Let me first say I have never been a Gannett/Argus Leader fan. With that, it appears the circle jerk bloggers are working themselves into a frenzy about the Argus again. Gazing intently at each other’s navels, they are starting to cry censorship, echoing each other’s claims that the Argus is engaged in a “major make over” of a forthcoming article on political blogs in South Dakota.
These are wonderful assertions to suggest nefarious action by a left wing cabal at the Argus. Problem is, they’re bereft of evidence, let alone proof.
How can you claim a “major make over” of something you’ve never seen? One of these guys began expressing concern the article would not run in its “original form” less than 48 hours after he was interviewed. It must be nice to be privy to the “original form” of an article being written by a reporter in a different town. I guess they just have tremendous sources in the Argus newsroom so they can see the changes in “slant” from rough draft through rewrite through copy editing. (I use “rewrite” as a journalism term of art for a reporter editing and revising their own article.)
At least they could wait until the article appears before claiming censorship and bias. As I told them in an e-mail, their paranoia is showing. In fact, I hesitate to even post about this for fear of drawing more attention to it. But perhaps this is a good signpost for evaluating what appears on those blogs.
