While I have been laughing for about an hour, I do find this also damaging to journalists across the state;
Political reporter Austin Goss of Dakota News Now was arrested for making a prank phone call while impersonating Governor Kristi Noem.
While his employer hasn’t said whether they will or have terminated (he was removed from the bio page) Mr. Goss my assumption is he will probably get the boot (rumor has it he already has a job offer from another media organization in town that gives away free papers – Not the Shopping News or Tidbits).
He may have gotten the number from the Federal Data Breach but if he is the Capital reporter in Pierre for Dakota News, my assumption is he got the number directly from Noem (hopefully this comes up in the hearing).
While satire is allowable under the 1st Amendment it has to be reasonably recognized by most who are experiencing it. Impersonating others, especially elected officials without identifying yourself or the prank is against the law, or is it?
The unfortunate part, that is NOT funny, is this will have an affect on the trust elected officials have with the media. I don’t want to sound like some ‘fake news’ crier, but I have a feeling the anti-media wing-nuts in our state are going to use this to their advantage saying we can’t trust the media. It appears Mr. Goss used Noem’s number to call former GOP chair Dan Lederman. While he did identify the call as a prank, where Mr. Goss may have stumbled was impersonating Noem’s personal cell number.
The sad part is that will get turned into a political football about Federal Data breaches when this is really just about prank calls.
I have NO defense for Mr. Goss. He hurt his industry today, and not in a good way. So let’s have a laugh;
But if the reporter’s last name had been Sanford, would he have ever been arrested?
Nine years ago a politician was arrested in South Dakota because of her petitions. Now, a reporter has been arrested. Who’s next? Most likely not a philanthropist.
The EB-5 scandal in South Dakota produced no indictments. How is that possible?
A governor of this state once spent three months in a county jail for manslaughter. Although, it was common practice at the time for a convicted person of such nature to normally receive six to 18 months in the state penitentiary.
I’m not an apologist for this accused reporter, but I thought Ms. Justice was blind and the scale was suppose to be held at an even kilter?
So, just how many of our political leaders in this state have tool bags and use them?
Oh, and another thing, are you telling me that we arrest reporters for a prank phone call – a prank which will probably ruin this reporter’s career and life – but yet state political leaders in this state don’t know what the definition of “state business” is, when it comes to our Governor and her use of the state plane?…… Give me a fxxking break…. What a banana republic we have here… What a fxxking joke!
“I once ordered a pizza to my neighbor’s house at 3 in the morning just for fun…. I hope I don’t get arrested, too”… #CanadianBacon&Pineapple
Okay, this is my last rant…. The Argus yesterday called Dusty in big headlines: “A Rising Star”, but what do you call a chief of staff for a governor who resigns as soon as the Feds come asking questions about South Dakota’a use of the EB-5 program?….. Maybe a dwarf sun or a falling star that conjures up congressional wishes and ambitions, huh?
VSG, I hear you loud and clear on that one! Not sure if I ever told you the story on one of our bike trail meetups, but my shirt-tale cousin and fellow Bohunk, Frankie K. got a special meeting with professor Damgaard at USD. Cameraman Bruce came along and filmed while he explained the famous wall of yarn in reference to Gear-UP. He said a lot of crazy stuff during the interview and some of the stuff was so far out there it was hard to swallow. But there was a moment.
After the video was done, the good professor didn’t want us to publish it (and we never have). I think we let him see and advance copy of the video, but I can’t remember for sure. There was a part in the interview where he pretty much fingers Howdy Doody for being the keeper of secrets. I think he didn’t want that getting out there. We offered to edit the video but he wasn’t having it. I told Bruce last year we should just post it anyway.
l3wis,
Info such as this will earn you an invitation to Charles Mix County, long-known as the “Train Station”* for the South Dakota Republican Party.
* Reference to “Yellowstone” television series.
Goss’ error was that he didn’t use a mobile device for his prank.
Precedent for selection of cases for prosecution would have left Goss without criminal charges –
even though “the device” could have been proven to have completed prank calls from three separate ip addresses (i.e. 3 separate locations) and it could be proven that the “implicated individual” was present at each of the locations at the very time of those calls.
Or does that only work for billionares?
Let’s not forget that back in January, Noem tried to make a federal case out of this prank call:
https://news.sd.gov/news?id=news_kb_article_view&sys_id=a770e1861be0e110320f4262f54bcb3a
Too bad Noem didn’t have Merrick Garland’s cell phone number. She could have skipped the woe-is-me press release. Then again, Garland would have answered and thought THAT call was some kind of bad joke, too!
Post it Baby! Post it!
“‘bike trail meetups’?”…. “Maybe they should meet-up at the Bunker Ramp and Scott could play Robert Redford and VSG can be Hal Holbrook”….
