A Local Secret?
By Mitch Berg
This fall and winter – when the Minnesota fraud story finally broke nationwide – has been a long time coming.
As has been a broad realization, at least among modestly independent media, that the Twin Cities media is exactly what we’ve been saying it is for the past 20-odd years:
“The Minnesota Star Tribune masquerades as a newspaper,” New York Post columnist Miranda Devine posted on X. “It’s actually a Democrat front, hiding news, twisting facts, lying outright. One of the worst in the country.”
Additionally, the paper’s CEO is Steve Grove, who served as Gov. Tim Walz’s former commissioner of employment and economic development, which has sparked criticism from some who say that the paper is hesitant to pin Walz to the fraud crisis.
Fox News Digital spoke to several locals who argued that media outlets either didn’t cover the scandal thoroughly enough or, in cases where it was covered, Walz’s oversight role was downplayed.
“The Minnesota Star Tribune has proven itself to be nothing more than communist fish wrap,” Republican House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who represents Minnesota 6th Congressional District, told Fox News Digital.
A free, independent press – the one they envisioned when they wrote the First Amendment – is one of the things that makes self-government above the “tribe” level possible.
Maybe we’ll get one of those in Minnesota someday.
December 22nd, 2025 at 9:40 am
The notion of a free and independent press is a wholly imagined fantasy that never existed.
What did exist instead were multiple different press outlets holding different opinions. For example, a still viable example is seen in NYC with the Post vs Times (and Daily News). In Chicago there used to be a contrast between the Sun-Times (liberal) vs Tribune (conservative).
It seems to me too that there used to be a difference, perhaps only slight, between the Star-Tribune and the Pioneer Press. Since then though, the MN DemoCommies have killed the Twin Cities media, cleaned it up and now wear it as a skinsuit demanding respect (a la Iowahawk). The problem in MN is the lack of media diversity because it’s all far leftwing.
PS If I recall correctly, Hugh Hewitt once interviewed Terry Moran about liberal bias in the media. Moran, a lefty, insisted that it was possible to be “free and independent”, but Hewitt disagreed, gave examples, and stated it was far more honest to admit one’s biases up front and let the customer sort out the veracity. Of course, if there’s no other outlet… man, thank goodness for X.
December 22nd, 2025 at 5:22 pm
It maddens me to no end that there are no conservative news outlets in Minnesota other than a few blogs and websites.
December 23rd, 2025 at 7:44 am
JDM,
I still think it is possible to be “free and independent.” It’s just incredibly difficult. In practice, Hewitt is correct. Be upfront about your biases and move forward.
Which segues nicely to my other follow-up point. Newspapers would commonly include Democrat, Republican, or Independent in their names. They posted their biases on their damned mastheads. I’d say I miss those days, but I was born in the 1980s, decades into the “independent journalist” fraud propagated by Cronkite et al.