In another radio appearance last summer, Argus Leader executive editor Randell Beck again dismissed bias questions as "crap" and compared the criticisms to LBJ's attacks on the media during the Vietnam war and Nixon during Watergate: "they’re building an embellished house of cards to suggest that Dave is in bed with Tom." After criticizing a former US Senator and calling Talon News "despicable and underhanded," Beck said:
"I am defending Dave. Dave is my guy, and I am absolutely satisfied that he is dispassionate, that he has done and is doing his job to the best of his abilities, and that he meets our standards, and that is my call."
Beck also said that tolerating free speech on the internet "is one of the down sides of living in a free society."
After explaining how the Argus criticizes public officials, Beck said journalists have "the right to have a personal life" and argued that reporters, who are non-public officials, did not deserve such scrutiny:
I have a personal life. And I am not on the public dole. Okay? Nobody is forced. Nobody is standing next to those boxes forcing people to buy our newspaper. We are, in fact, a private enterprise. We are not public officials. That said, we have a code of ethics. We publicize it. It is on our web site. That we require all of our journalists to sign once a year. They must comply with those standards. And I can absolutely say right now publicly, as I would in my column or on the street corner, the people who work at the Argus, the journalists – the committed journalists, including Dave Kranz - comply with those code of ethics. They have a right to have personal lives.
Beck also said journalists have the right "not be the subject of a personal attack." After this radio appearance, Beck refused to answer more questions on the radio about Kranz.
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