Blaine council member's car vandalised with middle-finger photos ahead of Minnesota House bid
Leslie Larson, a Republican candidate, says the incident was caught on camera but police have not confirmed a motive
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
Group caught on camera leaving offensive images on Blaine's council member's car
Photograph: Fox 9 (embedded from source)
What this story says
- Leslie Larson, a Blaine City Council member and Republican candidate for the Minnesota House, had her car vandalised with middle-finger photos on 17 August 2026.
- The incident was recorded on a security camera, showing at least four people involved, some with their faces covered.
- Police have not confirmed whether the vandalism was targeted at Larson as a candidate or for other reasons.
- No left-rated outlet carried the story, according to the reports below.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 12 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. Coverage measured .
Trust
62/100
Craft
55/100
Hype
30/100
12 sources · methodology
Missing from the left
Only 1 of the 12 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.
A reader who follows the left would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.
Leslie Larson, a Blaine City Council member and Republican candidate for the Minnesota House of Representatives, reported her car was vandalised in the early hours of 17 August 2026. Security footage showed at least four individuals placing photographs of middle fingers on the vehicle, which was parked in her driveway. Some of the people involved had their faces covered, as reported by KSTP News and Alpha News.
Larson shared the incident on social media, calling it "very disturbing" and "unacceptable", according to digests from KARE and KSTP News. The Blaine Police Department has not determined whether the vandalism was politically motivated or targeted at Larson specifically as a candidate. No arrests have been reported.
What the coverage left out
None of the digests from any outlet mentioned whether Larson or the police had identified the individuals involved in the vandalism. No left-rated outlet carried the story at all, according to the reports below.
Coverage settled. We checked this 43 times and stopped on 22 Aug 2026, 16:30. The figures above are what it finished at.
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
1 rated outlet
We have not written our reading of the left coverage of this story. The left-rated outlets that ran it are listed below.
Centre
9 rated outlets
- The four centre-rated digests led on the incident as an act of vandalism against a local political figure. WLTX and Fox 9 described the images left on the car as "middle-finger photos" and "offensive images", respectively. KSTP News and KARE included Larson’s own characterisation of the incident as "very disturbing" and "unacceptable". All four digests identified Larson as a Blaine City Council member and Republican candidate for the Minnesota House.
- The digests from KSTP News and Fox 9 noted that the incident was caught on camera, while WLTX added that police could not yet confirm whether Larson was targeted as a candidate. None of the centre-rated digests mentioned the political affiliation of the people involved in the vandalism.
Right
2 rated outlets
- The two right-rated digests framed the incident as an attack on a Republican candidate. Both ussanews.com and Alpha News described Larson as a "GOP House candidate" in their headlines and led with her political affiliation. The digests from both outlets included the detail that the people involved had their faces covered, and Alpha News added that they were seen standing around the vehicle.
- Neither of the right-rated digests mentioned whether police had determined a motive for the vandalism. Both described the images left on the car as "pictures of middle fingers" rather than "offensive images" or "vandalism".
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover Blaine council member's car vandalised with middle-finger photos ahead…?
- Of the 12 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 8% are rated left, 75% are rated centre, 17% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is Blaine council member's car vandalised with middle-finger photos ahead… left or right?
- The story itself is neither. What can be counted is who has covered it, and 75% of the 12 rated outlets on it are rated centre — so far this is a story carried mostly by the centre. Coverage of this one has settled, so that is unlikely to move much now.
- Is the coverage of Blaine council member's car vandalised with middle-finger photos ahead… biased?
- Blaine council member's car vandalised with middle-finger photos ahead of Minnesota House bid is one event reported by 12 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting Blaine council member's car vandalised with middle-finger photos ahead…?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered Blaine council member's car vandalised with middle-finger photos ahead…?
- 12 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- Who is Leslie Larson?
- Leslie Larson is a Blaine City Council member and Republican candidate for the Minnesota House of Representatives. She reported her car was vandalised with middle-finger photos on 17 August 2026, an incident caught on security camera.
- Was the vandalism politically motivated?
- Police have not confirmed whether the vandalism was targeted at Leslie Larson as a candidate or for other reasons. The incident occurred ahead of her bid for the Minnesota House, but no motive has been established.
- Which outlets covered the story?
- Four centre-rated outlets (WLTX, Fox 9, KARE, KSTP News) and two right-rated outlets (ussanews.com, Alpha News) carried the story. No left-rated outlet reported on the incident, according to the digests below.
Read it at the source
12 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
1Centre
9- Minnesota House candidate’s vehicle vandalized with photos of middle fingers (opens Valley News Live in a new tab)
Valley News Live — is Valley News Live biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Blaine Republican Running Candidate Has Car Vandalized With Middle Finger Photos (opens Patch in a new tab)
- State House candidate says car was ‘vandalized’ with photos of crude gesture (opens Winona Daily News in a new tab)
Winona Daily News — is Winona Daily News biased? Our profile of this outlet
- State House candidate says car was ‘vandalized’ with photos of crude gesture (opens La Crosse Tribune in a new tab)
La Crosse Tribune — is La Crosse Tribune biased? Our profile of this outlet
- DFL, GOP condemn vandalism on Blaine City Council member's car (opens MinnPost in a new tab)
- Minnesota candidate's car covered in middle-finger photos overnight (opens WLTX in a new tab)
- Group caught on camera leaving offensive images on Blaine's council member's car (opens Fox 9 in a new tab)
- 'It is very disturbing': Candidate for Minnesota House has vehicle vandalized with middle finger photos (opens KARE in a new tab)
Right
2- ‘Very disturbing’: GOP House candidate wakes up to find car plastered with pictures of middle fingers (opens ussanews.com in a new tab)
ussanews.com — is ussanews.com biased? Our profile of this outlet
- 'Very disturbing': GOP House candidate wakes up to find car plastered with pictures of middle fingers (opens Alpha News in a new tab)
Alpha News — is Alpha News biased? Our profile of this outlet
Not rated
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
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