A juxtaposition on Tina Peters vs. Tim Walz's Denver fundraiser coverage. "We aren’t there to do public relations [for the gov't]". How does a combine work?
A juxtaposition on Tina Peters coverage vs. Tim Walz's Denver fundraiser coverage.
I wanted to put two different news stories side by side so you can get a comparison.
The first story is Tina Peters recent trial in Grand Junction and the verdict reached. I would offer you a smattering of links to give you a sense of the coverage, but the coverage has been so vast and detailed that it makes more sense to give you the archive pages of two major Denver outlets so you can see the breathtless (and sometimes daily) updates on her trial.
Those are links 1 and 2 below.
Now I want you to contrast that with the coverage of a Vice Presidential candidate making a campaign stop in Denver. Those breezers are links 3 through 5 below. Here it made more sense to give individual links because that's really all you can find on the candidacy so far in local outlets.
Going deeper, I want to note something. This campaign stop by Walz is not open to the public (not unexpected and not unheard of for both parties), but it's also not really open to the press either.
In what has become a nearly month-long pattern by Harris and/or Walz, they haven't sat down for a full interview, or faced any serious questions by national or local outlets. This fundraiser is apparently no different because press access here was restricted.
Since I try to focus on local issues, I'm going to stay away from talking about national outlets here and focus solely on locals. In an effort to see if any of the usual mainstream local outlets are planning to cover the rally, in an effort to see if they would even be ALLOWED to cover the rally, I wrote to a variety of editors and reporters.
I got a variety of answers. I didn't ask for official statements, so I'm going to try my best to summarize what I heard.
Some outlets were invited, some were not. One was invited only the night prior (I asked others if this was their experience and didn't hear). Some outlets chose to go, and some chose to not, choosing instead to rely on "pool coverage".**
My guess is that by now you're starting to get the point.
Daily updates on Tina Peters' trial. Almost nothing in the way of coverage by local outlets that one of our presidential candidates (and her recent VP pick) have yet to face down questions by the press. Almost nothing in the way of coverage of how little access the press has been allowed to have to either candidate on the Democrat ticket.
Dedicated reporters for the Tina Peters trial, hand waving about waiting for pool coverage (figuring some other outlet will do it and they'll let us crib from their lecture notes) for the Vice President's visit.
The part that I find troublesome here is not the fact that Peters gets coverage. I don't personally find the story gripping, but I could see how others could reasonably think it important.
No, the part that I find troubling here is that Peters is not in office now and is not seeking office. Harris and Walz are. No voter will cast a ballot for or against Peters this November, but they will for or against Harris/Walz.
And all we get for that is a few scattered lines and that only from the Sun: there is mention of the fact that he took no questions from the small group of reporters who were allowed to attend ... if you wade through the entirety of the article's Democrat talking points and Polis in an absurd cowboy hat. See the screenshot of the Sun article below.
Sorry about the scale. I literally could not zoom out further and still took three screenshots to fit it all in one image. The part about how much press access there was is there at the very bottom in grey.
There is nothing (as of this writing) about press access, lack thereof, or the fact that only a few were to be allowed in by either CPR or 9News.
Is this, coverage is too strong a word but I can't think of a suitably weak enough word right now, what you expect from a media that clothes itself in righteousness about their importance to democracy?
I would hope not. Do better Colorado media.
**From the Oxford Reference linked 6th below: Pool reporting, an arrangement for media coverage of military operations or other activities by which a limited number of reporters, cameramen, etc., are selected from the entire media corps and permitted to cover the events in progress and then report their observations to the remaining members of the media.
https://www.cpr.org/tag/tina-peters/
https://coloradosun.com/tag/tina-peters/
https://www.cpr.org/2024/08/13/harris-walz-campaign-colorado-denver-fundraiser/
https://coloradosun.com/2024/08/14/tim-walz-denver-fundraiser-2/
Last minute addition:
Came in after I wrote the post above, presented here for completeness.
By the way, note the "staff" attribution, no this was pool coverage.
Note also (in comparison with other efforts) what they left out. Again, no one is minding the store and no discussion at all about the lack of access to press.
https://www.cpr.org/2024/08/14/democratic-vp-pick-tim-walz-visited-colorado-fundraiser-that-raised-3-million-for-harris-campaign/
We aren’t there to do public relations [for the government].
The post above is about the media's disgraceful lack of accountability reporting on the Harris/Walz ticket while at the same time bombarding us with breathless coverage of the Tina Peters trial.
This put me in mind of another situation where the Colorado media (some of them anyway) blithely contented themselves with pool coverage and letting others filter what the public is to know: wolves being released for the first time in Grand County.
Colorado media, almost to a man, kept their mouths shut and took the coverage they were given from the reporters who were allowed by the state to be there and the photos the state decided to provide.
And then some of them copped an attitude with me when I dared to question.
From the stacks, going back to the day after Christmas 2023.
https://coloradoaccountabilityproject.substack.com/p/aint-no-power-outage-gonna-hold-me?utm_source=publication-search
How does a combine work?
Ever wonder at what goes on inside a combine harvester as it harvests wheat?
I saw this on FB the other day and thought I'd share. Very very NON technical look at the parts of a combine harvester and what they do.
https://www.facebook.com/WAWheatFoundation/posts/pfbid032sXGP1JLG9fFiqbFCTyhbkLcS3pYdSWf5Dga6WNYnJJ4UrapudY5CVVsKvLczGkzl