The Argus Leader mistakes a mole hill for a mountain

Had to laugh today at the front page headlines of the Argus Leader - OBJECTIVITY QUESTIONED. It was a story about Jan Nicolay, the desperate co-chairman of the Campaign for UnHealthy Families, and how she predictably has found yet another thing to object to about the abortion legislation headed for the ballot this November in South Dakota. Making mountains out of molehills is the only hope Ms. Jan has in opposing this legislation so we better expect more of this down the road. And the Argus Leader fell for it.

Ms. Jan's issue is that it might be a conflict of interest for Attorney General Larry Long to write the explanation of the legislation on the ballot since he was among those who helped draft it. Whatever. He's the guy who has to defend this in court - one would hope it'd get drafted with his input.

All one has to do to settle their anxiety about Long's objectivity is to remember that, to the dismay of pro-lifer's, he decided to add verbaige to his ballot explanation of the 2006 ban warning South Dakotans this will cost money to fight in court. The fact that the governor set up a private fund for legal fees wasn't mentioned. (That fund still exists.) Obviously Long's choice to raise unnecessary fears about money gave a slight advantage on the ballot to the pro-death camp. I used this numerous times as I spoke around the state to illustrate how Mammon and Molech work together.

If the Attorney General's office again decides to drop the court costs fears in the explanation to this bill, I'd only ask they balance it with a sentence that presently 305 million tax payer dollars a year fund Planned Parenthood. If we are worried about our tax dollars, let's shut this organization down.

The big story here isn't Larry Long's objectivity, it's the Argus Leader's apparent lack of it. How the Argus Leader sees this as a front page, top story, headline news is beyond me. Sure, report it. But, the prominence this is given is very revealing - again, makes one question their objectivity. The collection of 46,000+ signatures of pro-life South Dakotans last weekend barely even made the paper. In a state our size, that's a mountain.