Fox 9 News anchor Heidi Collins’ seven-minute interview with Secretary of State Mark Ritchie Wednesday night has drawn fire from media critics for her combative tone. Collins attacked Ritchie for connections to the now-defunct ACORN and appeared to blame him for the close race between gubernatorial candidates Tom Emmer and Mark Dayton.

The Pioneer Press called the exchange “a bit uncomfortable to say the least,” while Bob Collins at MPR said it was the “most controversial TV interview in the Twin Cities from this week’s election.” As Kevin Hoffman at City Pages wrote, “Collins uncorked an insanely hostile interview” that left “some viewers questioning her judgment and fairness.”

“Collins may want to make a rep as the toughest interview in town, and tough interviews are sorely needed,” wrote MinnPost’s David Brauer. “Still, this one fell short of professional standards.”

At one point, Collins interrupted a calm, deliberative Ritchie while he was trying to defend himself from the accusation of ACORN connections lobbed at him by state GOP chair Tony Sutton. Speaking over her guest, Collins said, “Secretary Ritchie? Could I ask the questions? I ask, you answer. Yes?”

Then she appeared to blame him for the close election between Emmer and Dayton.

“You told me that it seemed like you were ready for this, prepared for this type of thing to happen. I think if voters hear that right now, they’re going to be saying, ‘What? Are you kidding me? You knew this was going to happen again? You were prepared for it?’”

Star Tribune media critic Neal Justin called this exchange “Collins’ greatest sin.”

“Collins’ tone makes it sound like that’s a BAD thing, even as Ritchie tries to explain that recounts are actually quite frequent in Minnesota and that, of course, they’re prepared,” he wrote.

Brauer noted other questionable actions by Fox 9 in recent weeks, including publishing rumors hyped by Minnesota Democrats Exposed blogger Luke Hellier. Those rumors never were verified as having factual merit.

While Brauer gave the station props for its election night coverage, he added this warning:

“[A]s it bids for attention, Fox 9 is risking its credibility.”

Collins joined the Fox 9 team following the departure of Robyne Robinson, who left to run for lieutenant governor. She was formerly a reporter with CNN.

At a Fox 9 debate this weekend, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer was the sole voice against anti-bullying legislation. In the last year, school safety advocates say four LGBT teens have taken their own lives in the Anoka-Hennepin School District. The spike in student suicides has sparked a heated debate between LGBT activists who want stronger anti-bullying policies and religious conservatives who want to bar mention of homosexuality in schools.

“Recently across the country we have seen an increase in suicides among high school and college students as a result of gay bullying… and at least four suicides in Anoka Hennepin School District believed to be connected to a students’ sexual orientation,” said Fox 9′s Jeff Goldberg at the debate. “What would you do to address this problem in Minnesota and would you support tough legislation on this issue?”

Dayton said he would sign an anti-bullying bill that includes sexual orientation.

“I would support that legislation,” he said. “We cannot allow bullying to cause young people to take their lives because of who God made them.”

“For the same reason, I support marriage equality… legal marriage,” he continued. “I believe in this country the founding principle being that all men and women are created equal. That certainly includes the right to marry legally the person someone loves.”

He added, “As leader of this state, as governor, I will go anywhere where there is that kind of prejudice, that kind of bigotry and say, ‘not in our state.’ This is not going to be allowed in Minnesota. We are better than that. We are bigger than that.”

Horner said, “I think this is one of those critical areas where a governor does have to step up and lead, where a governor has to host a conversation among all Minnesotans, being respectful of where Minnesotans are at, but educating Minnesotans, engaging us in the conversation,” he said. “So yes, I would support the bullying legislation, but I’d also say it’s not enough.”

He continued, “We need to move to equality. We need to eliminate all of the discrimination in the statutes that take away the rights and responsibilities of same-sex families and i think we do need to start moving towards equality whether that means civil unions or marriage.”

Emmer said he does not approve of anti-bullying legislation.

“I don’t think we need more laws. I think we need more understanding. We need people to start to understand what respect is all about,” he said. “Guess what? Every one of us has a point of view. We are supposed to respect each other’s point of view, and we are not supposed to tell because they have a different point of view that they are not entitled to have that. We should all be able to have the point of view and respect each other but we don’t need more laws trying to get in between people.”

