We’ve generally had a poor impression of political reporting by daily newspapers in this state since, well, since we transferred to Carolina eight years ago. Compared to other places we’ve been, the reporting tends to be reminding of an old man without his dentures, gumming oatmeal. Though, The Herald-Journal usually does a good job.

Regardless, we let out a rather intense chuckle when apprised of a couple stories on the recent Taxation Realignment Commission hearing on its initial recommendations. We’re rather used to seeing similar ledes in sportswriting, because there’s only so many ways you can write a run-of-the-mill gamer. This, though, was funny. Except for the cancer.

Yvonne Wenger, The Post & Courier, Aug. 14

Kimberly Bradstreet, a teacher and cancer patient, laid out three gallon-size plastic bags filled with the prescription medicines that keep her alive.

Gina Smith, The State, Aug. 16

Kimberly Bradstreet pulls out three gallon-sized plastic bags full of prescription drug bottles, creams and boxes. They’re a small sampling from her drug regimen following her colon cancer diagnosis in July 2009.

Maybe we spent too much time while in the industry comparing one media conglomerate to another, but the first though that came to our mind when we saw this story fly across the wire early this morning was, “Oh, ho! McClatchy got so owned.” Former editorial cartoonist for The State, Robert Ariail, he who was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize before being forced into leaving the paper, has been snapped up by The Herald-Journal.

It’s an interesting move for the SHJ, which is a part of the New York Times Company and has the same issues as every other mid-size paper. Also, it wasn’t too long ago that editorial cartoonists nationwide staged a protest against the trend of papers — like The State — letting go of talented cartoonists and instead relying on wire services. And here’s the Spartanburg paper swinging to the opposite end entirely.

Herald-Journal Executive Editor Mike Smith said the newspaper had a unique opportunity to provide more for its readers.

“Robert Ariail will be doing unique local content our readers have not had in the past,” Smith said. “Most of our readers are familiar with his award-winning work on national issues, but adding his graphic perspective on Spartanburg issues will bring a new level of commentary to our pages and generate additional interest in the Herald-Journal and GoUpstate.com. We’re enthusiastic about this partnership.”

Hey, at least somebody’s hiring, even if you have to get close to winning a Pulitzer to get the job.

Early this morning, Will Folks continued his week-long period of self-aggrandizement by posting text messages from the past while. While we feel like screaming to the sky, “HEY — THIS STORY IS FUCKING TRUE,” that’ll be borne out soon enough. But the news here is Folks is who we thought he is. If he was or wasn’t getting paid by the gubernatorial campaign of Rep. Nikki Haley, and there’s a myriad of ways to “clean” the money, he was certainly working hand-in-glove with it.

The number of texts between Folks and Haley campaign manager Tim Pearson are simply staggering. And Folks’ paranoia is, well, damn heartwarming. Then there’s the interesting roundabout involving the local news industry. Folks is scared shitless about by AP reporter Jim Davenport, but he was actually behind on the story, as the Free Times‘ Corey Hutchins was doing his due diligence on it. And The State was way, way behind, as per usual. We got a laugh out of this Pearson text: “I talked to oconnor. Feel a little better abt things. Will call later.” It’s good to know The State can be reassuring campaign staffers when it’s getting its pants beat off on a story.

You might have also noticed them talking about “last year.” Well, ladies and gentlemen, that was regarding us. Yeah, don’t know how the word spread, but apparently a little less than a year ago, Folks got himself all worked up in a lather thinking that we were going to break the story that’s consuming so many people these days. But we weren’t. Never were. Never even considered it. Whole thing kind of caught us off-guard at the time.

The last bit, which should be disconcerting to U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, is that it looks like a higher-up in his campaign has been regularly leaking information to Folks. We know who it is, obviously Folks knows who it is, and the leaker knows he should probably keep a lid on it from here on out. Not telling Barrett what to do, but if we had an employee leaking information to a guy who had a direct line to a competing campaign, heads would roll.

Between midnight and 2 a.m., The State‘s stories fly through the interwebs on so many RSS feeds. Some papers wait until after 4 a.m., which is a huge pain in the ass after you just spent two hours going through the other feeds, but that’s neither here nor there. No, the point here is a quote by Virginia professor and politics guru Larry Sabato about Rep. Nikki Haley, Gov. Mark Sanford and what that relationship means going into the primary, being rendered meaningless hours later.

University of Virginia political scientist [Larry Sabato] said any attempt to hang Sanford’s failures on Haley would fail because of her gender.

