Star Tribune scrubs Kiffmeyer’s name from stories on faith-based bank closure

“To that, Serres said he wanted to focus more on the “God stuff,” instead of Kiffmeyer’s ties to the bank, which he feels fewer people know about.”

And far fewer still will know about it thanks to this editorial decision to protect a prominent Republican. As an editor and writer for over 30 years, I find Serres’ explanation laughable, if not downright deceitful. Or has the craft of journalism fallen that far? Bank President Kiffmeyer’s name not only should have been in the story, it should have been in the lead and headline.

Agreed. Kiffmeyer’s involvement with this (former) controversial bank should be central to the story.

Evidently, someone from her camp got wind of this story and demanded her name be removed and the papers caved. That’s the only explanation I would deem plausible, though one that paints the Star Tribune & Pioneer Press is a very poor light.

Guess she didn’t want to be associated with failure…imagine that.

Do we REALLY think the media is not state run?
Wag the Dog, or in Kiffmeyer’s instance, Wag the God.
How could an even halfway credible journalist think that a prominent politician’s prominent role in a failed bank that cost taxpayers money to buy up is not relevant?

[...] more here. Posted by Chris Roush [...]

I’m not convinced there was something nefarious here. Leaving Kiffmeyer’s ties out seems like questionable news judgment and it certainly protected her, but I don’t see the evidence the reporters are being deceitful in their explanations or attempting to play political favorites. An honest mistake seems much more likely.

I am happy to get the full story about this, finally.

So the Strib tried to keep a GOP’ers name clean? Seems like the GOP should stop calling the Strib left leaning?

So the bankrupt and FAIL strib did not report on Kiffy’s bank
connection. How much do they owe her?

Cutting to fit the print space is a common deadline practice.

Slashing 18 words can make the difference in getting a story to fit the space. On deadline a story sometimes has to be trimmed by, say, 17 lines out of 62. When that happens reporters who are around can do it themselves. Otherwise their copy gets cut by a copy editor, who try as she may doe snot know the story as well and may make cuts that the writer (whose name is on the piece) will dislike.

The best way to do this is by tightening paragraphs that have a few characters or words in a line, known as “killing widows and orphans.”

Each line saved means about five words so when a line has just two letters or one word, tightening one or more sentences saves more ideas.

The question to ask is the reporter’s reason for making sure print matches online, instead of letting online run longer…..his policy? Management policy?

Or is this, as at most newspapers, an automated function so that when the print version is updated the online version is automatically updated to match the changes, including cuts for space.

During a day’s press run there will be various editions of the same issue and they will not match because over time the available facts change. The article on the sports contest that was half over for the bulldog edition will, by the four star final, be over and the story revised to show the final score and interesting plays in the second half.

Cutting political affiliations or business connections may make the print it the space, but is usually not the smartest thing to cut. But cutting details is a reality and on deadline the quality of choices made on what to cut may not be the most carefully thought through…..

but of course! They are a large part and parcel of mainstream media, who have long ago lost their objectivity and are no longer the informants for the people. It is why the paper is going DOWN. My only complaint is that it is taking too long to fold their crappy, half-reported, half-manipulated paper!

Shameful Kiffmeyer used religion to milk people of their hard earned money. I wish she would just leave our state

Wait a minute, why did God remove his blessing from this bank and be extension Kiffmeyer? Oh my gosh someone must have sinned. Who’s been watching Mary lately?

[...] by Phoenix Woman on October 31, 2009 The Minnesota Independent’s Paul Schmelzer catches the Star Tribune scrubbing a key fact from a story on a local bank closure — Mary [...]