Despite Emmer opposing it, a bill that would have directed schools on how to address bullying against LGBT students passed the Minnesota Legislature in 2009. It was vetoed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Screenshot of a Fox 9 segment on the ad buy

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — aka the Mormon church — is running a mega ad campaign in nine mid-sized and mostly non-coastal American cities, including Minneapolis  to tell us… they’re normal people!

The ads are airing in Baton Rouge, Colorado Springs, Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Tucson and Minneapolis, WCCO reports.

So what’s the deal? The Mormon church denies any political agenda, but Fox News thinks it might at least partially be a ploy to make 2012 presidential hopeful (and Mormon) Mitt Romney more electable among Republican primary voters. Alex Pareene at Salon points out that the ads are running in four or five potential swing states, but he concludes:

There is a history of Americans persecuting Mormons, and they’re a bit touchy about getting run out of everywhere they were until they ended up settling beside a giant dead salt lake, so working on their brand is understandable. But (in addition to incredibly expensive mission work) this could also be damage control for the messy press they got for bankrolling the anti-gay marriage campaign in [California].

Salon has the ads. Here’s Fox 9′s take on the videos:

Coleman shrugs: "Certainly there's uncertainty."

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman was interviewed briefly by Fox 9 News Sunday night, in what seem to be his first on-camera public comments about the statewide recount in the race for his Senate seat in more than a month. On Nov. 21, Norm announced at a press conference in Monticello, Minn.: “I believe I’m a winner.” He claimed then not to be sweating bullets: “I’m not walking around, wringing my hands, worrying about the recount.” On Sunday, Coleman continued to put forward an unruffled persona, but he sounded less confident than he did a month ago (and much less confident than Al Franken’s attorney did on Saturday).

I feel fairly confident. In the end, the good Lord’s going to decide. The numbers look good to us. Certainly there’s uncertainty. I’m not worried about it. I’ve done everything I can do. I’m not really agonizing about the outcome.

See the rest of Coleman’s comments and a video link after the jump.

Life goes on, regardless of what your job is. I certainly love what I do. If I can keep doing it, I’ll be thrilled, and if not, I’m sure we’ll do something else.

Here’s the link to the Fox 9 video (hat tip: Daily Glean).

“I want this to be a referendum within the Republican party on the kind of leadership or, more pertinently, the lack of leadership that Rep. Michele Bachmann has shown,” he told Fox’s Ellen Galles.

In an email, he wrote, “It’s been hectic for a small, insurgent, one-man campaign such as mine — but nothing like what’s happening at Tinklenberg HQ, I’m sure.” (Tinklenberg has surpassed $810,000 in donations since Friday afternoon.)

On his website, Immelman writes that he’s been “inundated with messages and phone calls of support.” More importantly, donations — something he didn’t accept for the primary — started coming. “[S]tarting Friday night, small contributions began trickling in, typically in amounts of $10 and $20, but with a couple of $50 contributions mixed in,” he told me. He says he’s seen a trickle but not a flood, adding up to “four digits” of funds. Suffice it to say, “it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what Tinklenberg has received.”

Bachmann contends she was only insinuating that members of Congress might have anti-American views, not that she felt they actually hold such views.

Here is the transcript of Bachmann’s interview Monday morning with Fox 9′s Alix Kendall:

This weekend your campaign said your statement was misunderstood. So what did you mean to say exactly?

What I’m concerned about as this election is going forward is the appalling lack of curiosity that the national media has about Barack Obama’s views and about the view that we’re going to have from Congress if we have a radical liberal in the White House and liberals controlling both the House and the Senate.

Barack Obama is ranked the No. 1 most liberal senator in the United States, Nancy Pelosi is the head of the House, Harry Reid is the head of the Senate. We have never had this concentration of liberal leadership in Washington, coming up this November, if this is what the result of the election will be.”

Does being liberal mean that you are anti-American?

No. I appreciate this opportunity because I’m hoping people will look at the context of the full interview. Because I did not suggest anti-American, Chris Matthews used the word “anti-American” and asked me to respond to it.

So what I was telling Chris Matthews is that the media needs to look at Barack Obama and the media needs to look at members of Congress.

(Matthews) wanted to know if I thought that members of Congress were anti-American, and what I told him was that that’s not up for me to decide — the media should make that expose — that’s not my call.

So this has been completely misconstrued to say that I believe members of Congress are anti-American. I never said that. I said the media should look into it.

I also didn’t say that Barack Obama is anti-American. What I said is that the media should look into his views.

