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October 10, 2006

The Strib Vs. The Strib

Over at Powerline, Scott Johnson covers last weekend's Strib hit piece on Alan Fine - the one I dealt with on Sunday. Scott's piece holds the Strib to its own historical standard, and finds the paper grossly wanting:

I find Sunday's Star Tribune story by Paul McEnroe and Rochelle Olson on the expunged 1995 arrest of Republican Fifth District congressional candidate Alan Fine to be reprehensible. Under roughly similar circumstances involving Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor Marlene Johnson in 1982, the Star Tribune found such a story to be reprehensible as well. What has changed? Let's revisit a bit of Star Tribune history.
Scott revisits the history - the Dan Cohen case, in which a Republican operative planted a story about a decade-old shoplifting conviction against DFL then-Lieutenant-Governor Marlene Johnson with the Strib (which then turned around and ratted out Cohen, their anonymous source, in a case which the paper eventually lost at the Supreme Court). The paper found the story - which involved a conviction for a crime - reprehensible.

Johnson [emphasis added]:

In their Sunday Star Tribune story, Paul McEnroe and Rochelle Olson blow the whistle on Alan Fine for an expunged arrest that was never even charged by a prosecutor. Star Tribune reader's representative Kate Parry now claims that the Star Tribune has "corroborated" the charge leading to Fine's expunged arrest, even though it has done little more than recycle the underlying allegation [In other words, they regurgitate the charge that was originally thrown out - Ed]. In 1982, the Star Tribune denounced the disclosure of Marlene Johnson's adjudicated shoplifting charge -- a charge that had been tried to conviction before a judge -- as scurrilous...The Star Tribune's judgment of Cohen in 1982 sits in judgment of the Star Tribune itself in 2006, as does the hard-earned perspective of Dan Cohen.
The Strib has two standards; one for the DFL, one for the GOP.

How do they exercise those burdens?

We'll leave that for an upcoming post.

Posted by Mitch at October 10, 2006 07:22 AM | TrackBack
Comments

Are any of the employees on staff in 1982 still there? Otherwise I really don't see the point.

Posted by: Joe at October 10, 2006 03:13 PM

The 1982 employees aren't there, for the most part--just their hires. Their comrades.

Posted by: RBMN at October 10, 2006 03:19 PM

Actually, Lori Sturdevant and Doug Grow were key players in the Cohen story, and remain at the Strib.

Posted by: mitch at October 10, 2006 03:50 PM
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