Media Complaints

A link over at SaveMaplewood.com tipped me to this Pioneer Press blurb. Apparently the City Council triumvirate were upset about that KSTP story which, besides featuring one of my headlines here on WLOM (don't you think that was the best part? maybe it only seemed that way to me), pointed out how widely they're regarded as buffoons.

Some have observed that articles and news pieces often seem to come up short on quotes from the triumvirate or their supporters. The reason is pretty simple -- they think the media is out to get them, so they avoid talking to reporters. Then, when stories don't seem to give them equal time, or only present the opposing point of view (such as characterizing Gladstone as "stalled") without rebuttal, they can claim that it's because of media bias. Or when they do find their voice, like Erik Hjelle's famous "criticizing me is treason" editorial in the Lillie papers, or his hit list in the Pioneer Press (he claims he was misquoted), and come across as the clowns they are, they blame the media rather than themselves. Remember the investigations of Hjelles election wrongdoings, or the Schultz report? Loaded with misquotings, remarks taken out of context, lies -- or so Hjelle & Co. would like us to believe. Never mind that Copeland himself picked Professor Schultz, with the blessing of the triumvirate. (Apparently they can't even pay people to write good things about them. Or maybe Schultz was confused about what he was hired to do exactly?)

It's like a paranoid schizophrenic declaring, "I never let them record me -- they always find some way to make me sound crazy!"