Page One is crying over their investigative reporting being mis-re-reported and misrepresented by the mainstream media.

They reported on February 1st that netroots favorite Andrew Horne had raised an unimpressive amount of money so far in his unlikely bid to unseat Senator Mitch McConnell. Shortly thereafter, Mark Hebert repeated the news on his blog in an entry titled “Horne Having Trouble Raising Money“.

The next day Pat Crowley “alleged” (to use POK’s word) that “Horne [was] not rolling in the dough.”

Even though Crowley repeated what Hebert repeated - and one day after Hebert repeated it - Crowley’s parroting drew the ire of Page One today, while Hebert’s “allegation” went unrebuked.

Where did we report that “Dem Andrew Horne is having trouble raising money for his campaign in the U.S. Senate Dem primary” as Pat Crowley alleges? Just wondering.

Is Page One sucking up to Mark Hebert? Why does Pat Crowley not deserve to have his ego stroked? He’s part of the elite mainstream media, as well. Maybe Hebert’s reporting is usually deemed satisfactory to the netroots, while Crowley’s is more questionable. Maybe NOKY voters need more of the left in their news, and Crowley is being pressured now to include the left later. Just how centrist Democrats are pressured by MoveOn.org to be more liberal.

Was Page One’s report carelessly or purposely misconstrued because they strayed from the news cycle template that has been laid out by the mainstream media? Quite possibly. The Louisville market’s MSM may not be strong enough to withstand a sharp move to the blogs for news. The misrepresentation very well could be the media’s way of saying, “Hey, amateur, let us do the reporting. We do it right.”

Page One also backtracked partially on their initial reports, confirming their amateur status, saying that Horne had actually raised more than $90,000 rather than the initially reported total of $57,000.

For people who reflexively refer to Senator McConnell as “big money Mitch,” squabbling over a few thousand dollars seems rather puerile. It’s not about the money, is it? If Horne has the right message for Kentucky, he’ll win his primary regardless of how much money he spends on his campaign. Like Chris Thieneman said, it’s amazing what you can do with $50,000 and the truth. Bruce Lunsford’s well-funded and personally-financed “Republican lies” will be difficult to defeat, though.

Maybe money really is the oil that keeps the political wheels turning.

• Half Of The Story, With Mark Hebert
• Local Elitist Reporter: Blogs Are BS
• Since The MSM Won’t Do It
• Shocking Local Media Bias (UPDATE: Hebert Responds)
• Only Four Days Left!