I gotta tell ya I’m damned near out of gas on flogging the Star Tribune (and the Pioneer Press, and WCCO TV and just about everybody other than KSTP’s Bob McNaney and Strib columnist, Nick Coleman) to look up from its new strategic focus on the Fridley Squirts Hockey league long enough to put a full-bodied squeeze on the US Attorneys/Heffelfinger/Paulose story. The thing is belching vaporous gas like an incipient volcano and they’re still taking “I don’t knows” from Heffelfinger (who most likely doesn’t know — so enough) and “no comments” from Paulose, who, at the very minimum, should be compelled to hold a full press conference on the matter.
Thankfully, other papers have recognized the pattern — particularly Karl Rove’s bogus voter fraud/vote suppression strategy — and are working more productive lines of inquiry.
Ex-Stribber, Tom Hamburger, filed this story for the LA Times. (Here is a good synopses via TPM Muckraker.
The Strib had the good sense to re-print the Times story — with minimal editing — but couldn’t find a spot for it on 1A.
Sharp eyed readers here at LTTS jumped on it and filed deliciously acid comments. To wit:
From “herbtheverb” —
“So, just to rub salt in the wound (like they care), who do you guess wrote the story? Why it would be L.A. Times staff writer Tom Hamburger of course! You know, the guy who was one of the top political reporters around these here parts, once employed by the Strib locally, then as Washington correspondent…..
Wait though! It gets even better since these were events that happened in 2004 and THAT’S THREE YEARS AGO FOLKS! So even now, our wonderfully competitive LOCAL papers can’t unearth potential voter discrimination by LOCAL officials against LOCAL citizens and needs ex-local reporters employed by a west-coast paper to inform their “customers”.
There are even more juicy tidbits there about Paulouse, about how they sought to keep it out of the papers of the time (no worrys, mate, just don’t talk about it in a Maple Grove zoning board meeting), and read carefully about the how/why the story was caught now (i.e. Monica Goodling angle).
Suburban H.S. sports coverage indeed: mission accomplished. The prosecution, uh….. rests…. “
Then, from “Not Pleased With Strib Cutbacks” —
“Tom Hamburger, a former Strib D.C. bureau reporter, finally does the digging his former paper has been incapable or unwilling of doing on the resignation of Tom Heffelfinger and how it fits into the overall picture of Karl Rove’s politicization of U.S. Attorneys.
This story is the reason why the Strib and the PiPress need strong and well-staffed Washington D.C. bureaus now more than ever.”
On that last note, the Strib did announce yesterday that it is bringing Kevin Diaz back to its DC bureau. Diaz was basically insulted with a salary cut when Avista took over from McClatchy, so he stayed with McClatchy — which has done excellent work on the US Attorneys scandal — SOME of which has been picked up by the Strib.
Nancy Barnes, editor and Sr VP for News had this to say in making the announcement, “As our chief correspondent, Kevin will be responsible for covering our delegation, as well as major state and regional issues before Congress, such as the farm bill. We expect him to be instrumental in covering the upcoming Senate race, and the Republican convention headed our way.
“Kevin will be joined in Washington by an intern: Jake Sherman, a senior from George Washington University and editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper. He has interned at the Washington Post, the Journal News in White Plains, NY, the office of Rep. Christopher Shay, CNN’s Crossfire, and the Stamford Advocate. He will intern with us from June 18-Aug. 31.
“They will report to Doug Tice. For those of you interested in the details: We have rented space in the Scripps Howard newsroom, effective June 18, since we lost our own bureau space in the McClatchy sale.”
Diaz and an intern. Well, considering the alternatives everywhere else in StribVille these days, how can I complain?
(Messages to Diaz’ voice and e-mail got the response that he is “away” until next Monday.)
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