Pogemiller to WCCO: Equal time, please

Minnesota’s Senate majority leader would like WCCO Radio to putthe skidson Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s weekly radio show.

In a letter dated July 1 to WCCO general managerMick Anselmo, Sen. Larry Pogemiller (DFL-Minneapolis) asks that the station provide a "periodic segment" following Pawlenty’s show — "Good Morning, Minnesota," which airs every Friday from 9 to 10 a.m. — "for lawmakers of the opposing party to provide a different point of view."

The letter begins on a somewhat, um, partisan note:

"As you know, your station has provided Governor Pawlenty with unfettered and unanswered access to the public’s airwaves on a weekly business for a period of years," Pogemiller writes. "In recent months, your station has decided to not only continue but expand this unfair practice by using the governor as a fill-in host for extended periods of time.

"Occasionally affording some airtime to someone from the opposing party is not sufficient to counterbalance the governor’s partisan messages and ongoing cultivation of his public persona."

Pogemiller specifically takes exception to Pawlenty’s remarks on his June 19 show, when, he points out, the governor "deliberately overstated what was at issue in raising revenue to balance the state budget."

Pawlenty, referring to his list of unallotments,said: "And of course, we should keep in mind the alternative to these cuts was to allow the other side of the aisle, the DFL, to massively raise taxes."

"The bill the Legislature passed and the governor vetoed would have raised under $1 billion in ongoing revenue, less than one-sixth of the deficit," Pogemiller writes. "Certainly not massive, the money raised would have taken the place of the $1 billion the governor proposed to borrow at a future cost of $1.8 billion.

"Coupled with the fact that the Legislature cut more than the governor in the general fund, perhaps the Legislature’s approach represented a more responsible way to balance the budget. At least this approach should have been explained. Instead, this point of view was not presented at all on your broadcast."

Pogemiller suggests that WCCO provide more consistent equal time to those who disagree with Pawlenty.

"A publicly licensed station such as yours should be interested in ending the ongoing monologue and embrace a dialogue of the ideas and issues facing our state," the letter says.