Eric Black of The Star Tribune’s Blog, The Big Question has a good post this morning on the GOP’s response to Makeover Mark’s website de-Bushification and the ensuing ‘kerfluffle’. Black admits that the Star Tribune was less than fair in its coverage of Scrubgate:
Utilizing the highly-evolved techniques of scientific journalism, my esteemed colleague Conrad deFiebre crammed into those 12 inches the basic back-and-forth over the kerfluffle, quoted from the DFL and GOP chairmen’s press releases, and actually endorsed the pro-Kennedy spin that:“the claims by MN Publius, picked up by national blogs Hotlineblog, Politicalwire and Dailykos, that Kennedy’s site had been “scrubbed” practically clean of the president appear to be exaggerated.”
Here is where we deviated from fairness and balance. We failed to label another apparent exaggeration, namely the GOP line that only a Democratic stooge could suggest that the website was de-Bushified at all.
Black deserves some kudos for admitting that his paper made a mistake, and addressing it openly and fairly. Additionally, it seems the Star Tribune is not too pleased with being taken to the woodshed in a fundraising letter by Enron-lobbyist-turned-Kennedy-Campaign-Manager Pat Shortridge about running the story at all [12 inches on page B4] AFTER Ron Carey issued a press release that was a direct response to the story….our story. Seems like Pat and our good friend Ron Carey need to get in sync, as Carey’s release, that’s right, began with the words “for immediate release.”
What did they expect the Star Tribune to do?
Not run with a press release from a State Party Chairman?




A very credible source sent MN Publius the following information:


I just wanted to send out an emphatic thank you to Minnesota GOP Chairman Ron Carey for taking a modest blog post and getting it into the 

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