Blog for Oregon

Howard Dean and Ted KulongoskiAs was already pointed out by some across the blogosphere, there were not that many media representatives at the Democratic Party of Oregon’s State Convention this last weekend.

Upon arriving on Friday afternoon, I did see KATU doing some interviews of people around the convention. And that evening there were numerous tv cameras in the back of the room when Howard Dean spoke. However, they seem to have missed the purpose and intent of the weekend, as well as blatantly lying about what occurred during the weekend.

The biggest mistruth I found was regarding Governor Ted Kulongoski. Now, I’ll admit right up front– I did not vote for him in the primary– I voted for Sorenson. But just because I am unhappy with him on some issues doesn’t mean that I’ll go along with the MSM lying about situations involving him or not vote for him in November– he definitely has my vote.

The Register-Guard, which had really good coverage of the convention, was one of the worst when it came to Kulongoski. Their story in Saturday morning’s paper said:

Kulongoski leapt to his feet from a seat on the platform from where Dean spoke and pumped his fists in the air. But the crowd’s enthusiasm failed to match that of their party’s candidate. After countless standing ovations earlier that night for other party leaders, only one person in the crowd stood while the governor was greeted with polite applause.

This is an outright lie. There was more than one person on my row who stood up multiple times in support of Kulongoski– and I was on the front row. Having looked back a few times, I do know there were even more behind me.

The others who received standing ovations were also typically speaking on a topic that got people excited— Kulongoski did not speak Friday night, as he was the keynote speaker at Saturday’s dinner.

The biggest applause that night, in my opinion, came not for a party leader, but for someone who has been working hard to change the public view of the Democratic Party– Adam Klugman. His animatic on the Party was wonderful, and I hope to see it this fall on tv.

While they were sure to cover the supposed lack of interest and support of Kulongoski, they didn’t cover the support, applause, and standing O’s he got during his keynote speech Saturday evening. I wasn’t able to attend the dinner, as even with the grassroots dem discount it was out of my price range, but I did hear from a lot of people who attended. They were very enthusiastic after his speech and had a lot of great things to say.

The paper also talked about Oregon Republican Chairman Vance Day’s statement on Dean and the convention. Their report made it seem as if Day was responding to what Dean, Wyden, DeFazio, and others had said during the evening’s speeches. In reality, the statement had already been released before Dean ever spoke– the Oregonian reported this in Saturday’s paper. It’s likely that it was written and sent to the media outlets before the speeches even began that evening. The ORP’s response was just their typical rhetoric that had no facts behind it:

“The raw facts are that Ted Kulongoski’s only accomplishments are an economy that lags behind the rest of the country, natural resources that have been mismanaged and a broken down relationship with the Legislature,” Oregon Republican Party Chairman Vance Day said. “For Ted to bring in to their convention a lightning rod like Howard Dean shows that the Democrats are only interested in hypercharged rhetoric and not an honest discussion of the issues.”

His statement also criticized Dean for calling for change nationally while “hypocritically singing the message of status quo in Oregon.”

Apparently the poor and the middle class have become the status quo. Who knew?

I’ve been looking for a full copy of the release from Day, but I haven’t located it yet. They don’t have it on their web site– but I did notice they’ll be having their state convention at the same place as we did later this summer.

I think everyone who attended the convention needs to write to the newspapers and let them know the truth behind our convention.

They want to focus on a supposed lack of support for Kulong’oski and what the R’s have to say about our convention, rather than all the hard work we did this weekend to train our activists and volunteers, passing platform and legislative items that support hard working Americans, our troops, and our constitution, etc.

If they don’t print your letter, feel free to come over here to the blog and post it for all to see.

Filed under:
Media Watch, Morrow County, Oregon, Uncategorized by admin