“The public’s assumption — whether correct or not — is that a woman is much less likely to be corrupt or to have an extramarital affair and embarrass the state the way Gov. Sanford has done,” Sabato said. “That’s somewhat ironic since Haley is a Mark Sanford protege, but most people probably see Jenny Sanford’s nod as more important than Mark Sanford’s view at this juncture.” Jenny Sanford has endorsed Haley.

Haynes agreed: “She gets a ‘get out of jail free’ card on that one.”

Hm. *Cough.*

HAHAHAHAHA.

OK, so there was an assumption she wasn’t going to fool around and make stupid decisions that become public fodder, and bam — all gone in a matter of hours. By the way, we heard back in early ’08 that Haley and Will Folks had an affair. There are a lot of people in this state to which the news is not news.

In other developments, there’s this, which we’re certain will turn him on as only his reflection, Peyton Manning and apparently Haley can:

Friday, The State reported that Sen. Vince Sheheen‘s gubernatorial campaign made a few erroneous endorsements in a list sent out last week. It’s an easy enough mistake to make, which is why we wonder why campaigns put out lengthy endorsement lists. There always seems to be a cock-up one way or another.

In the story, Rep. Anton Gunn, who was included as one of the endorsers, said, “I haven’t endorsed anybody. I’ve got my own [re-election] race to concentrate on. I’m not mad [at Sheheen's campaign staff]. I know it was an honest mistake.”

The best part of the story was reporter Gina Smith ironically making a mistake of her own. Several times, she called Sheheen campaign manager Trav Robterson “Trav Roberts.”

Trav Roberts, Sheheen’s campaign manager, is taking the blame.
“This was an oversight on my part,” Roberts said Thursday. “We got very excited that nearly 60 percent of Democrats in the House and Senate were endorsing Vincent. Blame it on an overzealous campaign manager.”
Roberts would not discuss how the list was put together. He noted, even with the six Democrats removed from the list, a majority of Democrats at the State House are backing Sheheen.

But hey, it’s the Friday before St. Pat’s. Everybody gets a mulligan, right?

Maybe it’s just us, but it seems like the gentleman who likes to roll over people’s feet got a little owned Monday evening through some Twitter exchanges. Couldn’t happen to a better fella.

GinaNSmith: Spent the day flying around S.C. w/ Gresham Barrett for a story. So windy that little plane was flying sideways! Glad 2 b back on ground!

PalmettoScoop: @GinaNSmith I’m sure you’ll straighten it all out in your “objective” story about @GreshamBarrett.

GinaNSmith: @PalmettoScoop excuse me?

SCSenatelawyer: @GinaNSmith didn’t get the memo? Unless you’re biased in our favor you’re not objective. :)

SCSenatelawyer: @SCSenatelawyer and I didn’t mean “our” as I’m a mcmaster guy

LoganJames: @GinaNSmith I’m also interested in his explanation. If you’re gonna take cheap shots, at least make them understandable :/

GinaNSmith: For the record, we’re writing profiles on each of the 10 gov candidates. Each candidate gets their own story. We’re hanging out w/ em all!

GinaNSmith: t fair reporting? Oh well. Thanks for letting me vent.

GinaNSmith: dSCSenatelawyer hi. Yeah. I find it hillarious when BLOGGERS who get paid under the table question our objectivity. What the heck do tho …

GinaNSmith: dSCSenatelawyer hi. What do those guys know about fair reporting? Oh well. Thanks for letting me vent.

wesleydonehue: @GinaNSmith you’re not direct tweeting him. you need a space between your d and “scsenatelawyer”

wesleydonehue: @PalmettoScoop You’d think that after @ginansmith’s ass kicking of Gov Sanford, you’d learn not to screw with her. I did.

scott_english: @wesleydonehue @GinaNSmith What Wes said. Also Ubertwitter is good.

It was with some pleasure that we found ourselves on the “Power 100” list created by the Capital City Clown. What makes him think that he’s somehow the arbiter of who is powerful in this state (beyond an ego that’s so large it’s devouring itself), we’ll never know. Evidently, our upstart operation caught the court jester’s attention again, landing in the “Dishonorable Mention” slot.

We could search and search for what the guy actually knows, but it would be easier to fill a tome with what he doesn’t. And really, it was an honor just to be nominated. The company isn’t half-bad, either, as we’re alongside Rep. Jimmy Merrill, S.C. Chamber of Commerce‘s Otis Rawl, SCBIPEC‘s Tom DeLoach, The State‘s Cindi Ross Scoppe, S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce‘s Frank Knapp and Columbia mayoral candidate Steve Morrison, among others. Not a bad crew to run with.

