It seems I’ve upset Dustin Hurst from the Montana Watchdog. In a recent post, I criticized his work, pointing out its inaccuracies and ideological bias. The truth is that he’s not a journalist or a reporter, no matter what he calls himself. He’s somewhere between an unofficial spokesperson for the Montana Republican Party and and an ideological hack for rightwing ideology.

And that would be fine if Mr. Hurst wasn’t passing himself off as a reporter. He absolutely has the right to express his opinion. He has the right to author biased, inaccurate stories and try to make people believe they’re true. He just isn’t right to call what he does reporting.

And I have the right to call him out for his work.  That Mr. Hurst, an employee of a secretly-funded “media” organization, would have the temerity to suggest that I am carrying water for a political candidate’s “threats” is as astonishing as his lack of objectivity and perspective about what a threat is. I’m a teacher who writes a blog in his spare time, without any promise of remuneration or help from anyone. In fact, I have received little of either in the seven years I have been writing.

Reporters are supposed to objectively examine stories and provide their audience with the information they need to make informed choices. Mr. Hurst, seemingly driven by an immense self-regard and affinity for conservative politics, offers  slanted coverage designed to denigrate Democrats, public employees, and liberals, all while ignoring the obvious failures, hypocrisy and foibles of the right. He even distorts the truth to make his arguments.

In my mind, these corporately-funded pseudo-journalists are worse than the deluge of corporate advertisements that have proliferated in the wake of the Citizens United decision. It’s clear these organizations intend to set themselves up as alternative news sources designed to trick readers into believing they are receiving unbiased news. If the future of local news is Fox-style propaganda couched in journalistic terms, we’re all worse off.

That kind of dishonesty needs to be exposed. If it upsets Mr. Hurst to be called out for his practices, I suggest a simple remedy: fix them. Either become a journalist or admit you’re not one.

Highlighting some of the most interesting and provocative posts in the past week at Montana blogs.

MT Cowgirl read and reviewed gubernatorial candidate Neil Livingstone’s chapter on procuring a sex worker in a foreign country or large American city.

4and20 blackbirds had a more national focus this week, offering up posts about the continued failure –in human and moral terms—of the war in Afghanistan and selling American citizenship to the wealthy.

David Parker, at Big Sky Political Analysis, floated the idea that cutting Congressional pay might actually do more harm than good.

D. Gregory Smith continued to put a critical light on the actions of a certain e-mailing Montana judge.

Over here, we took a look at the Republican candidates for Auditor, Secretary of State, and Superintendent of Public Instruction, got into a fight with a homophobic legislator, and pointed out that even Steve Daines knows Dennis Rehberg is wrong about Montana’s border with Canada.

Highlighting some of the most interesting and provocative posts in the past week at Montana blogs.

It’s hard not to love this story at the Button Valley Bugle about the efforts of the good legislators in Wyoming to protect the state in the event of a nuclear holocaust or zombie attack. Hell, they’re even willing to consider purchasing an aircraft carrier.

Pete Talbot makes the case for someone taking the responsibility to ensure that the Bakken boom is handled sustainably and responsibly as potential exploration sites across the state grow.

Montana Cowgirl took a look at the staggering incompetence of the TEA Party-led county commission “leading” Ravalli County.

D Gregory Smith wondered why Dennis Rehberg seems far to busy to meet with his constituents but has the time to cultivate secretive donations for his campaign. Perhaps he was too busy making jokes about drunks on the water.

Rob Natelson over at the Electric City weblog offered another example of what passes for conservative jurisprudence these days in his effort to defend the Citizens United  decision. This passage is just too good to be believed. Natelson writes, “right now, citizens who use the corporate form have their First Amendment rights back.”  I wonder if citizens using the canine form will soon have the right to express their rights as well.

The Montanafesto blog outed Yellowstone County Republican chair and sometimes TEA Party activist Jennifer Olsen as another anonymous online troll.

jhwygirl offered her own dissent to the Supreme Court’s decision in PPL v Montana, writing that now, “if you can’t float a boat, it’s up for sale to the highest bidder.”

Over here, we looked at Corey Stapleton’s shady campaign finance and Representative Rehberg’s inability to raise money from Montanans.

