Kennedy on the slanted media

Maybe he's playing to the folks demanding some red meat, but Mark Kennedy has a guest post on Kennedy vs. the Machine tonight with this line.

Especially in a state like Minnesota, with such slanted MSM, KVM is so critical to give the other side of the story.

I do read KvM (I'm a fan of Gary Miller), but I'm not sure exactly what the good congressman means by that and he doesn't really explain it.

Maybe he means the media didn't help appropriately in getting his message out. He referenced the "other side of the story."

When you're "the other side of the story" and you refuse to tell your side -- although that's your right and choice -- you can't really legitimately complain about the a slanted media that won't tell your side of the story.

Kennedy, for the record, was pretty much given his choice of day and time to appear on both Midday and Midmorning to make his pitch, take questions, and explain his point of view. He rejected those offers in the last month of the campaign. I saw how hard the producers here tried to accomodate him, without success. But the reason you didn't get the opportunity to hear him tell his story wasn't the "slanted" media; it was because the congressman and/or his handlers didn't want to tell it -- at least on MPR. Maybe there was someplace else he needed to be, or something else he needed to do but facts are facts -- he didn't want to tell his story even when given his choice of days and times to do so.

But that didn't stop us from telling his story for him.

There's the Mark Kennedy collection in our Campaign 2006 section, that I set up the day he announced for Senate.

There are 13 audio bites with his view on particular issues. His entire speech from his candidacy announcement on 2/11/05.

There, you'll also find:

1. audio of his news conference with John Kline on Iraq - 10/26/06

1. audio of his news conference on his plan for chang ein Washington - 8/12/06

1. audio of his acceptance speech at the GOP state convention - 6/1/06

1. an interview he did with tom Scheck - 3/31/06 (I asked Tom to do this for Select A Candidate).

1. An interview on Midday -- from March, the last time he agreed to be on an MPR program despite multiple requests.

1. A Nov. 2005 Midday on Iraq -- he had not yet announced. On this page you'll also find:

1. audio of seven - 7!!!! -- debates in the Senate race

1. Pages and pages of stories about the candidates and their -- including Kennedy's -- position on the issues. Also worth noting also that way back before anybody knew who Mark Kennedy was, I may have been the first media member to talk to him about his issues in his campaign to unseat David Minge. That was months and months before he knocked off Minge. So when I hear the guy complaining about not getting the opportunity to tell "the other side of the story," and accusing the media of being slanted, I hear an excuse; and a poor one. I don't know how Kennedy is going to do on Tuesday. I wish him and all the candidates the best of luck. He's always been courteous to me in the few times we've actually chatted and he seems like a decent guy who loves his country and his family. But if he loses, it won't be because the "slanted" media wouldn't tell his side of the story. It might well be because it did.

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