Love him or hate him?

It seems there is plenty of both to go around.

His very presence in South Dakota makes some people very nervous.  He just keeps poking around.  Looking in dark places.  Digging.  Asking questions.  That is bothersome to people who may have something they really don’t want anyone to know about.

Some on the left have banished him from their blogs and dismissed him as a political hack.  Some on the right prefer to personally malign and attempt to discredit him.  The media doesn’t seem to be very co-operative with him unless they can present the illusion that he is a nut-case.   But he just won’t go away.  He keeps digging, looking, asking and talking.  But isn’t that what an investigative reporter is supposed to do?

South Dakota isn’t accustomed to this kind of reporting.  Politicians don’t seem to get too much scrutiny from the media (unless, perhaps, they are conservative… or worse yet, Christian).  The “back story” pretty much goes un-reported.  That is, until the last year or so.  Stranahan is a media-savvy Texan who has developed a personal affection for South Dakota.  He has spent a lot of time here, digging and poking around.  His facebook page, Dakota Reporter is always an interesting read, filled with video and on the spot reporting of things that South Dakota power brokers would rather not talk about.

People in National media circles know and respect his credentials and investigative reporting.  Andrew Breitbart was one of them…

Some of the bones he has uncovered remain largely untouched by the media.  Do you wonder why?  Follow the money.  The State (political leaders) award no bid contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a certain advertising agency.  That would be Lawrence and Schiller.  L&S then purchases millions of dollars in advertising from… you guessed it… the media.  Owners of newspapers, radio stations and TV stations KNOW where this money comes from.  They also know the flow of money (we are talking about BIG money) can stop in an instant if someone, say a political leader, doesn’t like the “tone” of their reporting.  You see, until recently, the former partner of L&S was the state chair of the Republican party.  You might not know that L&S also designed the web page for the most powerful media in South Dakota, KELO.  You might ALSO not know that L&S created a company in 2008 to make big bucks from ObamaCare.  Those health care and insurance profit centers have very close connections to a certain former Governor/now US Senator.  You see, the media has a vested interest in “protecting” it’s close financial relationship with political leaders, and political leaders seem to have “financial benefits” that are not widely known to most people.  Are you beginning to see any dots connecting??

Stranahan looks where no one else is willing to look.  What he finds should be disturbing to ordinary South Dakotans.  One thing appears certain.  He isn’t going away any time soon.  He seems to be insulated from threats and the possibility of being “silenced”.  Like the Blues Brothers, he seems to be “on a mission from God”.  His reporting instincts keep sniffing for truth.  That makes him loved by some and hated by others.

Welcome to South Dakota, Lee Stranahan!

***Gordon Howie is an author and CEO of Life and Liberty Media***

     “It’s not about right or left, it’s about Right or Wrong.”

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