Have a great week everyone.

I’ve been meaning to highlight a new blog in Montana, run by professors of Political Science at Montana State University, Big Sky Political Analysis. It features writing from an academic perspective, with some especially good commentary about the Tester-Rehberg race.

Certainly worth adding to your Google Reader.

*New is hardly fair as the site has been active since 2008, but the site seems more active as the big races in Montana heat up.

Highlighting some of the most interesting and provocative posts in the past week at Montana blogs.

jhwygirl has a great scoop up about Senator Hinkle’s (R-Spear Hunting) plan to bow out of his Senate race to get Mark French into the Montana Legislature. Putting aside how bizarre it is that these anti-government types are desperate to get in government and score some of that socialist health care, French is one scary guy. Hard to imagine someone less enlightened than Hinkle serving that district, but French might be the one.

Pete Talbot pointed out the stunning hypocrisy of “the less-government intrusion crowd dictating their moral imperatives to the rest of us, via government programs” when it comes to reproductive health and choice.

D Gregory Smith is keeping up his great work writing about health, heart, and horrible campaign strategies. If you’re not following his work, you’re missing out on great commentary and insight each week.

MT Cowgirl highlighted the Montana Republican Party’s insistence that its candidates be the worst possible. Can you imagine someone actually writing a check to the Sales campaign?

David from the Big Sky Blog reminded us of six things people might not know about Montana.

And Montana got itself a new podcast you political junkies will definitely enjoy. Check it out.

Over here, we floated the idea of a Louisiana-style primary system in Montana, critiqued Jim Lynch, got into a bit of a dustup over a Pam Bucy campaign event, and pointed out that Representative Rehberg let a Washington lawyer write his “Made in Montana” solution.

Have a great week, everyone!

It’s interesting that a post about a state worker potentially misusing computer resources is the genesis of this post, because my job puts constraints on my ability to moderate comments on the site. During the school day, I not only can’t do anything related to the blog, but I wouldn’t, because I simply don’t have time.

I do occasionally moderate comments after I get home, but I hate to think about some of them sitting on the site for hours during the day, because there is nothing I can do about them.

And that’s why I’m asking commenters here to please try to remember a few guidelines. You can be acerbic, direct, bitter, and cynical. You can criticize people and tear down public figures. All fair game.

What’s not are personal attacks, sexism, racism, or homophobic rhetoric, to name a few things. If you want that, watch a Republican debate in South Carolina.

I love the idea of discourse that can happen online, but let’s try to keep it a bit more reasonable. Okay?

Now I’m off to moderate a few comments.

Highlighting some of the most interesting and provocative posts in the past week at Montana blogs.

D Gregory Smith pointed out, that despite constantly talking about his availability to Montanans, Representative Rehberg has been awfully unwilling to meet with them lately.

Montana Cowgirl found it interesting that Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Hill would depict himself as someone who struggled as a single father, given the reasons he became one.

I’m not sure that I agree with much of anything Ed Berry says, but I wonder if he’s right that far right conservatives will not support Representative Rehberg because of his support of the Defense Authorization Act and HR 1505.

Rob Natelson managed to blame liberals for the Citizens United decision. It’s really a conservative jurisprudence must-read.

Barb Rush showed once again why she should not ever be elected to the School Board.

Over here, I kept yammering on about Representative Rehberg’s continued dishonesty about Pell Grants, new poster Winston wondered why campaign web sites weren’t in better shape, and Gabriel Furshong argued for the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act.

It’s always both disheartening and a bit amusing watching conservatives contort themselves to justify discrimination against GLBT Americans, especially when it comes to marriage equality. They couch their arguments in specious claims about judicial activism, but the truth is, their position rests on the bigoted idea that a group of people can be denied equal protection under the law simply because some people are uncomfortable with relationships that are different from their own.

The latest example? The media darlings and deep thinkers at Treasure State Politics.

When this is your argument, you’re in trouble:

I understand it is vital for every citizen, no matter their personal choices, to be guaranteed the same rights under our laws. Marriage isn’t a right, it’s a tradition. When a court begins to compromise the meaning of marriage that Montanans have overwhelmingly agreed on, the reverence of marriage can be quickly destroyed.

