Magnolia Report is likely the most visited political site in Mississippi and from time to time it puts up polls on various issues and I've always felt they slighted Democrats.
Well here's why:
Magnolia Report has a partisan Republican audience.
Their most recent poll asks which partisan primary each person will be voting in.
With 562 votes cast 65% said they intended to vote in the Republican primary.
That is almost the opposite of how the state voted overall with almost twice as many people selecting Democratic ballots as Republican ones in the actual election.
If my math is correct (and it well may not be) that means that for the folks who responded to the poll they are roughly 400% more likely to vote in the Republican primary versus someone from the general public.
That's rather impressive.
So the question is does Magnolia Report attract a specifically Republican audience OR are there simply more Republicans hitting the web for state specific political news in Mississippi? Let me know what you think in the comments.
So what do you think?
ReplyDeleteI think it's both really.
It seems that conservatives have long dominated the message boards around the state and as other sites have started they also spend time there.
Also Magnolia Report has some bias in what it puts up. It consistently puts up obscure articles form industry websites attacking Jim Hood and never put up the John Eaves TV ads, though they had for most of the other candidates.
So what do you think?
if the mag report were slanted any worse, the words would slide off the webpage. It's a posting site who's founder makes most of the republican websites and most of their tv spots. Dems dont check it unless to keep up with the angle of republican spin and choice of stories. unfortunately dems aren't concerned as a whole with the content of the web. that's where we are lacking. we need more blogs like yours to show both sides of stories.
ReplyDeleteMagnolia Report is run by a Republican, so his friends who look at his site are most likely going to be Republican.
ReplyDeleteWhile MR is run by a Republican, I think the demographics of where Republicans and Democrats in the state are plays into this as well.
ReplyDeleteIf you consider that Republicans are located in large numbers in the suburban counties which have easy access to internet- esp. high speed internet, they are then more likely to check out blogs, upload videos, etc.
The Democrats are largely located in the Delta and other rural areas which may have less access to the internet- therfore less Dems checking out the blogs. Jackson is the main exception to this.
John at one time the Magnolia Report was a decent, more fair-minded source for consolidated political headlines in our state when it was owned and operated by Brian Perry. While Perry, who currently works for Chip Pickering, was conservative he actually had a few journalistic bones in his body and was a fair-minded soul who also wrote a regular column for the Madison County Journal.
ReplyDeleteYou can get a bit Mag Rpt history here and another blogger's/consolidator's perspective about Perry in the first three paragraphs here.
Now the Mag Rpt is run by GOP political operative Josh Gregory who, together with Quinton Dickerson, run the a campaign attack dog firm called Frontier Strategies. Frontier has worked on the campaigns of many GOP heavy hitters.
If you check Bryant's campaign financial disclosure you'll see they are on his pay ledger. Then if you've followed the Mag Rpt coverage of the campaign you can observe the misleading ways they tout their clients, in this case Bryant, at the expense of others in the campaign.
For instance, Gregory didn't post any Ross TV commercials until he could also post the Bryant counter or alternative mis-direction ad. Though, that very same Ross ad had been out in the MS blogosphere for days beforehand and readily available on your site, Y'all, Majority, Right of, Jambalaya, etc.. With greater frequency Gregory has been linking to content on MS blogs but only content that is flattering to Frontier clients and most often their marquee Bryant. Another example would be when Ross picked up the NRA endorsement. Gregory didn't post the news until a day or so later and then buried the link with some simple Ross picks up endorsement title that did not mention the NRA at all though the newspaper story he linked to prominently featured in its headline the fact that Ross had picked up a key and prestigious endorsement from the NRA.
If you connect the political dots by figuring out which GOP candidates are Frontier Clients, and I can tell 99% of the time just from the client's website, and then follow how Gregory through the Mag Rpt presents his consolidation of political headlines, it is extremely easy to see the inherent bias. In fact it is blatant if you know what to look for.
At the state level, during campaign season always featured first, and always favorably, will be Frontier clients. Second, other GOP candidates. Third, conservative Democrats whose actions and words have demonstrated some agreement with elements of the GOP agenda and/or a past or future willingness to work with the Governor. Fourth, all other Democrats.
Another interesting observation you can see is how the Mag Rpt presents its headlines at other times outside of campaign seasons. Gregory has a Rumor Mill page on his site. If you follow the names supposedly being rumored for this office or that, and then follow how he presents his headlines, you'll easily see that often prominently features headlines about GOP people included in his rumor mill list. It isn't hard to see how he is fishing for Frontier clients. For instance, there was a period of time when the Mag Rpt had a plethora of headlines about Clinton Mayor Rosemary Aultman, a politician who seems to be rumored for some higher office each and every year. Well, lo and behold, Aultman is also a Frontier client.
Admittedly the Mag Rpt is a private enterprise whose owner can do with it what he sees fit. But what Gregory trades on, and hides behind, is the notion and reputation built by Brian Perry that the Mag Rpt has a more balanced and fair-minded though GOP leaning consolidator. Today that is simply far, far from being the truth.
Jacktown, that is some excellent analysis. You put quite a post together.
ReplyDelete