To the left is a pic from a big story in The New York Times about all the fundraisers that Daschle and other Democrats have held in the Hamptons, i.e. enough for them to warrant being designated as an "ATM." For more, including pictures of Daschle, see SDP. Bloggers wondered why people in NY had more information about where Daschle raised his money than South Dakotans did and some people emailed the Argus Leader and the editor, Randell Beck, said this on the Argus "blog": "Daschle's fundraising visit to the Hamptons has been reported at least twice in this newspaper." I can't find these "reports." Tonight I even went to the library and looked through every Argus since the NY Times story was published. It looks like Beck was completely wrong. If he made a simple made a mistake, fair enough, but this is the editor of 'Hitler would have had a blog fame'--as well as the editor who said blog criticism of the Argus was "crap" driven by a "violent" internet "cabal" of "yahoos" and "jokers," who are full of "hatred" and "vitriol" and lacked "guts" because they hid "behind their computer screens" and wouldn't face him "man to man." Anyway, note how Beck derides a letter writer for having the temerity to ask why the Argus had skipped the Hamptons story:
How do you explain people who become fixated on viewing life as a conspiracy and fail to let the facts get in their way? In political terms, we see it again and again on the fringes, occupied presumably by people otherwise able to balance a check book and program a VCR. They convince themselves The Enemy is out to make their guy look bad and the other guy look good. Recent amusing example: Dave from Brookins [SIC] writes: "What you don't address is the question of why Argus leader (sic) doesn't in fact cover news stories which would appear to be damaging to (Tom) Daschle?'" Dave's "evidence"? "Surely his trip to the hamptons warranted a story, or the fact that he's refused debates repeatedly?" Well, yes, Dave. And if you'd read, you'd realize Daschle's fundraising visit to the Hamptons has been reported at least twice in this newspaper.
So Beck dismisses Dave from Brookings as a conspiratorial and paranoid nut who doesn't "let the facts get in [his] way." As it turns out, Beck had no idea what he was talking about. HIS facts were wrong, at least that's what my review of the Argus Leader since the publication of the NY Times story reveals. I kindly asked the Argus editors what days these alleged Hamptons stories were published and was basically told to get bent. The Dakota Blog Alliance also noted the problems at the Argus in a reasonable and rational manner in THE SIOUX FALLS PLATFORM: AN AGENDA FOR ARGUS LEADER REFORM, which the Wall Street Journal and many others noted, but the Argus ignored. The great tragedy of all this is that the Argus Leader is degrading the democratic process and mucking up one of history's great Senate races. First, Dave in Brookings should get an apology. Second, the Argus should run the actual NY Times story which Beck proudly asserted they had already reported on twice. They should run the whole story, not a bastardized version of it with key parts deleted, like they did with a Los Angeles Times story last year. Last weekend, the Rapid City Journal ran the entire Washington Post story about the Senate race and other papers have run the entire Wall Street Journal story "Daschle's Dead Zone," which the Argus hasn't done. It's as if the political editor of the Argus was a big Daschle fan and thought Republicans were "evil" or something.
SDP has also weighed in: "It's a fact that the Argus Leader has never reported on Daschle's fundraiser in the Hamptons, but it seems when the facts aren't on Randell Beck's side, he conveniently makes them up."
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