News Release: Youtube video emerges showing Mayor Rybak talking about politics and elections at city hall -- "RT and me" Episode Two is on-line at youtube.com -- Carney will visit the Star Tribune to attempt to find out more about how and why they cover, or don't cover, the Minneapolis election

 

Note: The "RT and me" video series is at www.republicancontract.com. You can search on youtube.com (use "RT and me"), but youtube tags sometimes aren't active for a day or two.

Carney will campaign downtown today, and will visit the Star Tribune to try to interview employees regarding the Star's coverage, or non-coverage, of rumors of this year's Mayoral election

A "Missing Mayor" poster or flyer (can be used as either) is available on-line at www.republicancontract.com

Correction: yesterday's news dateline should have been October 14, 2009, not September 30, 2009.

Note: Episode Two features Brian E. Anderson, Editor of Minneapolis Saint Paul Magazine.  After uploading Episode Two, and drafting this news release, Carney contacted the magazine, and was told Mr. Anderson is on extended medical leave.  "The Anderson family has my sympathy.  I will delete Episode Two from youtube.com if anyone requests this," Carney said.

Contact: Bob Carney Jr. -- (612)-803-9084 -- bob@republicancontract.com

 

Minneapolis, MN, October 15, 2009 -- Today political entrepreneur, Moderate Progressive Republican candidate for Mayor of Minneapolis, and documentarian Bob Carney Jr. uploaded on youtube.com "RT and me" Episode Two. 

Carney found a video on youtube.com showing Mayor Rybak talking about elections and campaigns at city hall.  Carney videotaped his PC screen, and is using the clip as most of Episode Two, according to the "fair use" copyright doctrine. "I didn't just want to reference youtube.com -- someone might take it down.  This is evidence of both an attitude on Mayor Rybak's part, and of how relationships within and among the media bear on Minneapolis politics, in what might be a Minneapolis Mayoral election campaign," Carney said.

Earlier this week Carney videotaped Mayor Rybak's statement: "I'm happy to talk about elections, but I can't use city hall to do that." 

"Our right to bring grievances before the incumbent Mayor, and to get answers from that Mayor, is right at the heart of the First Amendment," Carney said.  "It seems too easy for corporations such as the Star Tribune to focus only on 'freedom of the press', and to ignore this equally important provision: 'the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,'" Carney added.

Carney no longer uses "newspaper" as a descriptive word when speaking of the present or the future.  Carney said: "The Star Tribune is a corporation.  Let's leave aside for a moment the fact that corporations don't actually exist at all.  What the employees of that corporation do today is so different than what 'newspapers' did  when they could effectively enforce oligopolies through high entry barriers -- the cost manufacturing and distributing paper products -- that I think it is as misleading to call the Star Tribune a newspaper as it is to call an SUV a buggy. For this reason, I also favor using phrases like 'union employee', and 'supervisor', rather than 'reporter' and 'editor'.  The one-word language of corporations -- money -- is the appropriate language to describe the organizational dynamics and the agenda of the Star Tribune." 

Carney plans to visit the Star Tribune at 425 Portland Avenue today, to investigate why the Star Tribune has only recently reported on Mayor Rybak's non-participation in forums, events, and debates involving other Mayoral candidates.  "I want to get the perspective of Star Tribune employees both on news coverage, and on why the Mayor's non-participation has not been the subject of an editorial demanding that Mayor Rybak participate in the campaign," Carney said. 

According to a September 14, 2009 Star Tribune article: "Rybak's campaign reported raising $259,924 for the year through September 1.  That's ahead of his 2005 pace.  Rybak raised $245,725 by the primary that year when he faced opposition from a political heavy hitter in Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin."

In "RT and me" episode one, Carney reports, standing in front of a UPS store that Carney inferred from www.rtrybak.com is the Mayor's campaign headquarters.  "I am frankly puzzled by why so much money has been raised, while there is so little evidence that there is a Mayoral election this year," Carney said.  "President W and Mayor RT have this in common: they both raised more money as incumbents with no primary opposition, than they did when they first ran for President and Mayor, respectively," Carney said.

Carney is contacting other Mayoral candidates, to videotape them stating specific grievances they believe the Mayor has not addressed.  A summary of the grievances will be prepared, to present to the Mayor, if he can be located.  Alternatively, the summary will be left at what was described as "the official City of Minneapolis office" -- office of what we're not clear -- when Carney went to find Mayor Rybak.  "Although this list of unredressed grievances will be from candidates, and while there may possibly be an election, this is certainly official business according to the First Amendment.  I fail to understand why Mayor Rybak cannot discuss such a list of grievances from the other candidates at city hall, or anywhere," Carney said. 

 

 

 

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