Minnesota and D.C. pols do editorial-side end-runs around news hounds

Mark Dayton

A Washington Post reporter has blogged his frustration (since scrubbed) over getting scooped on his own paper’s editorial pages. A recent local example of the same scenario: former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton’s December depression-and-drink rollout in the Star Tribune.

In Washington, the D.C. schools’ controversial chancellor rebuffed a WaPo beat reporter’s requests for comment, yakking instead to more sympathetic listeners on the newspaper’s editorial board.

Here, Dayton took his tale to editorial-side Strib staffer Lori Sturdevant, who presented her “exclusive interview” on the cover of a holiday-week commentary section — leaving the news staff to stoop to poorly sourced speculation about the revelations.

Dayton dug deeper into a message-control hole at a press conference to announce his run for governor last week, cutting questions short with a curt “You have my story for the day.” After an outcry, Dayton held a proper press conference on Monday, answering reporters’ questions for the better part of an hour.