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Conservative activist Chuck Muth takes a phone call Friday in his home office. Muth says he will contribute to the new Nevada News Bureau, but as a reporter, not a commentator. The bureau will officially launch this week with conservative blogger Elizabeth Crum as editor and a former Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter as Carson City correspondent.
Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun Coverage
When former state Sen. Joe Heck said last week he was “seriously considering” leaving the governor’s race to challenge Rep. Dina Titus, word came from an unlikely reporter: Chuck Muth.
The conservative activist and onetime executive director of the Nevada Republican Party broke the news through something called the Nevada News Bureau. It was one of more than a dozen political reports Muth has anonymously written in the past month, gearing up for the official launch of what he bills as “an independent news service.”
The bureau, however, will be run by Muth’s conservative nonprofit organization, Citizen Outreach, and overseen by a group with strong ties to the Sam Adams Alliance, another conservative nonprofit outfit, dedicated to “economic freedom and individual liberty.”
The Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, which is supporting several news services across the country, was established by the alliance to “promote journalism and the education of the public about corruption, incompetence, fraud or taxpayer abuse.” The group, though claiming to be nonpartisan, has drawn its leaders from conservative ranks.
President Jason Stverak, for instance, is a former executive director of the North Dakota Republican Party and headed Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani’s campaign in that state.
Political scientists said the move represents a strategic shift by the political right to counter the success of the Web-savvy left in getting its message out. And it comes at a time when the newspaper industry in particular has laid off droves of journalists as revenue plummets. The Franklin Center sees its news bureaus as plugging the hole, by providing content free of charge.
Some media outlets have snatched up the Nevada News Bureau’s reports. The Sun, for one, jumped on Muth’s story about Heck, posting the news online.
In addition to the economic trends at play, there’s the growing appetite for opinion-based media that has driven the success of cable news commentators such as Glenn Beck and Rachel Maddow. The news is presented in a certain ideological light and the audience tunes in to have its beliefs affirmed.
Writing in the Atlantic this month, Mark Bowden outlined the problem this way: “Work formerly done by reporters and producers is now routinely performed by political operatives and amateur ideologues of one stripe or another, whose goal is not to educate the public but to win. This is a trend not likely to change.”
Muth said his was one of many conservative nonprofit groups that sought funding and the Franklin Center’s help at a meeting in Chicago this year. The overriding feeling: “We’ve seen the left do this. Our side needs to do the same.”
Muth insists the Nevada News Bureau will be an objective, nonpartisan news service, but he concedes his conservatism could play a role in coverage.
“We may take a different perspective on some stories,” he said. “Others will look at how budget cuts will affect welfare moms. We might look at how tax hikes affect small businesses.”
He added: “It won’t be what’s written, but what’s written about.”
In Nevada, the writing will fall to a staff of three, beginning this week. Elizabeth Crum, a conservative blogger and Citizen Outreach contributor, will serve as editor. Sean Whaley, a former capital reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, will cover the statehouse from Carson City. Muth expects to hire a third reporter to cover political campaigns from Las Vegas.
Muth said he would contribute occasionally — as a reporter, not a commentator.
One of the service’s first initiatives, he said, would be to push Gov. Jim Gibbons on his promise to put the “state’s checkbook” online.
On its face, however, the Nevada News Bureau would seem to violate traditional mainstream media boundaries between an outlet’s news reporters and opinion writers.
Crum has to this point been known for her blog, “E!! The True Conservative Story.” For his part, Muth is best known as a conservative media commentator (“Unfair, Unbalanced, Always Right,” his Web site boasts) and for prodding political candidates to sign anti-tax pledges.
Yet Muth insists: “If I write, it will be news reporting — no adjectives, adverbs or bias.”
WWI democrat war 150,000 killed
WWII democrat war 600,000 killed
Korea democrat war 50,000 killed
Nam democrat war 60,000 killed
Add to that, democrats brought the worlds problems to our door step by creating the UN.
If you want to stop all the dying, vote republican.
