Hey, Look At Us! Pleeeeeease!

Brian Fraley, part of the Republican front group, MacGuyver Institute, wrote a piece that can only be described as a desperate plea for attention and/or credibility:

Can you imagine that? The Doyle Administration is actually forecasting an imbalance of a quarter of billion dollars in the General Fund and most of the State of Wisconsin is clueless because for whatever reason, the news has gone unreported by traditional information sources. People may be suffering ‘bad economic news’ fatigue, but that’s not a reason to let such news go unreported.

It is a compelling example of the need for MacIver News Service to exist.

However, immediately following that, Fraley belies his protestations of being a legitimate news service:

Through MNS, we provide the public with copyright free, original news reporting on the actions and policies of state and local governments, including the actions and policies of specific elected public servants. Our perspective pieces offer analysis and commentary on these same policies and people.

The MacIver Institute cares about public policy and the impact public policy decisions will have on Wisconsin’s future.

We understand the economic model of the news business has changed. Outlets that used to have significant resources devoted to following state government are now lucky to have one set of eyes watching the Capitol on a part-time basis.

In part, that’s why we started the MacIver News Service.

Any blogger, pamphleteer, newspaper or broadcast station in the state is free to reproduce our articles, with attribution, at no cost. Thanks to our various distribution and social networking channels, our reports have been seen by hundreds of thousands of individuals over the last year and a half.

So while we are dismayed at the fact significant stories are being missed by the traditional media, we are proud of the reputation we’re building. Here at MacIverInstitute.com, our goal is to create a place to which people who share our concerns can turn for information and insight.

An actual news service is only interested in reporting the news, not setting forth a certain political philosophy or controlling the facts that are to be disseminated in order to promote a candidate or an agenda.

If they want to be considered a credible news source, they need to work on their objectivity and a full representation of the facts, not just the ones they think will promote their political agenda. But then again, being a news service isn't what they were formed to do, now was it?