And that’s what they’re really upset about right now, because I’m calling on the media to take a look at what these positions are going to mean for people. I mean, after all, they haven’t been silent about what they believe.

Barack Obama is calling for socialized medicine, radical increases in taxes. That’s what Joe the Plumber was all about. Joe the Plumber asked Barack Obama about punishing tax increases and that’s really the story that’s going unreported right now.

What is being anti-American to you? Why don’t you explain that?

Well, anti-American was Chris Matthews’ comment, that wasn’t me. He was the one that brought up anti-American — I didn’t.

I was talking about views that are very concerning to the American people, such as when Barack Obama said to Joe the Plumber he wants to spread the wealth around. But redistribution of wealth is a radically different concept on the economy than the current concept we have with the free market.

We want people to be able to make money, keep it, grow themselves in the middle class…that’s what Joe the Plumber was concerned about and that’s a complete difference if you look at what’s going on with are economy, if you look at redistribution of wealth.

Gen. Colin Powell is backing Barack Obama. He denounced your statements as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Both say this is going too far, and apparently your comments…

It would be if that’s what I said, but I didn’t say it. What I’m saying is that I am concerned about what his ideas are and that the media needs to investigate them. And they have a deplorable lack of curiosity.

The other two are free media: a three-minute YouTube video posted by the Paulsen campaign that features testimonials from veterans who support the state representative’s congressional bid, and a four-minute interview that Fox 9 conducted with Paulsen as part of its morning news show… which was followed minutes later by the new Madia ad. (Independence Party candidate David Dillon will appear on Fox 9 on 7:30 a.m. Tuesday and Madia will appear on 7:30 a.m. Friday).

Outside help for Paulsen in the form of new ads and ad buys from the National Republican Congressional Committee has vanished, at least for now, with NRCC-reserved time at local stations remaining only for the campaign’s final week.

Here is the fresh crop of new video in the 3rd Congressional District race, with the exception of Paulsen’s interview on Fox 9 this morning, which we’ll add if it becomes available. In the meantime, there’s an transcribed excerpt below.

Madia for Congress: “Discipline”

DCCC: “Career Politician Erik Paulsen: We Can’t Afford”

Paulsen for Congress: “Veterans Support Erik Paulsen for Congress”

Paulsen on Fox 9 (transcribed excerpt):

PAULSEN [responding to question on the national debt]: …These guys [in Congress] are literally just on a bipartisan spending spree. And we just need an approach that’s going to be live-within-your-means, what-can-we-afford. I don’t want my four daughters to be saddling this national debt. And that’s a real concern.

FOX 9: Yeah, no parent wants that, that’s for sure. Now, you don’t want to expand government health care. You want market-driven solutions. Does it trouble you that each year the marketplace leaves more and more of us uninsured?

PAULSEN: Well, we’ve done some good things in Minnesota, even on a bipartisan basis. I’ve gotten some recognition and awards for that. But I think we have to do the same thing at the federal level. We need more competition to bring down costs. I think we also have to employ health information technology for e-prescribing electronical [sic] medical records. That’s how we can get into the next century to save medical costs. And I think we have to reimburse on a different model, so you’re not just reimbursing providers and physicians on the number of procedures they do, but on the quality of the procedures they do. So we’re focusing on preventative medicine. That’s how we’re ultimately going to save money and more people will be able to be insured.

Of these three poll findings, guess which one the Star Tribune covered?

When the numbers were more favorable for Pawlenty, the paper reported it, but when they weren’t, including this week, they left it out (the February poll wasn’t covered at all by the paper). There’s a reasonable explanation, says the Strib’s head politics editor, Doug Tice, who once toiled as a conservative columnist at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. So why is Strib coverage selectively citing polls that favor TP?

“It’s not as conspiratorial as all that,” Tice said. “We decided to use the elections figures and Pawlenty’s approvals — good, excellent, fair, poor — and just cut it off at that. We didn’t have a big discussion of it. It was a judgment call to leave it out this time.”

He says sometimes with polls created by external polling firms — ones where the paper doesn’t have “control or know as much about the methodology” — the Strib tries to “keep the story modest.” (As noted above, the Strib did cite this Rasmussen data-point when it skewed Pawlenty’s way last fall.)

“It’s just not so that we use the polls when they’re good for some people and not use them when they’re bad,” he concluded. “If you’re convinced it’s that way, then you won’t believe me, but it isn’t so.”