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Sunday, June 6, 2010

NC-13 - Bernie Reeves' Friends in the Press Have His Back...Dump on Bill Randall

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It must be nice being Bernie Reeves, an inside-the-beltway politician steered by old timers like Carter Wrenn. I suppose it is made all the sweeter when you've had decades to make the media connections only a local media mogul can, connections that are willing to support your political interests when the time is right. Heck, it might make Reeves feel a little like a liberal with the press at his back, but that is an argument for another time.

The News & Observer article, Who will Battle Brad Miller? Has already popped up here and here. It will undoubtedly continue making the rounds with Dennis Berwyn's help as it unsurprisingly casts Reeves in a flattering light.

The article begins:
For those of us who get tired of poll-driven empty rhetoric, the idea of two smart, quick-witted, irreverent Raleigh boys ideologically jousting this fall sounded like high political entertainment.

But it is by no means certain that Bernie Reeves, the editor of Metro Magazine and conservative columnist, will get a chance to challenge 13th District Democratic Rep. Brad Miller in November. Reeves is in a tough Republican primary runoff with Bill Randall, a retired Navy command master chief from Wake Forest, who has been active in the tea party movement.

Apparently the author believes only Reeves is "smart, quick-witted, irreverent" as, according to the author, all those qualities are in jeopardy due to the surprising success of Bill Randall. What a shame, the success of a Tea Partier is apparently not story enough or exciting enough for Christensen.

The author continues with this glowing description of Bernie Reeves:

Reeves is the inside-the-Beltline candidate who is a Raleigh fixture. He started the Spectator, Metro Magazine, The Triangle Business Journal and the Raleigh Spy Conference, and has been denouncing creeping socialism for as long as most of us can remember.
He has the backing of much of the old Jesse Helms crowd, including such key strategists as Tom Ellis and Carter Wrenn.

While still in campaign mode for Reeves, all the author can muster for Randall's bio is:

Randall, a native of New Orleans, is outside the Beltline, representing the new wave of suburban voters who make up a significant portion of the Republican Party.

and in the next paragraph refers to Randall as "some newbie". Note the terms "some newbie" were not in quotes in the article, so the terms were used at the author's discretion. Also note, this description of Randall is nearly the same attack made repeatedly by Reeves on Randall in the last debate.

Christensen even went on to quote Reeves with the longest quote of the article which was not surprisingly the same attack on Randall again.

"When I talk about the people who live here, it's because I know them," Reeves said. "You've lived here 18 months. What right do you have to make pronouncements about the mores and activities if you don't know the history, you don't know the culture, you don't know the businesses? You might know the geography from your travels. That's the extent of it."

Of course, even though he was rightfully accused of being patronizing, there was no mention of Reeves' thinly veiled anger during the moment of the quote. Friends in the press have a way of omitting such unpleasantness when  they find it in their interest.

With all manor of tools available to him as a journalist, the only quote Christensen could find for Randall that fit the space he was willing to give was:

"I believe we need to go away from politics as usual," Randall said.
Well, I believe we need to go away from journalism as usual and you can quote Polifrog on that!




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