Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

Where are the Duluth News Tribune Editors?

Thursday, March 28th, 2013

They are at a public shaming of Duluth school board members.

I’m far and away the City of Duluth’s top shamer of the Duluth School Board and have been for seven years. As the top shamer I’m not very impressed with the Tribune editors day-late, dollar-short shaming today. Its almost as though finding a little fault with the current crop of Board members is the editors attempt to rejoin the community of Red Plan grumps. In so doing they are not unlike some cowardly kids in the circle around a playground fight telling the combatants to beat the crud out of the other kid. Its a safe thing to do.

The problem is that the crime the Trib called out was pretty minor. School Board members not showing up at a particular school’s public meeting.

There were two such crimes listed. First non attendance at a Rockridge School meeting where one City Councilor took umbrage at their absence..

Well here’s the exculpatory reply to the complaint. The building is no longer a school. Sure its school property and the School Board will have the ultimate say on its disposal but keep this in mind. The City has covered for the school district time and time again where the Red Plan is concerned. For once it makes sense that the City take the lead on a school district property. The city will have to deal with the zoning issues that are no longer a concern to the District other than to grease its ability to get rid of yet one more unwanted piece of property.

The City Councilor who made the complaint was not on the City Council when the Red Plan got under way so she could perhaps be forgiven for being irked at the School Board’s unanimous absence from the meeting. But then again, past City Councilors let previous School Board’s off for far more serious zoning and construction issues. The School Board has simply learned to ignore the City Council because of the Council’s insistence on the separation of turf.

Secondly the Editors complained that only three School Board members were present at the Congdon School meeting. To start with one of my email buddies noted with some sarcasm that it seemed the Trib has given a lot more attention to the loss of a hockey rink at Congdon than it did the impact of the Red Plan on many other schools. But that’s not really the point. The point is that three Board members did attend, almost half the Board. That ain’t nothing. They were almost all representatives of the Eastern portion of the City. That makes sense. I see no reason why all seven board members should be expected to attend every locally held school meeting.

Its as though the Editors are belatedly jumping on the bandwagon to bad mouth an unpopular Public Body. I sure won’t blame the Trib when it has good reason to gripe about this school board. I just want the complaint, when it comes, to be about something truly egregious and not just some piffle like this.

Meanwhile the Minnesota Newspaper Assn awarded the tiny Timberjay multiple…

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

… awards for reporting and editorials all for doing what the DNT failed to do.

BLOOMINGTON: —The Timberjay received awards for both reporting and editorials in the Minnesota Newspaper Association’s statewide newspaper contest held in conjunction with the association’s convention in Bloomington.

In competition against ALL Minnesota newspapers,

1. the Timberjay took the top award in the Freedom of Information category for its continuing reporting and legal fight regarding Johnson Controls Inc. and its work for the St. Louis County School District.

2. The Timberjay also took second place for Best Explanation of News Operations or Newspaper Ethics, for Marshall Helmberger’s opinion piece explaining why the paper was continuing its legal battle with JCI.

3. The Timberjay also took first place among weeklies over 2,500 circulation in Best Investigative Reporting, for the story “New school falls far short on promised energy savings” by Timberjay editors Marshall Helmberger and Tom Klein. The story compared the operational cost of ISD 2142’s new South Ridge School with the former schools, Cotton and AlBrook, that the new school replaced. While JCI, the company that designed and built the schools, claimed the new building would be cheaper to operate than the schools it replaced, an examination of utility bills found that the new building cost more to operate than both of the former schools combined.

“This is watchdog journalism at its best as the newspaper went back and checked how well the school system did in delivering the savings it promised in campaigning for a bond issue,” wrote the judges. “It turns out the schools didn’’t do all that well.
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4. The Timberjay also took third place in the Editorial Page as a Whole category among weeklies with circulations of 2,501-5,000.

5. Timberjay editors Marshall Helmberger and Scott Stowell took third place in the Local Breaking News Coverage category among weeklies of circulations between 2,501 and 5,000 for their combined coverage of the Pagami Creek fire.

