Brian Lambert When I saw the front page flag on yesterday’s Wall Street Journal — the one that said, “Why We Need More Dick Cheney” — I thought my favorite WSJ contrarian troll was at it again. If you follow the Journal’s Op-Ed page, you know it is populated — exclusively — by some of the eeriest, … Read more
The extraordinarily anachronistic Tim Rutten of the Los Angeles Times — a guy writing about media, newspapers even, while on the staff of a daily newspaper — has a particularly interesting piece up today. It’s about several things all adding up to what news consumers really want out of an on-line newspaper, supposedly the creature … Read more
The bridge disaster put a hit on my carefully planned blog schedule. (I’ve been reading through the local papers from the first days after — I was out of town when it happened — and will offer deep thoughts in the not too distant future. I know, hearts be still.) But I gotta say something … Read more
This photo was passed along to me without any idea who the photographer was. If anyone knows, I’ll happily credit them for what I think captures an iconic moment in Minnesota government, namely Gov. Pawlenty and his, uh, anti-government, “No New Taxes,” transportation advisers, (note Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau beaming at left), vetoing last year’s … Read more
First, a word of apology for a glitched-out post that hung out here for a while last night and this morning. There are reasons why I’ve never been asked to program the space shuttle. The collapse of the I-35W bridge last week pushed a lot of beat coverage off the table for a while. In … Read more
Fresh from critical acclaim for its around-the-clock coverage of the I-35W bridge disaster, KSTP-TV fired news director Chris Berg today. Berg’s departure had been predicted , and several insiders believe he was scheduled for termination August 2, but was kept on an additional few days as his staff stayed on the bridge story.(August 1 was … Read more
Unlike a psychopath shooting up a campus, or even a drunk killing six or ten people in a fiery crash, the reasons for the collapse of a major freeway bridge are almost certainly knowable. That means there is significant value in a full, public assessment of those reasons. This tragedy was preventable, and understanding how … Read more
When he’s right he’s right, and Nick Coleman makes a spot-on point in this morning’s column. Minnesota, like much of the rest of the country, is digging itself deeper and deeper into a very serious infra-structure repair deficit, in no small part due to fear of so-called “taxpayer advocacy” groups who force/blackmail cowardly and cynical … Read more
My ingestion of Hurricane Charleys (vodka, mint leaves, some blue stuff, some green stuff) was rudely interrupted around 7:30 EDT last night by the first phone calls from home bringing news of the 35W bridge collapse. Within the first hour of coverage the familiar patterns of tragedy-reporting, both good and bad, were playing … incessantly. … Read more
Even from the coast of SW Florida I get the feeling of KG overkill in Twin Cities media. Nothing like a blockbuster sports deal in the dog days. I count myself among the “fans” who pretty much ignored the Timberwolves start to finish last season. I don’t recall (TM … Albert Gonzales, Dick Cheney) listening … Read more