First, the context: KSTP was the only major Twin Cities TV station that didn’t have a staff member arrested covering the demonstrations, according to an assignment desk staffer this afternoon. That might’ve altered the Channel 5 staff’s perspective.
Second, the must-do: KSTP’s owner, Hubbard Broadcasting Inc., was an RNC Host Committee sponsor and HBI patriarch Stanley Hubbard is on the Host Committee’s executive board. (Via)
33 Reader Comments
8:16 am
“It is rare when KSTP decides to take an editorial postion”
That’s true. It only occurs at 11 a.m., 4:30, 5, 6, 6:30 and 10 p.m.
8:17 am
Outrageous! Owner meddling in the news department so explicitly!
Why are news organizations always so happy to tear apart people using the first amendment when it’s their bread and butter (maybe not KSTP’s; that’s cute puppy stories and hysterical smiley face murder conspiracies).
8:23 am
Critiquing the media isn’t an argument against free press.
8:23 am
Outrageous! Owner meddling in the news department so explicitly!
There is no proof of this. It just looks bad.
8:41 am
I will say that the cops weren’t entirely indiscriminate. The chopper didn’t really care for my presence (with coworkers) on a rooftop across from Mears Park during the rally before one of the violent blowups, but one of the cops that knows the people in my office cleared up that suspicion.
What you can’t say is that the cops wanted conflict any less than the agitators — riot gear gets both sides stirred up.
8:42 am
IIRC Hubbard donates to both parties. If the DNC had been in St. Paul, instead of Denver, I would assume they would’ve sponsor some functions, too. FollowtheMoney.org doesn’t specifiy party contribution but here’s a list of Hubbard employee donations since 2004:
FollowtheMoney.org
8:46 am
Click on the donor name. That’s the way to follow the money.
Hmmm. Hubbard looks to be largely partisan Republican all across the board.
8:58 am
It should be noted that KSTP-TV has one of a handful of local news outlets that “embeded” reporters with the police (MPR was another).
Note some of the language in this story.
“An army of more than 35-hundred officers and National Guard troops to keep the Republican National Convention safe.”
I thought their job was to keep everyone safe — including the protesters.
“5 EYEWITNESS NEWS was given unprecedented access to spend the first day of the RNC with a mobile field force team from St. Paul.”
Really? Why just KSTP?
“…and demonstrators gathered to try and disrupt the convention at all costs.”
It was my impressing from other reports that 99% of the demonstrators were both peaceful and law abiding. Did I miss something? KSTP seems to think so…
“The video and still pictures capture a city on edge, a police force stretched thin, and some protesters almost begging for a fight.”
City on edge? Unless you were on the scene, or watching on teevee, most residents continued their daily lives during the RNC. I know I did.
A police force streched thin? Really? With an “army” of more than 35-hundred officers and National Guard troops? Most reports I heard of police response to protests spoke of an overwelming presence of law enforcement offices, in vehicles, on foot, on bikes and on horseback.
Begging for a fight? Re: the Welcoming Committee folks and like-minded individuals, no doubt about it. However, it should also be noted that the vast majority of protesters were peaceful and wanted no part of window breaking, dumpster tossing, and the like.
9:03 am
Typical Ch. 5 hyperbole.
“Breaking news! A snow flake has fallen!”
9:04 am
Outrageous! Owner meddling in the news department so explicitly!
As was stated, it was an editorial position. Hubbard may or may not interefer in the news department, but this isn’t it.
Newspapers have editorials daily. No reason a TV station can’t.
I see two main problems here:
One, I think disclosure of the political connections should have been made for transparency.
Second, unlike newspapers, where editorials are usually in their own section, one of the regular anchors read it. They lost the separation between editorial and news. Yes, they did label it as editorial, but I still think it’s more difficult to separate those functions when you do it the way they did. It would have been better if Hubbard himself had read it (especially if, as rumored, he was the force behind it).
9:08 am
I don’t know who gave the editorial, because I don’t watch much local news, but I agree, perhaps it should have been someone in management; if they really felt that they had to do this.