This blog has highlighted the Timberjay’s superlative journalistic exploits frequently since the Duluth Schools got suckered into spending half a billion dollars on a facilities plan which has forced the District to strip away much of its teacher corps.

Duluth News Trib unwittingly awards itself the “Consequences of gullibility award”

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

In the latest of a succession of editorials telling the School Board to keep everything on the table.

…the moving of Unity on an updated list of cost-cutting possibilities at a Duluth School Board meeting this week made clear the district and board members are willing to consider many options to ease financial difficulties. And that’s something taxpayers can urge them to do as they tackle a $3.5 million budget gap for the 2014 fiscal year.

Shame Shame Shame

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

Tom Huntley is the latest of a list of politicians that have greviously disappointed the editorial Board of the Dululth News Tribune. The include Kerry Gauthier and, if I recall correctly, County Commissioner Keith Nelson. (I don’t recall what Keith’s infraction was – probably racial insensitivity.

Huntley’s might appear to be for drinking and driving but if you read the editorial it really is for not stripping himself naked and baring his soul to the Trib the minute he got his ticket. The last half of the editorial today is egregious shaming:

But anyone not feeling so generous could question why it took Huntley a full week before going public. And they could point out — and with only a hint of suspicion or cynicism, too — that he waited to call a news reporter until late in the day at the end of a week when the newspaper would be left scrambling to get together a complete story. They could point out further that the news story would enjoy a smaller-audience weekend news cycle.

But a more accurate explanation for the Trib’s self righteousness follows immediately:

This fall, because there weren’t better options, the News Tribune endorsed Huntley for re-election.

“But start demanding more,” we urged after Huntley acknowledged biding his time and skating along in the background as a DFLer the year before in a Republican-controlled Legislature.

“I just basically kept my mouth shut and tried to make a joke once in a while,” Huntley told members of the News Tribune editorial board.

Whether that was meant as a joke or not, Huntley’s constituents deserve better than flip answers to serious questions, as we wrote then. They deserve thoughtful responses, honest assessments and assurances that the people they elect to represent them work hard, always, and remain effective no matter which party is in control.

I ran against Huntly in 2002. I can appreciate the comment about Huntley’s being flip. He had told me a short time before I ran against him how he and a DFL buddy flew a toy black helicopter around a bunch of Republican legislators to annoy them. (black helicopters being a symbol of paranoia) This was at a time when total paranoia had not yet overtaken the GOP so I thought his stunt was not very helpful. On the other hand, Huntley is the go-to guy in the DFL for serious health care legislation. That’s more than a joke in a day and age when the State of Minnesota will have to craft serious medicaid policy.

I might be a little more generous with the Editorial Board if they showed the same circumspection and humility that they demand of others.

PBS – not just for Big Bird

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

I’ve had the chance to see two really excellent series recently. Downton is OK but I really loved Call the Midwife. Pulled tears out of me every episode.

Tonight I watched the second of three episodes on American Experience on the Abolitionists. When I saw the first last week I thought it would be a one hour program. When it ended close to 20 years before the Civil War I knew I was in for more. It was great and tonight’s follow up was every bit as good. I’ve drunk in a lot of history from this period but much that was reported fleshed out a lot of new territory and gave wonderful context.

Not taking comments?

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

A friend emailed me recently and mentioned that there were no more comments following DNT news stories. She wondered why. So do I? They do have a non functioning (at the moment) comment section with 0′s at the lead indicating how many folks have commented.

Maybe the Internet won’t be enough to save the Trib.

Thursday, December 20th, 2012

Re: the previous post.

I am flattered that the Duluth News Tribune has featured my snow sculpture for two days in a row. Below you will find the photo someone submitted for today’s paper. I’m always concerned about being uncharitable to those who would probably rather not have me keep biting their hand. I like, and have always liked, the folks at the Trib, even those, who began highlighting my quirkier qualities to my political detriment. I’ve got a very thick skin and I do have a sharp bite for unfair or poorly thought out criticism.

