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| The "indepedent" Missouri Record sure dislikes those Carnahans. |
When it began publishing a year ago, the
Missouri Record promised to raise the level of political dialogue. At the website's launch, the founders stated their commitment to substance and original thought. Editor
Patrick Tuohey, a Kansas City-based
public opinion researcher, wrote in his
hello to readers last May that the Missouri Record was "an independent publication, not beholden to a party or ideology, any candidate or issue, any consultant or client."
But was Tuohey just farting into a piccolo?
The unbeholden publication leans hard to the right. The site's most read stories include a piece encouraging readers to "rid[e] to the sound of the guns" and support the ballot initiative that would attempt to exempt Missouri from a key provision in the new federal health care law. In February, contributor Gretchen Logue described the Obama administration's efforts to reform education -- the aspect of this presidency many conservatives like the best -- as an assault on state's rights.
Democrats are frequently depicted as clowns. The five most recent stories on the Missouri Record blog (as of Tuesday) criticize sibling candidates Robin Carnahan and Russ Carnahan, as well as their mother, Jean, whom Tuohey refers to as "Missouri's own crazy aunt in the attic."
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| The Missouri Record calls Jean Carnahan "Bizarro Edith Bunker." |
Name calling and side taking are part of the fun of operating a website. But in its infancy, the Missouri Record was running around in
James Madison Underoos, talking about core principles and a high-minded intent to "create a publication neither conservative nor liberal, Republican nor Democrat," in the words of founder (and
future GOP candidate)
Jay Barnes.
Barnes acknowledged the founders' "center-right worldview" when the enterprise began. He understated the case. Tuohey sounds at times like
Grover Norquist, the tax hater who once
called John McCain a Bolshevik. "The beast will not curb its appetite--it must be starved," Tuohey wing-nutted in
a piece about the
effort to repeal the earnings tax in St. Louis and Kansas City.
The Missouri Record's contributors are not afraid to stake out a position. "If you look at any one piece, it's going to have a thesis," Touhey tells us.
Tuohey insists the site is not an apologist for one particular viewpoint. He notes that the Missouri Record has published a number of liberal pleasers, such as Springfield political consultant
Stephen Eisele's
argument for gay marriage. Tuohey wrote a blog post in March faulting Republicans in the Missouri House for
shirking responsibility on the budget.
"I think when you look at it [the site] from 10,000 feet," Tuohey says, "it shows you an independent group of thinking writers." Tuohey says he's reached out to Democratic politicians and bloggers in an effort to vary the content. "I can only do what people submit."
It's true, as Tuohey says, that the Missouri Record is more surprising than overtly partisan sites such as
Fired Up! Missouri and
the Source. But five consecutive anti-Carnahan(s) blog posts? Now
that looks a little crazy.
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