The Arizona Daily Star wants YOU to do their job for them

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Arizona Daily Star's reporting on the GOP primary for the CD 8 Special Election was strictly stenography. No probing questions, no fact checking.

Now that the general election in the CD 8 Special Election is underway, the Arizona Daily Star wants YOU to do their job for them. Let us hear from you about CD8 candidates. Check out the Star's typical lame questions that only media villagers find important:

Does it make any difference to you that Republican Jesse Kelly is 30 years old and Democrat Ron Barber is 66?

Does it matter that Kelly is a former Marine who served in Iraq, while Barber has no military experience?

Is it important that Barber has a college degree and Kelly doesn't?

What does it say about Kelly that he works as a project manager for family-owned Don Kelly Construction? Or that Kelly opposed federal stimulus funding even though the firm obtained contracts funded by stimulus money?

How about the fact that Barber received a government paycheck for 37 years, first at the Arizona Division of Development Disabilities and since 2007 as district director for former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords? Or that for 22 years he and his wife owned a small business, Toy Traders-Storks Nest?

Yaddy-yaddy-yadda. Superficiality is what we do. Where is the Star's classic hard-hitting question from a few years ago: "Do you prefer coffee or tea?" (Yes, it's true).

Regular readers of this blog are far more knowledgeable and insightful than your typical media villager. So I am going to encourage you to take the Star up on its offer. But I want you to drill down on policy issues and ask the probing questions — approach this from the perspective of a prosecuting attorney conducting cross-examination of a hostile witness. Be short and concise in your questions. I would encourage you to annotate with source citations to any factual assertions made in your questions, because the Star will not do this for you.

What questions do you want us to ask? Send your suggestions to elections@azstarnet.com

Unfortunately, there is nothing anyone can do to make Star reporters insist upon an answer from the candidate to your questions. As Brady McCombs admitted in his reporting today, "Kelly has been reluctant to talk about his first political campaign, usually redirecting questions by repeating his campaign platform." Reporters simply take the answer given without insisting upon an answer to the question posed.

Michael Bryan's offer to the candidates to be interviewed by a panel of bloggers still stands. You won't get the candy ass questions you typically get from reporters. At least three (or more) of us are experienced trial lawyers with public policy backgrounds. Let's find out how much you really know about public policy sujects and whether you have the right stuff to represent Southern Arizona.