Dear Star/Tribune
By Mitch Berg
To: Star/Tribune
From: Mitch Berg, one-time subscriber
Re: A Fine Idea
Dear Star/Tribune,
The next time one of the gabbling bobbleheads you call “columnists” or “editorial board members” warns us that the Twin Cities will become a “Cold Atlanta” if we don’t fund a rail line or a gay forensic dance troupe or just hike taxes through the roof, do try to remember that sometimes those wild-eyed southerners have some really good ideas.
This is from yesterday, in the Atlanta Journal/Constitution (with emphasis added by me):
After listening carefully to readers and thinking deeply about the modern role of a newspaper in elections, the AJC Editorial Board is taking a new approach to election coverage, beginning with this November’s elections.
Going forward, our board will use its unique position to work for readers in pursuing with candidates the issues that are critical to the future of our community. The board will provide readers with clear, concise information about candidates’ positions and records. The AJC will no longer endorse political candidates.
I know, I know – the Strib, or at least its editorial board and opinion page, are an adjunct arm of the DFL communications office; when your master calls, you bark like a well-trained puppy.
Just saying. Your relentless editorial bias has cost you more readership than you know.
That is all.
October 13th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
That would be change worth paying for.
October 13th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Then again, some “reporters” will whine “our bosses/readers think we don’t have enough intelligence to form an opinion”, which has never been the case. The question is “do you have an opinion that people will pay money/time to read?”, and the answer is usually “no”.
October 13th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I used to read 2 or 3 newspapers a day. Now just one (St Paul), unless traveling (those smaller city papers are the best….good local news and sports). I last purchased a Mpls paper in October 2004…the day they ran the cartoon portraying Vietnam vets as toothless, drunken, uneducated wackjobs (It was the Star Tribune’s way of attacking the Swift Boat Vets).
Occasionally, while in the Super America (or Cub, or Rainbow), if a headline catches my attention, I think about buying a copy. My test is….I open up the editorial page before making a decision. If the cartoon offends me, I put the paper back on the rack. As I said…I last purchased a Star-Tribune in October 2004.
October 13th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Who needs the Strib, when we have SITD.
I recently dropped the strib, again. The last time I signed up was when their sales rep, started bothering me inside, of all things, a liquor store. I caved in when he offereed me a $15 gift card which went a long way toward the purchase of a case of beer.
I must admit, the Strib isn’t nearly as far left as it use to be, but it’s left none the less. I tried to cancel the Strib after my free subsription, but it took more than a phone call. It took three phone calls. I’ve still got the unread papers – of which I did not subsribe and did not read, but was charged for anyway – and am trying to get my money back.
As far as papers endorsing candidates, I think most of us like it when they endorse candidates we support, but absolutely hate it when they endorse the opposition. Endorsing a candidate, either Democrat or Republican, is going to result in more people dropping the paper than enticing them into subsribing to it.
There is one positive to conservatives when the Strib makes endorsements: Those of us who complain about the liberal bias are 100%validated come late October and early November.
October 13th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
I don’t mind endorsements, per se. What I object to are unsigned endorsements and editorials. As Dan Rather says, “Courage!” Sign your name. Take the heat.
October 14th, 2009 at 7:48 am
This is a weary old meme. The Strib endorsed Coleman, idiots.
October 14th, 2009 at 7:57 am
One, moderate, incumbent Republican.
Out of how many races? What do you suppose the percentage of endorsements was, anyway?
Fraters Libertas figured it for one election, in ’04 I think. Utterly lopsided pro-DFL coverage.
Oh, and it’s bad form to call anyone an “idiot” before you’ve proven that you’re not. I’ll be polite; the jury is still out.
Come back with your “A” game. And please tell me the post you just left wasn’t it.
October 14th, 2009 at 10:26 am
klunker’s got a point, Mitch, which comes down to an perhaps not utterly damning accusation that, above, you missed an adjected. The Coleman endorsement was one time that the Strib relented, so their editorial bias (in political endorsements, at least) is almost relentless.
Granted, he was battling an angry clown, but, in a general sense, aren’t we all?
October 14th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Idiots referred to the editorial board, for endorsing someone as obviously corrupt as Coleman. I think you and others above are correct when you complain that Editorial boards should be as balanced as possible and they should use a byline, especially when offering endorsements. However, when folks complain that their city paper reflects the majority view in that city then…well… Why are you expecting a Red paper in a Blue city?
October 14th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Idiots?
Corruption?
Like berg said, have you proven anything?
.
Joel, I tend to bat around AngryClown like a cat plays with a mouse.
October 14th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Klunk,
Sorry about my peevish initial response.
I don’t know that I do expect a red paper in a blue city – but I find claiming “objectivity” on the one hand, and then throwing the institutional voice of a paper (or TV station, or newsblog) behind candidates of any party to be completely inimical. Pick one or the other, and be honest about it, I say! If your paper strives (as the myth of American journalism for the past 90-odd years claims it has striven) toward “objectivity”, then ditch the endorsements; if you strive to reflect the “Blue”-ness (or “red”-ness) of your district, then do it and be honest about it (like papers in Germany, the UK and France do).
October 14th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Endorcements or no endorcements I’ll probably never go back to the Strib. They’ve been sending me offers 2 – 3 times a week for quite some time now, I dispose them promptly. I don’t believe they’ll ever put out a truly balanced paper that I’d consider worth the effort to read. Good business owners know that once you lose a customer it can be near impossible to get them back.