And another thing, Dusty recently held a meeting with local business leaders about what to do about China. Apparently, China is a problem now, but it sure wasn’t when he, Daugaard, and Rounds were all in love with China during the height of the EB-5 days. But then again, I guess that’s like when he invited Paul Erickson and Maria Butina to a Teenage Republican Camp (TARS) in the Black Hills, then claims later that he was unaware of their intent. Or, how about the time he voted “liberal” against Trump’s executive order usage of DOD funds to build the wall, then got in trouble with the GOP for that, so then he immediately runs down to the border to do some selfie action with him and the wall. Dusty is a good talker, but he’s an enabler to some really bad things. I think he is better than the bad things, but an enabler is always just as bad in the final result.
As far as Damgaard’s board. I sat in on one of those meetings, too. I loved how the professor said he wanted to take his yarn board statewide to inform and warn the people of the possible serious corruption behind the GEAR-UP scandal, but that he couldn’t because the AG told him his board was now state’s evidence and had to stay in Vermillion on the USD campus. So then I asked Damgaard why he couldn’t take pictures of the board then go to Kinko’s to get blown up copies of the yarn board made and then travel the state with the yarn board copies. He really didn’t have an answer for me about that one.
Personally, I always thought that the yarn board was really about the division between the Janklow versus the Rounds/Daugaard camps within the Republican Party back then and the yarn board was less about ethics and corruption, and more about who was going to control the governorship and Republican Party going forward.
I also stated at that meeting that I thought the EB5 scandal was the real scandal and not GEAR-UP, but the professor’s answer to that was that Richard Benda was a real good friend of his and then he just left it at that…. And the thought of someone from Janklow’s Junta teaching political ethics…. Well, I’ll leave the rest to everyone else’s imaginations.
OH, and didn’t you love the part in the recent Argus piece about Dusty where it suggests that Karl Mundt was a leader in Congress. What kind of fantasy writing is that? Mundt took up space for 35 years in DC and three of those years he spent laying in a hospital bed from a stroke and wouldn’t resign because the rumor back then was that he was afraid Farrar would then get himself appointed to the US Senate and apparently Mundt didn’t like Farrar. Mundt brought bacon home in terms of EROS and the placement of I-29 in SD and not Minnesota, but a congressional leader? Really?
TGfG sounds like he has experience in this…. 😉
And don’t forget that Mundt was friends with Dick Nixon and Joe McCarthy, too. But then again so was Jack Kennedy, but Kennedy was a cool dude…. 😉
( and Woodstock adds: “‘cool dude’?”…. “There’s no one cooler than DUA!”… 🙂 )
“Say, I just came up with a brilliant idea involving ‘Dua’, VSG, and a prank phone call”…. 😉 #IGottaDoITiGottaDoIt
VSG,
That there were no attempts to criminally prosecute those involved in EB-5 ultimately must be placed to the feet of he who was, at the time, the U.S. Attorney for South Dakota (with acknowledgement and respect to his recent passing).
The lack of prosecution on state charges is not surprising. Jackley was appointed to Attorney General by Gov Rounds in order to keep the dust under the rug.
But, hmmm, what did Larry Long know?
(Although he has tarnished his image in recent years)
WWRGD – What Would Rudy Giuliani Do?
EB-5, GEAR UP – all of the others, were begging for a crusading prosecutor to make a name for himself/herself/themselves.
Become the Giuliani of the Plains.
“Giuliani of the Plains”?….. But I thought we outlawed drag shows here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Guve7Y856kY
TGfG,
Thanks for the US Attorney info…. 😉
“‘Train Station’?”…. “Well, hopefully it’s a lot like the ‘Last Train to London'”….. “Where they get off and on”…. “But, you really gotta watch this full video”…. 😉 ……:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LudbFg0G-l4
Thanks for the encouragement to chase yet another non sequitor, “Woodstock”.
There’s 5 minutes of my life I’ll never get back …
“‘non sequitur’?”…. “Are you a lawyer or did you go to Jesuit school?”… “And I think that old man in the video might be Papa Richy”…..
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/R1oB_NkVx_w
Anyone else notice VSG announced “last rant” at like post 4 then added like 6 more? It can be difficult to read this blog at times when the same people keep rambling on and on as if this is their only means of communication with the world. In the future, please post your opinion or complaint first, and then respond only if necessary. This will make it easier for the rest of us to read and you will come across as more intelligent.
Lemming, it’s merely, or possibly, a failed attempt at humor. Thanks for the constructive criticism. It was constructive, right?…. If you don’t like it, don’t read it…. There are some restaurants that I don’t go to for a reason…