AP Story about Michael Brodkorb's "Labor of Love"

From MInnesota Monitor:

http://www.minnesotamonitor.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3869

The Associated Press profiles Republican blogger Michael Brodkorb today, praising his two "direct hits" on Al Franken over the Democratic senate candidate's tax problems. The piece by Patrick Condon says that Brodkorb "shrugs off Democrats' claims that he's a Republican operative by saying he's never been paid to blog." The Minnesota Democrats Exposed blogger repeatedly makes that claim, and goes to great pains to express his independence, but as Minnesota Monitor's Robin Marty reported in September 2006, Brodkorb's ties to the Republican party are deeper than those of a mere enthusiast engaged in pro-GOP blogging as "a labor of love" (as the AP story puts it).

The AP neglects to mention Brodkorb's past work as research director for the Republican Party of Minnesota and a part-time gig as "press consultant" to former Republican senatorial candidate Mark Kennedy; according to Federal Elections Commission reports, he earned $4,500 per month at that job. The AP also doesn't mention the check for $5,500 Brodkorb received on September 3, 2006, for research services provided to the Michele Bachmann campaign.

Brodkorb, reached by phone Friday morning, did not dispute that he has had paying jobs for the GOP, but declined to comment further, saying he felt unfairly treated by Minnesota Monitor in Marty's September 2006 article.

"a labor of love" ...WTF?

Although, he is pretty much the area to which dirt is funnelled and he puts it out.
But spare me the independent concerned citizen bullshit, please.

If Pat Condon had spent as much time digging into Michael Fraudkorb's sources of income as he did bending over and spreading 'em for him, readers would have been better served. But then he might piss off his spoon-fed source of dirt and actually have to do some reporting for a change. And that would the rest of his press whore colleagues look bad.