A Lapse with Letters — and a WWW Smackdown

Partisan Pique: In a Star Tribune letter to the editor entitled “Tainted by politics,” Andy Brehm on Wednesday chided columnist Nick Coleman for his essay on Paul Wellstone’s death saying he took “political cheap shots at the Minnesota senator who shares his last name.” But Brehm, who called the columnist’s “snide partisan attacks [...] inappropriate and in bad taste,” never disclosed his own partisan affiliations: he’s Sen. Norm Coleman’s former press secretary.

Strib Letters editor Tim O’Brien acknowledges he knew of Brehm’s history with Coleman, but including Brehm’s title “fell through the cracks.” While he takes full responsibility, he says everyone on the paper’s editorial page have been spread thin after recent buyouts, firings, and Dave Hage’s resignation announcement. “We’re really earning our paychecks.” He said he doesn’t think Brehm was trying to sidestep the paper’s ethical guidelines about letters. “I’m kicking myself about this,” he added, and joked, “This is not how I want to get in your media column.”Web Smackdown? MPR’s “In the Loop” wonders who’ll “rule the future of journalism,” MinnPost or The Daily Mole. While the sites will compete for audience, they don’t seem to be vying for the same turf. “MinnPost seems to be flaunting an all-star cast (names like Doug Grow, Jay Weiner, Britt Robson…it reads like the manifest of lifeboats from the ‘Titanic’ that appears to be the Twin Cities’ newspaper industry),” writes Jeff Horwich of former Strib publisher Joel Kramer’s endeavor. “[T]he Mole has attitude and a vibe of actual fun that is yet to emanate from the pages of MinnPost. And while the MinnPost is spending some ink justifying what is is not going to do, the Daily Mole looks less afraid to dwell in territory that, let’s face it, online audiences want to wallow in.”

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