Well, I just mentioned making Politics in Minnesota and how tired I am....but, somebody just told me I that Minn Post mentioned my blog a few days ago.   "Should MinnnPost run a disclaimer on its gubernatorial coverage?"  So, another quick post to get me by another week.  David Brauer writes:

Add it all up, writes Eden Prairie GOP activist Sheila Kihne, and “... shouldn't MinnPost put a disclaimer on everything they write during this race that they are founded and funded by the same people who are funding attack ads against Tom Emmer?”

To Kramer, MinnPost already does. “We believe in transparency about who our donors are,” he says. “They are all listed on the site, and major ones are listed on virtually every page.”

That’s true; there’s a “house ad” in the left-hand column of the home page and inside pages that lists our big donors, including “Sage and John Cowles” and “Toby & Mae Dayton.” The ad also features a link to our 2007 and 2009 reports, which have much longer donor lists. (Not sure what’s up with 2008, but it’s here.)

Still, is disclosure the same as a disclaimer? Kramer declares, “Donors buy no influence, period,” but we leave it to motivated readers such as Berg and Kihne to connect the dots. We should do it ourselves — at least when MinnPost receives operating support from major politicians it covers. And that disclaimer should be linked more directly to the stories we write.

Interesting.  Brauer acknowledges that there's an issue and that they should be the ones to disclose the connections,  but their openly liberal-activist CEO/Editor Joel Kramer puts the onus back on his readers.  Mr. Kramer...I'm a wee-bit more than "motivated" I'm a full-blown political activist who basically spends all of my free time investigating the left and fighting against everything you stand for....precisely because of "journalists" like you who are just like me except you have a J-school degree and $8 Million dollars in the bank.  Do you expect your readers who see your MinnPost ads on all of the Hennepin County library computers to know the long-standing connections between the Cowles, the Kramers and the Daytons when they read your "news magazine"?  The Daytons were also major donors to Growth and Justice....an openly liberal-activist organization that Kramer founded.  How dare anyone even think there could even be any conflict! 

I don't care that these people work together, it's still a free country.  But when the webs between them grow from discussions at society galas to actually influencing the outcome of a governor's race so they can implement their socialist vision for the state of Minnesota, I'm going to call it out. 

Growth and Justice promoted swapping out the high business tax rate in Minnesota for an even-higher income tax rate, sound familiar?   Could it be because these people have big investments tied to big-business while they brag about "taking no income" for their causes?  (I'd also be simply fascinated to know the amount of wealth this group has invested in Minnesota municipal bond funds...but I'll save that for another blog post.)  This is the ruling class alive and well here in Minnesota.

I'm honest about who I am-- it says "Republican activist" on the banner of this blog and I talk openly about supporting the Tom Emmer campaign for governor.

Here's how MinnPost Editor and CEO Joel Kramer discloses his politcs:

During the decade after leaving the Star Tribune, I made campaign contributions to a number of Democratic candidates, locally and nationally. However, when I got serious about launching MinnPost this spring, I stopped making such contributions. My political views are generally liberal, though I often had some of my most spirited debates during my Growth & Justice days with Democrats when they took policy positions that I did not believe were supported by the evidence.

Stopped making contributions....like that means absolutely anything.

Then they try to discredit me:  (if I had any idea how easy it was to annoy these people, I would have started years earlier....)

As a MinnPost employee, I can attest to the integrity of my shop, and that my foibles and worldview are my own. However, as a journalist, I’ve written many times about “the appearance of a conflict of interest.” To me, it’s another argument for more explicit disclosure on our part, so readers can decide.

Kihne has already rendered a verdict. Of MinnPost, she writes, “They are a completely non-credible ‘news’ source as far as this race goes.”

Completely non-credible? Responds Kramer, “Activists downgrade any coverage they don’t like. That’s their privilege. We do call them as we see them. Last week, one reader canceled her subscription to our daily email, because she said our pro-Pawlenty slant made her sick. The only time we were challenged at the Minnesota News Council, it was by the DFL Party.”

Clarification here:  this activist didn't downgrade any coverage I didn't like, I pointed out the fact that MinnPost cannot possibly expect to be considered a credible news organization in this gubernatorial race when they won't adequately disclose that a major gubernatorial candidate, his family, and his family's friends are the FOUNDERS of said "news" organization.  These liberals still don't understand why their newspapers are failing!  It's astonishing.

Of course MinnPost would fail too if it actually had to compete in a free market, but it doesn't.  MinnPost uses the model of big-big money invested with small-dollar "memberships" so that people feel that they're part of some "community."  The same model the uber-rich use in the Capital campaigns to raise money for the arts applied to news.  Of course when your own huge contributions are tax-deductible, it's sort of a nice way to fund a hobby, (or political cause,) don't you think? 

This is my favorite part:

To me, the email-canceling reader is as over-the-top as Kihne is about our non-credibility. That said, while we have bitten the DFL, we bite Republicans more — I know I have. I believe that, whomever gets bitten, we chomp with intellectual integrity — facts, interviews, accountability — even if you disagree with the analysis.

Perhaps your "intellectual integrity" could accompany some "journalistic integrity" and you'd really have something....

Kramer puts it this way: “Our writers write based on what they learn in our reporting and what they think, building on their experience and their values. They have no agenda to support any candidate or any party.”

Noooooo, of course not.

MinnPost, if you'd like to pay me to "connect the dots" more for your readers, drop me a line!  Unlike you, I have not received any funding from Tom Emmer, I disclose the organizations that I fund when I write about them, and like your guy Mark, I'm "self-funding" my activism....and babysitting for four kids really adds up!