Residual Forces

MPR has a story about the Strib and some Stribbers who are leaving the paper. In it, we learn Dane Smith has accepted a buyout and will be hanging up the typewriter, but we also get a glimpse of the entrenched hostility by journalists towards anyone who isn’t them with an opinion willing to share it.

Reporters at the Star Tribune talk all the time about how newspapers are struggling to adapt to increasing competition from news sources like the Internet, according to Dane Smith. “It’s a source of considerable anguish and discomfort among all of us in the newspaper business.

Anguish? They downright loathe the bloggers.

With the presidential election on the horizon, the University of Minnesota’s Kirtley says it’s the voting public who will likely suffer.

“If we’re going to have an eviscerated Pioneer Press and an eviscerated Star Tribune, I think we’re left with a big void,” she said. “And ultimately the public are really going to suffer because they’ll be left at the mercy of the partisan bloggers and campaign advertising, all of which is useful but ultimately has little to do with what the truth of the situation is.”

Ms. Kirtley’s comments should scare you, “Jane Kirtley, the Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota’s School of Journalism”.

This is the commonly held belief amongst journalists and educators. Ms. Kirtley is both, and thus doubling down on the hate. These people think they have a patent on opinions, and only they have the right to provide information to the public. Considering the Strib has become laughably known as a DFL mouthpiece it is funny Kirtley brings up the word partisan.

But the again, there is a war going on against bloggers, and it is being led by the MSM. Yes, we partisan political bloggers are trying to make a point and sway public sentiment, but how is that any different from any newspaper’s editorial board?