The Supreme Court has disagreed with the idea that marriage is not a right, most specifically in the 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision, which outlawed anti-miscegenation laws. As the majority wrote:

The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men …

To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State’s citizens of liberty without due process of law.

Loving v. Virginia is an especially instructive example, as it illustrates the absurdity of relying on popular opinion to determine the right to marry. In the 1960s, the majority of Americans opposed interracial marriage:

A Gallup Poll indicated in 1965 that 42 percent of Northern whites supported bans on inter-racial marriage, as did 72 percent of southern whites.

The “logic” offered at Treasure State Politics must, therefore, endorse the position that the Supreme Court was wrong to strike down inter-racial marriage laws in the United States. Surely, these future voices and current campaign staffers for the Montana Republican Party are not suggesting the Supreme Court should have left such an abhorrent remnant of Jim Crow laws on the books, are they?

They have to be—and that shows just how wrong the argument is.

Of course, the deeper issue is the bind the Republican Party finds itself in when it comes to the issue of gay marriage: in the short term, they have to take a hard line against equality for all Americans, because it plays well with their base. Long term, it’s not only a bigoted position, but one that’s a political loser.

This Pew Research Center chart shows that Americans are headed in the right direction when it comes to marriage equality, but equal access to rights shouldn’t depend on  either public opinion or what conservatives believe marriage means.

Equality under the law means equality under all laws, no matter how contorted the argument used to justify discrimination.

As a final note, the bloggers at Treasure State Politics might enhance their credibility if they didn’t write things like “the gay blog alienated the people it needed to convince.”  I don’t know what the hell a “gay” blog is, but it sounds complicated.

I’ve been enjoying a new Montana blog, Montana’s Bully Pulpit, a collaborative blog dedicated to preserving the heritage of conservation in Montana and the United States. In particular, I enjoyed their take on Representative Kris Hansen’s entirely illogical editorial about the need for spear hunting in Montana. Definitely a blog to keep an eye on for hunting, fishing, and conservation issues.

4and20 blackbirds has the most information on the spread of the Occupy Wall Street movement in Montana. For more information about the movement in Missoula and Helena, follow the links.

Enjoy out of state billionaires manipulating our political system? Then you’ll love Dennis “Cash Poor” Rehberg taking his marching orders from the Koch Brothers.

While the local media seems unwilling to cover the absurdity that is Denny Rehberg’s effort to appropriate, you can learn all about his efforts to cut HIV/AIDS prevention efforts and pursue fraudulent lunchroom taco eating.

The Electric City Weblog and MT Cowgirl discussed the the costs of a power-hungry mayor and overzealous city attorney cracking down on someone with the temerity to speak out against a city policy. It’s about $500,000.

On the media side, Politics in the ‘Root offeed an in-depth look at the continuing budget tensions in Ravalli County and the Missoulian Cops and Courts blog discussed its stories plagiarized by the content mill Examiner.com.

MT Cowgirl blog, two days ago:

The leader of the Billings Montana Shrugged TEA Party and a TEA Party Republican state lawmaker have been caught posting remarks online that imply support for shooting their political opponents.

Matt Gouras, writing for the AP, today:

A Republican Montana state legislator said Wednesday he was talking about weapons of the mind in an online discussion with a tea party leader about stocking up on “ammo” to “attack” socialists.

Rep. James Knox, of Billings, raised some eyebrows with a recent conversation on Facebook.

The Associated Press’s attribution policy:

Therefore, here is our policy for crediting other news organizations in our reporting. This policy is aimed at introducing consistency to our practices around the world, and applies to our print, broadcast and online news reports.

The policy addresses two kinds of situations:

– Attributing to other organizations information that we haven’t independently reported.
– Giving credit to another organization that broke a story first, even when we match it — or advance it — through our own reporting.

While I’m glad (and I suspect Cowgirl is as well) that over one hundred news outlets have picked up this story about TEA Party extremism, it would certainly be nice if the guardians of truth in the halls of journalism would acknowledge the debt they owe to those unprofessional, Cheetos eating bloggers living in their basements, wouldn’t it?