Lileks the Reporter? Hard to Imagine.

As previously mentioned, James Lileks, was one of five Star Tribune columnists summoned into meetings last week and, uh, “offered” the opportunity to volunteer to give up their columnizing for straight reporting gigs.

As Lileks himself writes here, it seems he was given something firmer than an offer, and his mini-column, “The Daily Quirk”, will cease publication in two weeks, and, if I’m following this correctly, he’ll begin beat reporting about the internet, which as he notes is a whole different schmeckler than writing ON the internet.

As someone who was always baffled by how the Strib used Lileks — from the “Backfence” to the “Quirk”, with no long(er) form feature writing or, better yet, off-beat right-wing political punditry in between — this “reassignment” smells like the familiar tactic of humiliating someone to the point they leave on their own.