Secrets of the City

I’m really glad they are getting some recognition. I have been consistently impressed by Boyd’s ability to rise above the fog of misinformation out there to articulate the facts of what has been going on with this war.

I’m consistently impressed by the Star Tribune’s ability to be a horrible newspaper. My opinion is no one there deserves an award for anything.

Long live the “RED STAR” comrades!!

Kevin: I’m curious what the context is for that evaluation. Do you mean it in the “all media in the country has a liberal bias and therefore all media is bad” way, or in the “when honestly evaluated on journalistic terms, the Star Tribune rates lower than X, Y, or Z papers.” My guess is you probably don’t like the Strib in the same way you don’t like, say, the New York Times.

I personally think there are still some great things about the paper, particularly the Metro (er, Local) section, which seems better than almost anything comparable in size.

He was on MPR this morning and answered questions so well I may subscribe again.

For some reason I was unable to get on the air and ask him how he felt about working at the same paper that prints KK’s trash though.

To be honest, the only reason I feel that the Strib institutionally came out critically against the Iraq war so early is that they had no access or priviliges to lose by being honest. If they had anything to lose, it would have been more interesting to see how their integrity and dedication to the truth would have played out.

The bigger media outlets may indeed have had their doubts in private but didn’t dare risk being seen as “disloyal” and having their access put in jeopardy.

This award was still well-deserved.

Please remember this was an award for the editorial writing and dedication to the principles of diplomacy. It had nothing to do with the news journalism of the paper. The Strib like most good papers work hard to ensure the two staff operate independently. When there is no such division you get propaganda like powerline.

How much longer will people continue to even link to powerline? They exist simply to call other people names and vomit paranoid bile into search engines. In all seriousness, when was the last time you actually read something worth remembering there?

Well, I completely agree with Kevin’s first sentence, but as long as we’re still giving awards to newspapers, there isn’t a much better candidate than Boyd.

(Audio link to the Boyd’s MPR appearance.)

My judgment on the Tribune is based on the fact that they 1) cover way too much internation news -okay that’s opinion rather than fact -, which I can get a thousand other places; 2) put Nick Coleman, KK, and Doug Grow in the local section when they belong on the opinion page; 3) fail to tell me anything about my local governments and consequently force me to look to the Southwest Journal or the Minneapolis Observer to find out what the heck is going on in my own backyard; 4) have a website that is unmanagable; and 5) are apparently trying to market themselves toward younger folks – of which I am one – without understanding that most of us prefer to get our news on the web.

All I ask from any media outlet is to tell me what happened yesterday and what will happen today. In that respect, nothing in the Tribune on a day to day basis is really new to me, since I can read all the international and national news I want somewhere else. I want them to provide real local news. Instead they try to be my be-all and end-all source for news. I don’t want that, and none of my 18-35 demographic friends to either.

As for the New York Times, at least the Star Tribnune has never (that we know of) let a staff writer publish a story out of his or her upcoming book. So I guess the Tribune beats out the Times in that respect.

Notice I didn’t say anything about their editorial slant, which I completely disagree with but am aware enough that news and editorial are (in theory) completely separate.

Thank you.

If Arafat could win a “Peace Prize”, why not?

This is a general strib post, unrelated to the award.

National news…yawn

Local, sports, taste, homes…most robust & interesting sections in the paper. Still, kind of a buzz kill that cp & observer can be so much more relevant on local issues.

Source…not sure since I can’t figure out what it is

Columnists…have to keep them, cuz they are popular with stribs demographic–40+, & still read the strib as main news source. These people also watch news at 5:30. New columnists would help circ more than a new design.

Editorials…everyone can guess what they say before they say it. Very little insight. Arguements are often rote & rarely persuasive. Surprise me.

Question: has anyone else noticed how much better the writing is at the NYT? Informative sure, but the prose is a pleasure to read. Who said journalism was dry?

CJ dissed again?

More black people in bold type than the downtown police blotter!

That deserves SOMe sort of an award!

Jim Boyd rocks. His op-ed pieces are so far beyond what either paper regularly produces that I can’t believe this town will hold him for long, but I hope he stays. He deserves all kudos.