"WWII democrat war 600,000 killed"
Interesting argument, 'planetearthcalling.' You effectively claim that the GOP would have been OK with the Japanese taking Hawaii and the GOP would have stood by and watched as the Nazis conquered Europe. So you feel Hitler was all good? Or just to the point where he killed or enslaved all non-Aryans in Europe? Never mind that we didn't actually enter the war until the United States was attacked. Or do you not count Hawaii as part of our country? Too many 'foreigners' there, eh?
For the record - I don't believe that a GOP president would have waited one second longer than FDR did to enter the war. But I am sick and tired of Republican crazies (which is increasingly a redundant term) who make mindless and hypocritical attacks against Dems.
The Japanese attacked at Pearl Harbor. FDR bombs Europe.
Sound familiar.
Had we gone after the Japanese instead of Germany our involvement in WWII would have been over in less than two years while saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of American soldiers.
Oh and we wouldn't have had to nuke Japan to end the war.
Anybody remember the local (liberal) web news service called "Nevada Today"? You don't?
"PolitickerNV"? That doesn't ring a bell, either?
Well, then I've made my point.
Boy, the R-J's bosses must be upset this morning. With all they have done to slant the news to the right and they still haven't done it well enough to keep Muth from trying to spread his garbage? Tsk tsk.
This is laughable. "independent" "...no adjectives, adverbs or bias." Why must the right wingnuts always try to portray themselves as unbiased. Can you say RepubliCONs?
What a joke! Chuck Muth couldn't be independent and un-biased if he had a gun to his head! Muth, who I refer to as: Chuckie "The Goofball" Moot, is one of the most polarizing figures in Nevada politics. Chuckie is a media whore, and uses his websites and e-mail newsletter to further a personal and political agenda. Chuckie "The Goofball" Moot, continues to attack politicians and other political operatives personally--the only reason why this "Goofball" is in the news is because he's entertaining! The word "Independent" should NOT be used to describe Chuckie Moot, but rather "Idiot"...read some of my articles on Chuckie "The Goofball" Moot at: http://www.nathan-taylor.com/blog/
Funny thing about bias. One of the greatest works ever written on American history was Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s The Age of Jackson. I noticed that Jackson always declared or avowed, but his opponents growled, groused, complained, whined, that sort of thing. Muth talked about adjectives and adverbs, but he didn't say anything about verbs. Of course, too many right-wingers don't know the parts of speech anyway ....
Yes, Planet Earth, better to leave that guy Hitler alone. He was no problem.
"If you want to stop all the dying, vote republican."
Boy. talk about the dumbest thing I've read all day.
Iraq...
Afghanistan...
I consider Muth to be a fool/tool because of his affection for California GOP Chairman Ron Nehring, another notable fool/tool. Nevertheless, this article has succeeded in bringing all of the Vegas Valley Wannabe Bolshevists out from under their protective rocks: michaelgreengills, crackerjack, rejecko, ghostnost, mandingosquid, etc. Hendersonbill is a new name but I'm certain he's a fellow traveler of Saul Alinsky, Wade Rathke, and William Ayers.
Muth=Mouth (German Origin)...Yet, another rich fat white guy to be the mouth of the Republicans.
Let me add that Chuck Muth aka Chuckie "The Goofball" Muth is not a representative of the Republican Party. Muth is not a registered Republican in Nevada and does not represent the views and interests of Nevada GOP Conservatives like myself!
Thank you nathantayor for the edification that the esteemed Las Vegas Sun failed to provide.
Can't wait to read it. Will vote Republican,... for Food. I love getting all sides of an issue. Yesterday, I read about a spy,in the moscow times the same article in jpost,totally different story. What's this home office stuff? What kind of person,neocon or not, dresses up in suit and tie, to work in his home/office? If he needs an office, he can rent one at my place, I have a spare bedroom, now that the wife and kids, and dog have departed. And the pencil and phone,(where is your bluetooth) with his finger pointing to his head, like, he needs to hold it up, so it won't fall off. Great Photo.Headlines could have read" Man in his own home-office ordering pizza, all dressed up with no place to go." I love it. And his compassion really shows, when he minimizes, in my eyes some struggling mother,and maximizes, tax hikes on business. So he does have compassion.