The Duluth Governors debate.

This post is not going to be at all about the debate that took place in Duluth this morning.  Fact is I did not go to it so at this point I don't know how it went.  This post will focus on the fact that the debate was missing something/some one.

Now I know that the chamber had been setting this up as a  debate between Governor Dayton and republican challenger Jeff Johnson.  Fact is they totally disregarded another choice for Governor and that was independent candidate Hannah Nicollet. Now it may not have been a big deal to some but for me it is, regardless of your political stand all major voices should be heard.  The independents does major status in Minnesota and there for should have had there candidate in this debate.  After all she was in the other two prior debates in Rochester and Moorehead Minnesota.


Not only was she in them but she did well in them according to many sources for all walks of the political life.  I just strongly believe that all candidates should have the right to take part in a debate.

Now why would the chamber not include her, I don't know for sure.  There sure are many possibility's, they have a political bend they wanted to protect?  The chamber does not believe she is in a major party or viable candidate.  Neither of these should be something the chamber should decide.  They don't like her?  Don't like the party?  ect....

The chamber said that they would not include her because it would be distrustful, to the other candidates.  What a complete joke.   The chamber made a bad decision in not allowing her to debate today, it angered many people again of all political aisles.  Many did not attend debate because of this.  

News and endorsing.

Okay folks here is the deal  I have been involved in media for 20 plus, in many ways from blogging,radio and politics.  Now I have a real issue with news papers and news cast endorsing/ fact checking.  There is a reason you are news.  Do your job and report the news.  

I don't feel that news papers should do endorsements, this is not news.  Fact is an "endorsement" by a paper just an opinion there is no news involved in this. Papers time in and time out tell you vote this way and here is a bit about the candidate, what they don't tell is how they came to decision.  They also do not tell who is making that decision nor do they tell where those people stand politically. I don't see anything news worthy in papers endorsements.

fact checking in a newscast, again this is not something that should be done in a newscast.  This is not news, what they are doing is threw a tv commercial of a candidate or party and saying if they believe it is true or not.  I fail to see how this is news.  I don't have a problem with them doing fact checking, the problem I have is where it is done.  If you want to have a community show that does where you say we   have taken this commercial apart and here is what we believe.  That said in that show if the station leans any way they need to make that information public.  

Blogging is completely different, this is where people share there thoughts and opinions. Quickly also there a talk shows on radio, these are different from news programs.  The show host and callers are sharing there opinions on issues, candidates ect...

This may come from my schooling and being involved in media for 20 plus years.  I just don't see any positives in this type of "news" broadcasting.  When is school you learn that news is just that news, you don't have a political lean.