I love it when newspapers like the Washington Post, NY Times or LA Times file articles from small towns. They have absolutely no understanding of middle America and so they file these stories that do nothing other than reinforce the stereotypes they came in with.

Case in point, in today's LA Times, Michael Finnegan traveled with the Kerry campaign to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Let's set the mood:

A deer with gnarled antlers peers at customers from the wall of Garnet's Barbershop in this remote dairy town. Garnet Mathwig, who shot the deer, displays its head for the farmers and factory men who pay him $11 for a haircut.

Remote dairy town? Perhaps best known for Leinenkugel's beer, Chippewa Falls is a town of 13,000, the county seat of Chippewa County (pop. 55,000) and has a whopping .4% of its population employed in agriculture. The county as a whole has 5.8% employed in agriculture.

But clearly, this particular reporter is more interested in furthering their agenda than presenting the truth. He quotes Mr. Mathwig saying, "They keep talking about all these jobs they've created, but where are they?" The article mentions layouts and plant closings and clearly tries to present a Chippewa Falls in the midst of a recession. However, the facts tell a different story. The unemployment rate in Chippewa County in May was 4.7%, down from 5.6% last year and well below the national 5.6% rate.

I have to laugh when abortion and gun rights are presented in the article as "cultural" issues. It's like the author is winking at the reader and saying, "hey, these hicks from Wisconsin aren't like us. Some of them gasp hunt and kill animals. Some of them don't want abortion legal. They're not like you, me or any of our friends. They're part of a strange, foreign 'culture'".

In any case, the race in Wisconsin comes down to jobs and Iraq. Amazingly, our intrepid reporter cannot find a single person to quote in support of our efforts in Iraq (wow, even gun-toting pro-life hicks are against the war!). Where's the guy saying "Bush isn't doing enough. The next time they behead some American we bomb Mecca!" I mean, I know these people. I'm related to these people! Non-anecdotely, 54% of Wisconsinsites give Bush positive marks on dealing with terrorism. The LA Times could find none of these people to quote.

Much like their performance in other "foreign" lands, liberal reporters seek out and quote those who reflect their own opinions. They then present these opinions as if the majority of the people think the same way. Then, they claim they don't have a liberal bias. And, when you insist that they do, they whine about being called unpatriotic and call you a digital brownshirt. It's tiresome and predictable.