Business North

I let Chris and Mel know that I wanted a day to get myself back in campaign mode before we got together again so we will meet at a bagel shop tomorrow morning.

But politics did intrude before the day was over. I returned a call from, Wayne Nelson, the editor of Business North magazine. He wanted an interview pronto so I told him I could show up after our cat inspections. He took that information gamely enough and when I got to his offices in the old Carnegie Library we had a good two hour long talk/interview.

I mostly covered the same ground that is on my website and he’d already been there so he wasn’t taken by surprise by anything I had to say. It was fun visiting him because to of my old associates now work with/for him. Richard, my old editor from the Duluth Reader and my former student, Paul, one of the best writers in Duluth.

Wayne inquired after Don Boyd. It turns out that Wayne had just started working for the Duluth News Tribune when the Boyd scandal broke out. Wayne had a number of very interesting insight to share about the hotest political scandal in the state’s history. He spoke a little derisively of Minnesota’s reputation for honest government. When the scandal broke out 20 or more reporters camped out in Duluth’s Radisson hotel which put the Trib in a panic not to get scooped.

Wayne told me that this resulted in some sloppy stories about the missing million dollars which turned up later not to have been missing – at least not the million that Don Boyd had been responsible for.

Apparently the state wasn’t the only dumping ground for political hacks back then as many worked for the Trib. Wayne told me that some were very poorly trained at journalism. Furthermore some actively leaked information from the newspaper to the movers and shakers in the DFL which helped the latter point the finger at the happless naieve Don Boyd. That by the way is my interpretation not Wayne’s.

I pricked up my ears at this info because I had begun writing an online book about the scandal and only gave it up when it proved incompatible with campaigning for Congress. If I lose I’ll pick it up again in November. If I win I’ll search for someone else to write the story.

 

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