LINDBECK TOUTS HIS JOURNALISTIC CREDENTIALS
Democratic sacrificial lamb Steve Lindbeck rolled out his first video ad this week and he looked peeved — or at least as peeved as a milk-fed veal calf without a bottle.
Lindbeck leaned on his credentials as a former journalist to say how hopping mad he is at Rep. Don Young.
Young, he says, accepted campaign donations from a company and then refused to intervene when that company decided not to do business in Alaska. As if Young should force a company like Crowley to bid on a contract when it has other plans.
It was Lindbeck’s best Bob Woodward impersonation.
Lindbeck might have wanted to think that strategy through because that ad doesn’t do him any favors. Journalists are supposed to stick to the facts, but since they don’t do so reliably, they’re losing the high ground with the public.
Gallup just released a new poll that shows how journalists have sunk to a new low of trust with the general public. That’s down eight points in just one year alone, and the lowest point since 1972. Not surprisingly, Democrats still trust the mass media, but Independents and Republicans? Not so much.
From a technical standpoint, the ad just goes in fits and starts. If it’s intentional, it’s just distracting. But it looks like they had to work at getting any usable footage with the candidate, who isn’t a natural in front of the camera. In fact, the whole thing seems kind of low-tech, low-budget and low-energy.
From an ethical standpoint, Lindbeck should blush: Using congressional authority to sway private contracts one way or another is a big no-no. Suppose Don Young had done so — he would have faced charges. Lindbeck knows that, but has taken the first few steps down the slippery road of political lying.
As evidenced by the Aug. 16 primary and his latest lackluster FEC reports, Lindbeck is struggling, but he’ll keep fighting and Rep. Don Young shouldn’t dismiss him entirely.
After all, we’ve seen what happens when the Alaska Dispatch News goes after a candidate. The evidence is beginning to mount that Publisher Alice Rogoff has chosen Don Young as her next big target, and she’s unleashed the hounds from hell on him.
Lindbeck has a lot of friends among those hounds, and the howling has already begun.