9:11 am
riot gear gets both sides stirred up.
One meme I’d like to never hear again is that the police’s protective outfits somehow caused the skirmish.
9:13 am
Future hard-hitting editorials from the channel 5 news desk:
* Hey, remember to vote!
* Today is the day to give thanks
* Christmas spirit infuses Twin Cities with warm glow
Etc.
9:15 am
They dressed provocatively like they wanted it.
9:17 am
To clarify, I agree that KSTP has every right to take an editorial position. But David and The Rat are correct that having the editorial delivered by station management — not the news crew — would have been the best way to do this.
Also, some additional transparancy would help the credibility oftheir professional and hard-working news crew when the station owner takes such a prominent role in the RNC and other high-profile Republican events.
9:23 am
Whatever.
If it’s not a Don Shelby or Sheletta editorial, I ain’t buying what KSTP is selling.
9:25 am
The more I think about it, the more I think that had there been half as many police, without riot gear, absolutely nothing would have happened. I’ll bet saying “excuse me, please stay on the parade route here” would have worked better than tear gas, and the four jackasses who disobeyed that would have been easy enough to arrest without billy clubs.
9:27 am
Well, alternate histories are non falsifiable.
9:27 am
They didn’t have your benefit of hindsight, jeff.
9:32 am
The more I think about it, if it’d be then DNC this wouldn’t have happened.
I mean, did you see any of this stuff happen in Boston or Denver?
Then again, did you see NYC in ‘04?
Yeah, it totally was going to happen.
9:36 am
The media in general is biased. I think John Stewart had more to say when he was here than any other “news/propaganda” outlet. To bad the whole thing was a flop.
9:49 am
the more I think that had there been half as many police, without riot gear, absolutely nothing would have happened.
Even if there had been NO police whatsoever, windows would’ve been broken downtown. The damage to property that occurred was not atttached to any actual anti-GOP/anti-Bush protests. It was caused by people who like to damage or destroy property for their own enjoyment.
FYI, the Thursday evening march did not have a permit — unlike the Monday and Tuesday protests. That probably figured greatly into the police decision not to let anyone into downtown across the bridges.
9:54 am
I wonder if we’ll see the same heavy handed tactics used at the next Critical Mass ride for not having a permit.
9:55 am
The organizers of the Thursday march announced in advance that they planned to march after their permit expired, and off the route mapped out for them and the other protestors. I don’t know how many “rank and file” marchers in the group were aware of this, but the events leaders publicly dared the police to try and stop them. Predictable results followed.
9:55 am
The organizers of the Thursday march announced in advance that they planned to march after their permit expired, and off the route mapped out for them and the other protestors. I don’t know how many “rank and file” marchers in the group were aware of this, but the events leaders publicly dared the police to try and stop them. Predictable results followed.
9:56 am
Double click Bob, rides again.
Critical Mass? Are those bike sissies even still around? yawn.
9:58 am
They didn’t have your benefit of hindsight, jeff.
They did have the benefit of every convention that’s occurred before this one, and with one exception, they’ve all been tamer than the aftermath of a typical soccer match in England. Had I really thought about it beforehand, I think I would have come to the same conclusion: all of these things are going to have thirty trouble-makers, who are 99% more like to do something of you dare them to because they have the mentality of third-graders.
10:03 am
Well, alternate histories are non falsifiable.
10:05 am
Yawn. Fascist Media Mogul Hubbard sucks up to The Man.
12:27 pm
In other local media news, two more staffers leave City Pages, including sometimes MNspeak visitor Jeff Shaw.
12:27 pm
Here’s a weird twist to the post-RNC stories. A Mole at Kinkos!
12:43 pm
I wonder if we’ll see the same heavy handed tactics used at the next Critical Mass ride for not having a permit.
God I can only hope…
12:51 pm
In other local media news, two more staffers leave City Pages, including sometimes MNspeak visitor Jeff Shaw.
They seem to have legit reasons for leaving. Certainly, following your wife so she can get some major experience in her field is cool. So is accepting your dream job.