The End Of The Era Has Officially Been Called

Today has been one of those embarrassment of riches days. Every time I start a post I get a call or hear another story that I "must" post on. This one is courtesy of Logical Lady Sarah Janecek.

A fascinating exchange between MinnPost's media writer David Brauer and Star Tribune editorial board writer Jill Burcum flagged an important milestone in Minnesota public affairs. We passed it years ago but I have not yet written about it because, quite frankly, it's painful. I've long respected many of the fine journalists involved, even the ones I have ideologically disagreed with most of the time. [Hello, Susan Albright.]

To be blunt, the milestone is that the unsigned editorials -- the institutional voices of our state's two largest newspapers, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press -- have become irrelevant in Minnesota politics.

This is something that center right bloggers have been saying for as long as the Minneapolis Star Tribune has been ignoring the political views of roughly 50% of the readership in the state.

The source of the debate was whether the Star Tribune should have disclosed their relationship to Avista and Avista's holdings in oil companies in their recent pro-drilling op-ed. That is a no brainer, yes they should have and is no surprise that they didn't. They have long been loathe to disclose their biases. Again, that is nothing new to center right bloggers.

However, the laugh line of the thread had to be this one...

What's worse, Burcum wrote, "Our editorials on [Minnesota DFL Attorney General] Lori Swanson played a key role in triggering the legislative auditor's investigation and calls for reform at the office."

That's not only wrong, it's patently absurd.

The Star Tribune editorial calling for an investigation of AG office employees' efforts to unionize was dated March 23. Sure, the Legislative Audit Commission officially called for the investigation March 28, but here's one of a number of meetings the Legislative Audit Commission held to discuss audit evaluation topics, including investigating Lori Swanson's office, before the editorial ran.

The call for an investigation was first made by Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Delano) March 12 (albeit an investigation to be conducted by a different unit of government, arguably more favorable to Republicans, the Bureau of Mediation Services). And perhaps most significantly, employee issues in the AG's office were all over the blogosphere for months (just a few examples here, here (the specific link to Steve Perry's The Daily Mole web site is now defunct and he currently writes at the Minnesota Independent ), here, and here.

Never mind the months of speculation at the Capitol that Swanson's internal union woes would have to be investigated. Speculation which never included, "the Star Tribune edtiorial page called for one."

Because no one at the Capitol ever talks about what the Star Tribune is calling for. Or the cries (have there been any the last few years?) of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

I imagine Sarah had a lot of fun documenting how the blogosphere was all over the Swanson fiasco since most of that documentation appeared on the pages of the PIM morning report.

However it is the emphasized line that is the best. No one at the Capital talks about what the Strib is calling for. Oh the humanity....