I don’t expect any mea culpa’s from anybody where the Red Plan is concerned although I think there are a lot of them that ought to be handed out. That helps explain why I writing my Red Plan posts a little like professional wrestlers employ submission holds.

I’ll keep baring my fangs when I feel sufficiently provoked but the Trib’s willingness to bury the hatchet somewhere other than my head is gratefully appreciated.

Ya don’t say!

Saturday, November 17th, 2012

The “fair and balanced” network

Thursday, November 8th, 2012

My Buddy told me rather proudly that his Internet is set to the Fox News webpage:

Maybe this explains why Karl Rove tried to bully FOX “News”…

Thursday, November 8th, 2012

…into retracting their call that Ohio was going to Obama.

A lot of angry billionaires.

“The billionaire donors I hear are livid … There is some holy hell to pay. Karl Rove has a lot of explaining to do … I don’t know how you tell your donors that we spent $390 million and got nothing,” – A “Republican operative,” to HuffPo.

Rove at Fox:

Colbert has a funnier take on the politcal corruption inspired by the Supreme Court

Tuesday, October 30th, 2012

It’s shorter than the Frontline program:

I’m in good company

Wednesday, October 24th, 2012

Superman is about to become a blogger.

The Eunuch’s Endorsement

Wednesday, October 24th, 2012

I speculated that the Trib’s editors would simply write the endorsement for the DNT’s owners. I wonder if they had to ask permission to post this disclaimer in the paper today?

“ABOUT THIS ENDORSEMENT
This political endorsement was determined by Forum Communications and was written by the Duluth News Tribune”

Its for Romney. I didn’t read it. Writing about moving “forward” reminds me too much of the civic do-gooders who told Duluth to “move Duluth forward” and support the Red Plan. Their math was just as bad as Romney’s.

The Debate Jim Lehrer should have moderated

Friday, October 12th, 2012

PS. Thank you Martha Raddatz.

Dirty Harry and the icky id of today’s GOP

Saturday, September 1st, 2012


Who can blame Clint Eastwood for wanting to protect America from a punk tearing our precious Constitution in half. Next thing you know he’ll want to draw his decapitating finger accross Justice Robert’s throat for being the fifth vote to uphold Obamacare and validating the President’s treachery.

I wanted to post an image of the billboard that got my blood boiling for a good year every time I passed it along Interstate 35 on my way to the Twin Cities. It showed black hands on the constitution in the act of tearing it up. It replaced the one with George W Bush grinning with the question “Miss me yet!” I couldn’t find it on this google search of anti-Obama billboards but I was impressed with how many nasty ones have been put up around the nation.

They reminded me of the “impeach Earl Warren” Billboard I used to see everyday as my Mother drove me to the Holiday Inn in Topeka, Kansas where I took swim lessons in the motel swimming pool. When the hotel manager found some black kids taking lessons with me in their pool my swimming teacher, who happened to be our next door neighbor, was told they couldn’t stay. He built a pool in his tiny backyard and happily continued teaching black and white kids to swim.

Perhaps the reason I woke up thinking about all this was the blog post I read late last night showing clips of good old Dirty Harry dispatching some bad-ass black criminals back in the 1970′s. He offed three of them in one scene before the forth was given the chance to “make” Harry’s day. No wonder the GOP audience was thrilled to chant the famous line. That N in the White House who has been tearing up Fox News’ constitution deserves no less.

Andrew Sullivan who I read closely is a Brit twenty years my junior who didn’t grow up in the US. He knows our history but didn’t live it. I’ve read him religiously for six years. One of the issues I recall his posting about early on was whether science could verify or disprove that blacks had lower IQ’s than Whites. The most recent champion of this idea was the unpleasant Nobel Laureate William B. Shockley. I say unpleasant because he blamed his children’s lack of success on his wife’s inferior genetics.

Much of the post Civil Right’s Era has been consumed with liberals like me wringing their hands over the well documented gap between the educational achievement of black and white children. It has been a hard thought to entertain but the evidence was so rank and evident. I personally have doubted any genetic link but I’ve read all the often persuasive arguments in support of the damning contention.

