There is an exodus of journalists leaving the profession for public relations jobs as the media lurch to drive the message to the extreme right. Bill Janklow’s idea of public broadcasting can’t cover Pierre effectively because its funding is reliant on the South Dakota Republican Party, the Associated Press can’t do it because they’ve been neutered so has the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.
South Dakota’s teevee stations are bound to Republican advertisers and nobody reads college publications. I quit following the South Dakota Newspaper Association on twitter because its feed reads like a bulletin from the South Dakota Republican Party. The Pierre Capital Journal is a joke so are the radio stations based in the capital city. Reservation border towns like Pierre have always been influenced by the Klan, John Birch Society, the TEA movement and now by the extreme white wing of the Republican Party.
In 2015 the Center for Public Integrity gave the state an 'F' for its culture of corruption and it just keeps getting worse.
For the past six years I’ve been writing about the South Dakota Legislature. Well, enough is enough. I just couldn’t take the crazy any longer. I couldn’t take the effort wasted on legislation that’s designed to bully and hurt. I couldn’t muster the vigor it takes to write objectively about resolutions that are good for nothing more than political posturing. Six years of watching these people and I could never tell who was asking them what they think. In journalism circles in South Dakota, we often bemoan the fact that there are fewer and fewer reporters writing about the Legislature. Now there’s one less and I feel bad about that. But not bad enough to force myself back into the press box and try to write objectively about legislation and resolutions that I know are by turns silly, symbolic, wrong-headed and cruel. [DANA HESS: Confessions of a former legislative reporter]
Recall the John Birch Society billboards along I90 across South Dakota that urged voters to get US out of the United Nations, abortion is murder and how close travelers are to Wall Drug? Just remember correlation doesn’t equal causation. https://t.co/wcJyF2JNSb #sdleg #sdgov pic.twitter.com/c2tGG8Js9S
— interested party (@larry_kurtz) December 20, 2021
2 comments:
Pierre's culture of corruption didn't start with Bill Janklow or Mike Rounds: Todd Epp.
"Union Representative Darby Boyd says the city and AFSCME has not reached a collective bargaining agreement for the contract year that began at the first of the year. In fact, AFSCME and the city have been negotiating since it submitted proposals to the City of Pierre back in June of 2025, or roughly six and a half months ago. Boyd adds, contrary to the story, that the negotiations with the city are not taking place in executive session. AFSCME local representatives have been meeting directly with Pierre’s City Attorney and Human Resource Director Laurie Groulund in a conference room. It’s after those discussions that information that goes to the City Commission to be evaluated and considered."
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