The Journal Star has been giving Tom Osborne, relative to Dave Heineman, quite a bit of column space these past couple weeks. For example, in Sunday's paper the score was: Heineman, one photo, one shared article; Osborne, three photos, one shared article, one dedicated article, and one editorial. The Journal Star also backs Osborne in next week's primary. My question: to what degree is the Journal Star's support for Osborne related to his disproportionate coverage?
I see two possibilities:
- The Journal Star is so overcome by Coach Tom Fever that it is using its pages to promote its desired candidate as much as possible.
- Tom Osborne is doing more newsworthy things than Dave Heineman in the days leading up to the primary.
The first option makes a lot of sense. After all, if you want a guy to win, you talk him up whenever you get the chance. It stands to reason that the Journal Star would do the same thing. They don't have any real obligation to provide equal time to all the candidates, beyond any state and federal campaign laws. And besides, Governor Heineman got all sorts of free press during the legislative session by virtue of being Governor.
The second option also makes sense, at least from the Journal Star's perspective. They'll cover what needs to be covered. But if it's true, what the heck is wrong with Dave Heineman's campaign? Why isn't he increasing his media presence, especially in light of all the coverage Osborne has received lately (e.g. from the NSEA, Dennis Hastert, and John McCain endorsements)?
I don't know which of these possibilities is correct, if both are partially correct, or if there's another option I completely missed. But to me the gap in coverage has been noticeable.
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In my opinion, Osborne’s camp has been extremely shrewd to time actual newsworthy announcements just before the election. The South American grain deal, the ethanol plant in Aurora, etc… I think they have been masterful in this primary.
This, however, does not mean I am an Osborne supporter. I still don’t see how he’s going to make significant spending cuts. That’s a tough promise to live up to.
I heard on 1400 KLIN last night that the LJS had endorsed TO.
Would the LJS even exist without T.O.? Seriously, the paper here is rinky-dink enough. If not for the focus on Husker football it would not be the same paper.
Osborne better be careful about touting his earmarks because the Nelson challengers don’t want to hear about that Commie crap.
Hmm. Maybe Heineman is actually doing his job instead of spending all his time campaigning?
Nah, that’s way too optimistic.
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