20th Congressional District update

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I've heard critics contend that The Post-Star would rather ignore an important political event entirely rather than give newsink to a 'third party' candidate. I always assumed this was just hyperbole but I was wrong.

Yesterday, there was a Congressional debate between Libertarian Eric Sundwall and Democrat Scott Murphy answering questions from journalists and each other.

Republican Jim Tedisco did not attend the debate, which is shocking as he's never before met a camera he didn't like. Tedisco instead attended a razzle dazzle PR event on his own, answering tough questions from Facebook users and Twitters.

There was zero coverage of the debate in The Post-Star's print edition. I can only presume this is because they couldn't reasonably run a story on a debate that only covered one candidate. So rather than deigning to cover a 'third party' candidate, they chose instead to ignore the event completely in the real paper.

Fortunately, the debate co-sponsors decided it was worth it for the public to know what happened. The Times-Union did some reporting on it while WMHT.org is making video of the debate available online.

From time to time, The Post-Star has done some decent coverage of the race. But the good stuff has almost invariably been ghettoized in political reporter Maury Thompson's blog and has not appeared in the much more widely read print edition.

Thompson had good Q & A segments with all three candidates, blog only.

He did offer some coverage of the aforementioned debate, but it was not run in the print edition either. It was posted on the blog at 8:42 PM, more than early enough to appear in the real paper if their de facto anti-'third party' editorial policy were different.

Thompson also had not one but two stories on 'donations' made to the campaigns of the major party candidates. Both were worthy pieces that deserved more prominence than being online only.

Speaking of which, Planet Albany blog also had a piece on money and the 20th CD race.

The Glens Falls Chronicle has an extended interview with Scott Murphy in its current issue. I presume the weekly will question Tedisco and hope they will query Sundwall. In future sessions, editor and veteran journalist Mark Frost should target his questions a little better. Asking if state taxes are too high is legitimate question for someone who's running for governor or state legislature. Asking about the recently ratified Glens Falls School District teachers' contract (which Frost has railed against) is a legitimate question for someone who's seeking a seat on the school board. Neither, especially the latter, is appropriate for someone who's running for Congress, which has no jurisdiction over either.