Tom Bartel You might want to read this from the NY Times. It seems that the states out west, where mostly Republican buffalo roam, are fighting among themselves for the little bit of water they have available. The funny part is that, except for California’s governor, that big actor, many of the pols out there aren’t big … Read more
One could not ask for a clearer distinction between what newspapers should be and what they are becoming than today’s paper editions of the New York Times and the Star Tribune. The featured photos on the front page of The Times were a series of three which perfectly illustrated the frustration that is Iraq. A … Read more
The blank page is an intimidating thing, especially for a writer who only manages to spew out a couple thousand words per month. Trying to write a significant eight-hundred-word piece every month seems harder than doing an essay two or three times a week, as most columnists do. The formula (take a bit of news, … Read more
In the remarkable mini-series Band of Brothers, the story of one company of the 101st Airborne Division in World War II, episode nine is titled “Why We Fight”. The episode is about how the company discovered a German concentration camp. If it hadn’t been clear up to that point why the Americans were fighting the … Read more
Beginning Sunday night, Britt Robson, late of City Pages, will be bringing his Timberwolves blog to The Rake. Check back here for the latest, and best, Wolves coverage after every game.
A little more than five years ago a few of us sat down around my dining room table with some legal pads, a laptop computer, and a long list of ideas. Our starting point was an executive summary of an idea for a magazine that I’d written up three years earlier. The magazine had the … Read more
In the Strib this morning was a photo of a Marine outpost in Iraq. On an interior wall was hand written the following: “America is not at war. The Marine Corps is at war. America is at the Mall.” (Sorry, photo is not online that I can find.) Also, on the Strib’s website today, The … Read more
There’s a story on CNN/Fortune today that perfectly illustrates one of the main problems with American journalism. A little background: the New York Times Company has two classes of stock. One is owned by whoever wants to buy one; the other is owned by the Ochs-Sulzberger family. Only the Ochs-Sulzberger shares have an effective vote. … Read more
Robert Drinan was a Jesuit priest and law professor at Georgetown who served in Congress during the seventies and was the first member of Congress to call for the impeachment of Richard Nixon. He died today. He argued that Nixon should be impeached for the secret bombing of Cambodia, not for the secret break in … Read more
A recent intercepted email exchange between Monica Moses, executive director of product innovation at the Star Tribune, and Steve Perry, editor of City Pages, provided both a good laugh and good fodder for online discussion of “What the hell are newspapers and why are they seemingly dying?” The exchange (posted on The Rake’s media blog) … Read more