It was interesting to see on Sullivan’s blog yesterday a link to a column about the latest research that undermines Shockley’s prejudice.

I suspect 80 year old Clint Eastwood watches too much Fox News as do waaaaay too many of the GOP’s delegates. The bile and simpleminded news farts of the Murdoch channel would unsettle any uncritical viewer. Its ironic that such a dyspeptic and unbalanced channel would spring up from the GOP’s old complaint that the 1970′s network and print media were too liberal. Now “conservatives” have a channel so off kilter that it makes any journalistic biases of the recent past pale in comparison. For instance Walter Cronkite’s public conclusion that Vietnam was the wrong war to be fighting now looks more like sanity rather than liberal partiality.

Clint Eastwood’s performance was pathetic. It was like a bad LSD flashback to the unregenerately racist 1970′s and it came from a man who, if his recent movie Gran Torino is any indication, should have known better. In the later movie a racist old fart like Eastwood goes after a bunch of white racist punks who are harrassing some minorities in his neighborhood. (I’ve never seen the movie)

The GOP is no longer the Party of Lincoln. Its a party deeply infected with the Dixiecrat ghosts of the Deep South who fled another Harry, Truman, in 1948. It took Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon thirty years to fully incorporate them into Ronald Reagan’s morning in America. They are no longer Dixiecrats, even if half of Mississippi’s Republicans want miscegenation made illegal again. The convention delegates listened respectfully to Condoleeza Rice as she reminded them how one of her friends was blown to smithereens by white racists in Birmingham, Alabama, and disagreed with them about immigration and still gave her a rousing ovation. All these folks are far removed from the Days of Jim Crow. But, as with Clint Eastwood, their id comes from an earlier era and all it takes is something like FOX News to make it itch. FOX is sort of our time’s Birth of a Nation only its spewing its biases 24-7.

“The Edge of Truth”

Thursday, August 30th, 2012

A newspaper in JCI’s pocket…

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

…get’s pulled out with the lint.

Apparently after cheering on JCI and the closing of the Orr School the Cook News-Herald is finding ad revenue hard to come by. That at least is what this letter sent to the rival Timberjay suggests:

4/4/12
Publisher should consider his positions
I read with some amusement that Gary Albertson, editor and publisher of the Cook News-Herald was upset that the Orr City Council decided to award the bid to print the council’s minutes and other official business to the competitor Timberjay. I’ve had a good relationship with Mr. Albertson, but what in the world did he expect?

He supported the closing of the Orr School. The Orr retail community is realizing the fallout from the closing now and the future in my mind doesn’t look bright. Orr has a mayor that supported the closing of the Orr School and sided with the school board and Johnson Controls because they had an exclusive contract with his employer, the 49ers Union. Between the two of them, and board member Zelda Bruns, Orr is struggling. There is no advertising money available to buy ads in Mr. Albertson’s newspapers and shopper. He should have given this more thought and reserved his fervor for the new JCI/Albertson school in the hayfield north of Cook. But no, instead of keeping his thoughts on the editorial page, he chose to editorialize his news coverage of the issue. Orr apparently voted their pocketbooks and decided Mr. Albertson was no longer a booster of the community and denied him the advertising revenue he could have enjoyed by continuing to print the Orr public information.

But don’t worry, Gary still has the St. Louis County School Board in his back pocket and they will continue to pay him monthly to print their newsletter that goes to the mailboxes in the district. I wonder how he might feel if the school board pulled the plug on this revenue source? Would he then think the new, needless, useless new teacher’s union school was worth his effort?

And Cook, don’t think you are immune from this economic disaster. Wait until your school closes this spring and watch how dead your downtown will become.

Jim Saranpaa

Orr, Minn.

I gushed about this story…

Friday, March 16th, 2012

—it deserved more explanation. Sorry I over enthused. So is the producer of This American Life.

How long will the Duluth News Tribune ignore the Eighth District’s 4th DFL congressional candidate…

Friday, March 9th, 2012

…just because he chooses to announce his candidacy in his blog rather than in a news release?

