Conservative paper’s partisan links back data requests, despite denials

Sean Niemic's Facebook profile photo

Between mid-May and the end of June, Minnesota Democrats holding three constitutional offices found themselves deluged with dozens of data requests from the Minnesota Republican Party and fellow travelers. As State Auditor Rebecca Otto shot down the information requests as “smears” designed to debilitate her office in an election year, her Republican opponent Pat Anderson fired back with a question: “What is so bad that you do not want voters to see it?”

Amid this pre-election posturing, Sean Niemic, a University of Minnesota student who filed more than a dozen of the requests, waded in to the political maelstrom. He sent out his own press release and wrote letters to media across the state denying partisan motives and accusing Otto of “stone-walling” the  student newspaper he edited, the Minnesota Republic, which he described as an “investigative news-gathering” operation.

Despite framing his kerfuffle with Otto in the rhetoric of journalism, Niemic has been intimately involved in conservative partisan politics. He’s managed a Republican campaign for the state House of Representatives and served as an officer for a student group supporting the Republican opponent of Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, with whom he filed nine information requests. His sporadically published newspaper  has collected tens of thousands of dollars in University of Minnesota student fees that Niemic plans to use to pay the costs for these data requests that Otto described as partisan “fishing expeditions.”

In the wake of blogger Andrew Breitbart’s deceptively edited videos, some observers say the legacy media needs to be more skeptical of a group the New Republic recently dubbed “conservative pseudo-journalists,” who are adept at whipping issues to a froth in the name of journalism while scoring political points. The debate surrounding these information requests aren’t about whether the requesters  should receive the information — political partisans still legally have the same rights to obtain public data as anyone else — but about whether the final product is presented to the public as fair, accurate journalism when it’s really just partisan spin.

Data requests from conservatives come in early summer

The Minnesota Data Practice Act allows citizens access to public information that’s collected by government, typically for a fee that covers the department’s cost of gathering the information. In June and July, the Republican Party, Minnesota Majority, the Minnesota Freedom Council and Sean Niemic filed data requests at the offices of the Minnesota Secretary of State, State Auditor and Attorney General — all of whom are members of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and involved in heated campaigns with Republicans. The Republican Party of Minnesota denied there was any concerted effort.

There were political undertones to the data requests from the start. Niemic’s requests were broad and time-consuming to compile, specifically asking for intra-office correspondence that contained a number of keywords like “DFL,” “fundraiser” or “campaign.”  Otto reacted to the requests from Niemic and conservative groups by sending out a press release that asked whether “Republican politics is going too far?” Niemic’s response raised the bar, calling the office’s attempts to estimate the cost and time necessary for his requests an “act of intimidation,” and asking why Otto doesn’t want to be “open and transparent.”

Jane Kirtley, Professor of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota, said the overly broad wording in Niemic’s requests isn’t typically the best way to get information from government entities, although the document custodians in government would ideally work with the requester to help them find the data they specifically want, rather than just giving them a cost estimate they probably can’t afford.

Both the Secretary of State and State Auditor’s offices confirmed they’re working to come up with estimates, although both said it will take considerable time to work out the details of each request and would cost hundreds of work hours to fulfill. Niemic said responses to his requests are trickling in, and that he’ll decide whether to accept them based on final cost.

Back Cover of Minnesota Republic, Volume 2, Issue 6

Behind journalistic defenses, partisan leanings

In the wake of Andrew Breitbart’s deceptively edited video postings about USDA official Shirley Sherrod and ACORN, government officials are increasingly wary of information requesters who have an “agenda that goes beyond informing the public,” said Kirtley.

In his letters and press release, Niemic paints the Minnesota Republic as a “news-gathering operation” that seeks to hold public officials accountable, as is the “responsibility of the public and of the press.” Although Niemic freely admits he’s been involved in conservative movement for years, his letters and press release slamming Otto and Ritchie gloss over the fact that  he’s also engaged in more partisan activity.

Niemic served as the campaign manager for Republican Ole Hovde’s bid to replace state Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, in 2008 and said he’ll be helping Hovde again this time around, although he probably won’t serve as campaign manager. Niemic was also listed as an officer for Students for Dan Severson for Secretary of State at the University of Minnesota until just a few weeks ago, which would mean Niemic likely held the position, at least on paper, when he dropped nine information requests on Secretary of State Mark Ritchie’s office. (Niemic said his roommate, Quinn O’Reilly, listed him as an officer in the Severson organization without his knowledge, but his roommate said he received Niemic’s permission to list him as an officer).

Explicit partisan involvement flies in the face of 50 years of American journalism, Kirtley said, where the idea was that the media is there for the public good and not to promote one cause or another. “Oftentimes, it’s difficult for members of the general public to tell the difference between doing journalism the old-fashioned way — however flawed that might have been — someone who is gathering news or information for the benefit of the public, from someone who’s pursuing a political agenda,” Kirtley said. “Once you’re truly tied to a political movement or political party, the fact of the matter is you’re not independent anymore.”

Niemic insists he’ll treat the data he receives fairly: “What I’m doing is not uncommon in newspapers, part of being a public official is you have to be responsive to journalists and the public,” he said. “I’m not going to make any judgments, I’m not going to write my headline before [I receive] the data I requested.”

But he hasn’t been writing many headlines lately. The group that publishes the Minnesota Republic received $20,000 from University student fees in the 2009-2010 academic year to fund nine issues, although it was only actually published twice, according to its online records. (Niemic said he doesn’t recall how many issues were published and can’t confirm the number because he doesn’t have access to the archives). Despite this lack of follow-through and consistent yearly criticism about the organization’s financial accountability from the university’s student fees committee, the committee this year, which Niemic briefly headed before being deposed by the administration, awarded the organization a budget of $49,300 for the 2010-2011 academic year. It’s mostly this public money, along with an expected $2,000 in reported ad revenue, that will pay the costs of Niemic’s information requests.

Unreliable media sources

There’s no question that Niemic is legally entitled to public information, just as any citizen, journalist or political operative would be, Kirtley said, although both parties appear to be at fault for how these data requests exploded into politics. The question is whether everyone with the ability to request or publish information is a journalist. The mark of partisans like Breitbart, Kirtley said, is that they often forego the media’s traditional job of providing accurate context and background , instead focusing on scoring political points.

That’s a value Niemic also neglects in his defense of Breitbart’s video, which is widely acknowledged to misleadingly portray USDA official Sherrod as a racist. “It was an accurate representation of the clips [Breitbart] was given. If the full video had carried that headline, then it would have been misrepresentation,” Niemic said. “If there’s anybody to blame for why she lost her job, I think fingers should be pointed where the buck stops, not at a journalist who was posting a video.”

The idea of presenting news that is “fair and balanced” is a principle to which people who call themselves journalists should still aspire, Kirtley said, especially as the legacy media withers and demand for quick stories increases.

“There’s nothing wrong with pursuing a political agenda — it’s what they gather, what they produce and what their goals are that are very different from traditional news organizations,” she said. “I’d like to think there’s going to come a point when the public is going to realize that some of these sources are not reliable sources for unbiased information.”