Friday, The State‘s lead editorial was a basic defense of Columbia City Councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine‘s oblique relation to another loan from the Sumter-Columbia Empowerment Zone. The last mini-scandal came when her mother used a loan to purchase a building that was then rented out to Devine’s law firm. The money had to be paid back to the city, which the city then paid back to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

This time, a company that has Devine’s husband as a vice president is getting a loan from the SCEZ to purchase property on Patterson Road. The State does a bit of hemming and hawing, and comes down to saying that there’s no wrongdoing going on, and making light of what it calls “the perception issue.”

Here’s the problem with perception and the actions — and associations — of City Council members: the city has been in the shitter when it comes to policy, finances and general decision-making for some time now. The main governing body for Columbia has to take responsibility for that. While the second loan is a lot less damning than the first, both show lack of ability to appropriately think things through, as it comes to, yes, perception, of city governance.

It’s beyond time for city councillors to think their actions through, before the public and the press have to do it for them.

For the third time in as many days, Gov. Mark Sanford called a press conference to go on the offensive against his perceived opponents. Yes, there are people in the General Assembly who smell blood in the water and are setting their sights on the Governor. Of course. If Sanford hadn’t endorsed Will Folks’ proposal to declare war on more than half the GOP caucus last year, maybe things would be different.

But, the Governor cast his lot with the biggest douchebags in S.C. politics, and now his has to lay down in that bed. Thankfully, after days of asking, Sanford finally said he would waive confidentiality as it came to a State Ethics Commission investigation of his travel practices. However, according to the South Carolina Radio Network, the SEC has yet to receive notification from the Governor’s Office waiving its right to confidentiality. As well, there’s no confirmation that the investigation is going on, though per an SCRN tweet, the Governor’s Office has sent its paperwork to lift the veil on the real/potential investigation.

One of the most absurd things to happen Friday was when The State‘s John O’Connor asked Sanford a question, and he responded, “I don’t work for you.” It’s a good thing we weren’t a beat reporter for a paper there, because we would have hounded the d-bag-in-chief until he gave a genuine answer.

The Herald-Journal reporter Jason Spencer got a little torqued off, as we did, but did a much better job at explaining the situation:

Last I checked, reporters paid taxes and most, if not all, register to vote. They tend to take their civic responsibilities seriously.

Last I checked, many reporters were more informed about the processes of government than the average man on the street and, sometimes, even elected officials.

Last I checked, elected officials should look at EVERY reporter — from the smallest weekly to the largest daily — as virtually thousands of people rolled into one. People as in taxpayers, constituents, residents. It’s a bit of advice I got from an editor at the first weekly I worked at after college. The Internet only exponentially increases a news organization’s reach.

Last I checked, millions of people still rely on news organizations to not only report information, but to do so in the larger context of how that information is presented. (Sanford complained that The State reported on his current conflict, and not as much on the records his staff pulled on past administrations and even sitting lawmakers.)

Last I checked, newspapers still employee people in this state, pay taxes of their own and have to deal with travel budgets. Many of those travel budgets are shrinking or in some cases being eliminated — and they are wasted when media outlets send reporters all over the state for press conferences in which the person speaking refuses to answer any questions.

Last I checked, Elected Office 101 taught elected officials never to pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. Or, today, has access to unlimited space online. Why? They’ll never get the last word. Ever.

And, last I checked, every reporter is keenly aware that it’s not always obvious ethical or other infractions that must be avoided — it’s the appearance of impropriety that can cost a someone his/her credibility.

Perhaps, governor, that last part is the most important lesson of all.

How the hell can Sanford get away with this? Sure, he may not like getting asked hard questions for once, but O’Connor is a resident of this state and is paid up on his taxes. That means that, yes, Sanford does work for him.

Somebody get Marky Mark a dose of laudanum and wake him up when he starts making sense. Because right now he’s not helping anybody out, least of which himself.

If you wondered if The State‘s editorials and columns taking on Gov. Mark Sanford made an impact in the Governor’s Office, wonder no more. Through the more than 3,300 emails turned over because of a FOIA request, a number deal with spokesman Joel Sawyer being tasked to “push back” on the paper in general and, usually, associate editor Cindi Ross Scoppe in particular.

More often than not, it seemed to encompass a grousing phone call. We, however, rather enjoyed this email thread.