I’m not very nice to the Duluth News Tribune’s editors or its owners and should not expect them to report on my candidacy with any eagerness. When they finally get around to reporting it look for their description of me as a “perennial candidate.” Such slights will make little difference. The Editors made it clear to me in the past that they have the authority to hand out endorsements for local candidates but not for those much beyond Duluth’s borders. Every Forum Communication newspaper in the 8th District (there are about a dozen of them) dutifully endorsed the corporate HQ’s anointed candidate, Chip Cravaack two years ago.

I’ve got a lot of regular readers in the DNT offices. Several of their reporters have begged me not to blog about insights, often harmless insights, that they have shared with me about the paper. With all the peeking at my blog going on at the Trib its not as though the paper can claim ignorance of my entry into the fray. But then again, that’s what I thought when I warned about defects in the Red Plan yet the Trib blissfully ignored them until they became a reality.

Welty4Congress.com

What Rush Limbaugh should have said instead of being “funny”

Wednesday, March 7th, 2012

My Buddy has sent me a counterpoint on the Rush Limbaugh fooferah. Except its not really about Rush. Its a WSJ op ed piece offering cogent criticism of Sandra Fluke who wanted to testify for the required inclusion of birth control pills in her student insurance.

What about Rush Limbaugh? I won’t defend his use of epithets (for which he’s apologized), but I understand his larger point. At issue isn’t inhalers for asthmatics or insulin for diabetics. Contraception isn’t like other kinds of “health care.” Yes, birth-control pills can be prescribed to address medical problems, though that’s relatively rare and the Catholic Church has no quarrel with their use in this circumstance. And the university’s insurance covers prescriptions in these cases.

Still, Ms. Fluke is not mollified. Why? Because at the end of the day this is not about coverage of a medical condition.

Ms. Fluke’s crusade for reproductive justice is simply a demand that a Catholic institution pay for drugs that make it possible for her to have sex without getting pregnant. It’s nothing grander or nobler than that. Georgetown’s refusal to do so does not mean she has to have less sex, only that she has to take financial responsibility for it herself.

Should Ms. Fluke give up a cup or two of coffee at Starbucks each month to pay for her birth control, or should Georgetown give up its religion? Even a first-year law student should know where the Constitution comes down on that.

First and foremost this issue has only been tangentially about insurance and first amendment rights to practice one’s religion as conscience dictates. That was the issue until Rush Limbaugh – the sacrosanct “conservative” pundit – weighed in. Rush took a vulnerable argument and he attached sluttery, prostitution and juvenile jokes about an oversexed law student hobbling to class after orgiastic bouts of sexual athleticism. Ha Ha Ha.

The Pope of poop is having to eat his own. Cheers!

I wrote a few posts back about my wife, Claudia, having had insurance coverage for her, our, contraceptives. I mentioned what I’d written to her (she never and I mean never) reads my blog. She corrected me. We paid for her pills out of pocket. then she added, “and it wasn’t fair.”

That was forty years ago. She was prescribed “the pill” long before she became sexually active. She had a highly irregular menstrual cycle that was debilitating. I guess, not being a woman, that its not good to go two months without a period only to have two kick in over a two week period following that.

I was a blessedly clueless guy. That menstruation stuff was stuff I didn’t really want to know about. When my younger sister was hit with puberty and suffered and my Mom made her hot toddy’s to get through it I really wished I didn’t know anything about it.

Then I got married and suddenly my wife’s health was my concern. I remember the helpless dismay I felt upon opening the bathroom door and finding her passed out from the pain of her period. I called the hospital and was appalled when the female voice on the other end of the line seemed pretty indifferent to my plea for help. I guess other women can be pretty blase about this subject.

So, Buddy, your point is taken. It was taken by me long before the voice of true conservatism called Sandra Fluke and by implication my wife and daughter sluts and prostitutes. As far as I’m concerned this hasn’t been about contraception or first amendment rights. Its about a king with no cloths vomiting out puke and an entire political party, once my entire family’s political party, eating it up without blanching.