaper that is not the Star Tribune), Lakeshore Weekly News Editor Brett Stursa put the campaign of one incumbent Minnetonka school board member in her journalistic crosshairs ("Race raises new, old questions," October 23, 2007).

The school board member, Bill Wenmark, is running for reelection to a third term on the Minnetonka school board. Wenmark is known for his early opposition to the now-repealed Profile of Learning graduation standards, and a long record of activism on public school issues. Wenmark is not shy about voicing his views, for example in favor of permitting the teaching the concepts of intelligent design in science classes, and raising serious questions about the International Baccalaureate (IB) program.

Stursa devoted 13 column inches, almost 25% of her article about the Minnetonka School Board elections, to a clarification of one of the lines in the education section of Wenmark's resume. The facts of the case: Wenmark's resume listed the United States Naval Academy when it should have read United States Naval Academy Hospital/Clinic. Wenmark corrected his campaign web site after Stursa asked for this clarification.

(Further clarification from Wenmark's web site: "In 1969, after completing extensive technical medical training and three years in the United States Navy, [Wenmark] was assigned to the United States Naval Academy Hospital/Clinic. It was here that the direction of his life would be forever changed. With a family to consider, he volunteered to be transferred to the United States Marine Corps and a tour of duty in Vietnam as a Combat Corpsman. He did this with the knowledge that his life expectancy in country was 3 months. He became a decorated Combat Corpsman in Vietnam from 1969-70.")

Why was this mundane portion of a reporter's routine research into a 1969 entry in Wenmark's curriculum vitae highlighted in the lead 13 inches of a story ostensibly about the issues in the Minnetonka school board election of 2007?

It would have been nice to hear the candidates' views on the Minnetonka school district's $3.8 million excess operating levy and $4.8 million extension to the current technology levy, for example, which share the ballot on November 6 with the school board election. How have the $3.8 million in budget cuts made in 2005 affected class size or curriculum? In the opinion of each of the candidates, has the new (in 2006) Q-Comp alternative compensation program been good for Minnetonka students, parents, teachers? Surely Stursa could explore these and other issues facing the district that will need leadership from the school board during the next few years.

Stursa is certainly qualified to explore these questions and more. She has covered the west metro education beat before, for the left-wing City Pages, including an article about the International Baccalaureate debate in Minnetonka called "We don't need no education (May 11, 2005)."

Instead, Stursa next spent 6-1/2 column inches examining Wenmark's committee assignments and meeting attendance record, which at least is related to his school board service, but certainly can't top the list of issues on the minds of most voters — except perhaps Wenmark's opponents.

Stursa concludes the piece with two issues that she knows about, but by her own admission are yesterday's news: "...the momentum going into this election isn't nearly as fierce as it was two years ago when IB and Intelligent Design first surfaced."

Agenda-driven writing like this, which generates more heat than light, is better suited to a lefty blog or City Pages than a community newspaper that local voters look to for substantive guidance in this non-partisan race. Check out this week's issue of the Sun Sailor for an information-packed voter's guide to the Minnetonka and other 2007 west metro elections.

"Who controls the past controls the future..."

"...who controls the present controls the past." —George Orwell

WCCO-TV Channel 4 and CBS News have apparently tried to control the past, using Dan Rather-style, ends-justifies-the-means "journalism," this time to advance their global warming agenda.

Yesterday on its web site, WCCO posted a story with a CBS dateline ("Protesters call attention to global warming"), that misrepresented the size and location of last Saturday's Sierra Club global warming rally, held on the mall of the Minnesota State Capitol. The text of the story was a roundup of the global warming demonstrations held around the country, but the accompanying video clearly showed images of the much larger Tax Cut Coalition rally, held on the steps of the State Capitol (that's the Quadriga visible in the screen capture image, for those of you who might remember it from your fifth grade Capitol tour; click for a larger size).

The story was pulled from the WCCO web site within an hour or so of the start of yesterday's Jason Lewis Show on 100.3 KTLK-FM, where the, ahem, inaccuracy was reported.

The local media has done its best to portray the attendance at the Tax Cut Coalition rally and the Sierra Club rally as comparable, when in fact the former outdrew the latter by, conservatively, 400% - 500%. Who needs a reality check now?

Visit the KTLK-FM web site, and local blogs like PheistyBlog, for the real story of the 2007 Tax Cut Coalition rally.