Media Monitor: Is Target a comment-killer?

Killing critical comments: Did Target, having just killed its program of awarding points to Facebook users who post positive comments about the stores, have a role in getting some 350 comments deleted from a Star Tribune column that told of a woman’s rude treatment at a Plymouth store? Mpls.St.Paul’s Brian Lambert, who caught the deletion, writes that perhaps there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for the change at Nick Coleman’s Thursday column. “Maybe a Nigerian-born cyber virus wormed its way into the Strib system and zapped everything using the word ‘Target.’ [...] Or . . . maybe . . . this was what it walks like and quacks like . . . an exercise in preemptive censorship designed to avoid offending a major source of revenue.” His requests for comment from the paper have gone unanswered, as has the same opportunity presented by top journalism blogger, Jim Romenesko. He’s so far gotten only two comments, including one that suggests the Strib may respond — “[a]s soon as they clear it with Target HQ.”

Broadcast feeling budget pinch for RNC, too: Like the print news industry, broadcast is struggling with tight budgets as news teams plan for coverage of the Democratic and Republican national conventions, reports Broadcasting & Cable. But from the sounds of it, local stations aren’t as bad off as KUSA in Denver: The Gannett station is enlisting salepeople to both write news stories and drive the shuttle bus between HQ and the Democratic National Convention venue. B&C writes that Fox 9 will liveblog the proceedings using Twitter, and they’ll be sending a 3-person web team to produce “somewhat raw, somewhat edgy” videos. And KSTP has reportedly instituted a no-time-off policy for employees during the convention.

RNC U: The University of Minnesota has just launched a website for media outlets coming to cover the RNC. Mostly university PR, it does have a few clips by available experts, from the oft-quoted Larry Jacobs to Ph.D. student Rebecca Kuehl, who’s researched how Oprah has worked for or against Barack Obama’s campaign.