23 January 2020 — 1256 mst
Reilly Neill ends her campaign for governor,
vows to campaign for a healthy environment
Former legislator Reilly Neill was the first Democrat to announce for governor, filing her C-1 in early June last year. This week, having raised only a kilobuck, she became the first Democrat her campaign for governor, never having formally filed for the office with MT SecST.
Mike Cooney, Whitney Williams, and Casey Schreiner, are still campaigning for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
When Neill announced her candidacy, I reported:
Asserting that “We’re better together…,” Neill says her priorities are:
- Balancing the budget and upholding the constitution;
- Using sound science and innovative research to face the future;
- Celebrating the bounty of Montana's natural resources; and
- Carrying on Governor Steve Bullock’s legacy.
Neill bowed out of the governor’s race with a bitter denunciation of Montana’s news media:
The complete lack of press coverage from the very start for my campaign to battle climate change is an example. Last week, a member of a major Montana outlet reached out for an interview with me, finally, after six months of my being in the race. In fact, the AP “story” circulated about me in June 2019 after I filed (a story then republished across the country) contained glaring errors that could have easily been corrected with a quick phone call or a few minutes of research.
No member of the press covered my campaign except an intern from Montana Public Radio who called after I filed and only asked me about fund raising in a two-minute brief. A few months ago, a reporter interviewed me about the other Democratic candidates for governor and then printed complete inaccuracies. This reporter never issued a correction, even when I provided sources for them to check. This last experience confirmed what I had gathered about the press in Montana since launching a statewide publication: they are insular, biased and absolutely unable to consistently expose truth. We can do better.
One of the greatest eye-openers in my campaign was the reality of the male-dominated, science-denying press in our state, most of whom want to uphold a self-congratulatory status quo rather than working to objectively cover all issues equally and fairly. In a dying industry, they would do well to increase diversity in their press rooms and work to give equal coverage to all political candidates and issues. Climate change, backed by the same science reported in other articles, is not a subject for debate or deserving equal representation from “both sides” of the discussion. The discussion over existence or causation is over. It’s happening and we are woefully unprepared for the impacts.
Excoriating reporters for the sins of their publishers is not the most effective mechanism for provoking reform in the newsroom.
Her sour departure nothwithstanding, Neill deserves a hearty round of thanks for throwing her hat in the ring while other Democrats were throwing their hands in the air in dispair over Steve Bullock’s approaching the end of his final term in office. And she deserves thanks for her determination to continue the good fight for a clean, healthy, and not too warm, environment. Her dedication and eloquent pen are assets that make Montana a better place. I wish her well.