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On June 10, 2003, the New York Times reported on a $20 billion Pentagon plan to lease air refueling tankers from the Boeing Company. The newspaper cited that liberal and conservative groups opposed to the arrangement called it a "sweetheart deal" that must be approved by Congress.

The article pointed out that Boeing has hired lobbyist Linda Daschle, the wife of the Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) to represent the company.

South Dakota's largest newspaper, the Argus Leader, is not reporting the story. In fact, the Argus Leader never prints a story about the lobbying of Linda Daschle. In recent weeks, Executive Editor Randell Beck has been quoted as saying that this is because the Argus Leader doesn't report on the wives of candidates.

The Argus Leader did write a 1995 editorial critical of Marianne Gingrich, wife of the House Speaker, Republican Newt Gingrich, for taking a position with Israel Export Development Company. The newspaper wrote, "The spouses of U.S. leaders should be held to a high standard: Not only should they avoid impropriety, they should avoid all appearances of impropriety."

In 1990, the South Dakota newspaper published a thirty-six paragraph article about Harriet Pressler, wife of Republican Sen. Larry Pressler that suggested the senator had used his office to help his wife's real estate business. By contrast, the recent purchase of a $2 million Washington, DC home by Sen. Daschle and his wife is mentioned by the paper in only five sentences.

Last week, South Dakota businessman Neal Tapio accused the Argus Leader and its political reporter David Kranz of covering up a long association between the senator and Kranz that goes back 30 years. The Argus Leader has refused to acknowledge or disclose that relationship. Tapio implies that the newspaper's reporting has been skewed in favor of the powerful senator and against his critics.

Linda Daschle's lobbying has long been a source of potential conflict of interest issues. Her firm's clients include American Airlines, a recent recipient of billions in taxpayer funds to keep the company in business. Another client, L-3 International, a manufacturer of baggage screening equipment, won a lucrative contract from the Federal Aviation Administration in 2000.

Mrs. Daschle had been an official with the FAA before joining the lobbying firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman and Caldwell.

None of this makes it to the pages of the Argus Leader. Even the Daschles' refusal to make their income tax returns public didn't get a notice from the same publication that aggressively pursued Harriet Pressler a decade ago.

When Kranz was with the Mitchell Daily Republic in 1982, he wrote an opinion piece that praised Mr. Daschle for releasing his income tax returns and criticized his opponent Clint Roberts for not doing so. Kranz wrote, "We believe it is the obligation of a candidate to produce the financial health as represented in his federal income tax returns."

Kranz has yet to call for the release of the Daschles' returns that would reveal a combined income estimated at $6 million.