Star Tribune's coverage of the Minnesota Senate race

[Update: see below]

Minnesota's 2008 Senate race (MN-SEN) is likely to be one of the hottest in the country. A loyal supporter of President Bush, Norm Coleman, is attempting to moderate his positions and distance himself from Bush whose popularity has dropped to 25% in a recent poll. Three legitimate candidates, Mike Ciresi, Al Franken and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer are vying for the Democratic Farmer Labor (DFL) party endorsement. The state's largest paper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, will play a crucial in the race.

Will the Strib thoroughly analyze the race? When Norm releases a press release, will they consult both conservative and liberal/progressive sources for analysis? When DFLers slag each other, will the Strib attempt to look at all sides of the issue? Will Norm's Republican primary challengers get any coverage whatsoever?

More likely not. The Strib has gutted their reporting staff and despite assertions that they will focus more on local issues, their recent behavior indicate that the remaining writers don't have the time to thoroughly cover the Senate race.

At a debate several weeks ago at Augsburg College, Ciresi accused Franken of weakness on his opposition to the war after initially supporting it. Ciresi quoted a specific chapter out of one of Franken's books.

Franken claims that the chapter from which Ciresi quotes was satire. Here was the Strib initial retelling:

Franken responded that he wasn't acting out of fear but that he believed no president would lie the country into war. He said that when the war began he was writing his book "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them."

But Ciresi persisted, pulling out a piece of paper with a quote from that book in which Franken said he was "terrified" by the imminent threat and the visuals of weapons of mass destruction.

Franken responded that the line was satire, poking at the fear the Bush administration peddled. But Franken said he regrets not publicly speaking out against the war earlier, as Nelson-Pallmeyer did.
(Strib)

However, yesterday a different reporter wrote an article about the race and failed to read what her colleague had written. Zack at MNPublius has the details.

The Star Tribune published a story today discussing Al’s position on the war. Its got one big, glaring inaccuracy which can’t be ignored. From the article:

Like many others, Franken was shaken by Sept. 11, 2001. And for all his acid-tongued commentary about the Bush administration, he says he found himself unwilling to believe the president would “mislead this country into war.”I believed the president. I believed [former Secretary of State] Colin Powell,” he said.

In his 2003 book, “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them,” Franken wrote that “I had allowed fear to cloud my normally robust skepticism regarding the veracity of the Bush administration.”

Here is the problem: the passage from the 2003 book was clearly satirical. In the same passage, Al writes about his wife Franni fearing that a cement mixer across the street was actually one of Sadam’s mobile WMD factories.

I’m not trying to excuse Al’s support for the war, but Its just plain inaccurate to suggest that he acted out of fear. Far from a discussion of his support for the war, the passage that the fear quote comes from is an indictment of the politics of fear that the Bush Administration and other war-supporters employed in 2002 and 2003. As he has made abundantly clear, Franken supported the war because he believed that the President and his administration were telling the truth about Iraq, not because he was afraid.

Its an important distinction.
(MN Publius)

The Strib will not assign a writer to cover this race. It is a disservice to Minnesotans. Rather than shift the responsibility around to whomever is available, the Strib needs someone to thoroughly cover this. Every press release, debate, gaffe, out-of-place nose hair, all of it. They've assigned Michael Russo to follow the Wild hockey team. Russo is doing an outstanding job. Why not assign one writer to the MN-SEN race?

Rather than run with the AP feed on Norm's foreclosure bill, why not consult local experts on foreclosure and MN politics? Maybe even a progressive voice? If they would have, readers might know that we progressive believe that Norm's bill only benefits the lenders who currently own all the risky loans. Would that fit more with their assertion that they will better cover local issues? Yes. Would that require a writer to spend lots of time researching? Yes. Time these reporters don't have because of the job cuts.

I'd cross-posted my earlier post on this topic to Daily Kos. A commenter, anothergreenbus, had this to say:

As a Minnesota native, I have followed with great interest the shift in ownership of the Star Tribune—previously owned by Gannet and then McClatchy. The recent buyout by Avista, a recently formed company, happened just two months after the last election. The new owners are primarily oil-men (Basic Energy Services in Midland Texas being one), bankers and healthcare businessmen (pharmaceuticals). Isn’t it strange for oil-men, etc. to take on an entirely new business by purchasing the Star Tribune as their first investment?

Why would the Star Tribune be of value to oilmen and healthcare corporations? Look at the swing states, the location of the 2008 repub convention and look at the history of the Star Tribune coverage. It’s easy to see why it is worth controlling. Check out the company on Forbes or Business Weekly and don’t be distracted by the front man, a supposed Democrat, who worked for Knight-Ridder and was, by pure chance, a classmate of GWB’s at Andover. Most importantly consider the owners, their recent businesses and their other special interests.
(anothergreenbus)