Media

Citizentube has ranked the politicians and political parties that use YouTube the most, and found that Republicans are using the online video service much more effectively than Democrats. At the top of the tubes is Minnesota’s Rep. Michele Bachmann, whose YouTube channel has the seventh most subscribers out of 430 Congress members who have channels. [...]

The full meaning of Thursday morning’s U.S. Supreme Court decision (pdf) in the landmark Citizens United case may take a while to discern. In the meantime, Minnesota’s bit part: Two Gopher State free-speech cases are cited in the court’s opinions.

Press covering Michele Bachmann’s remarks at next month’s Tea Party Nation convention will apparently be limited to five news outlets running the gamut from right-leaning to far-right-falling-over. By contrast, Sarah Palin has opened her address to all media. 

The Daily Caller, a news website that makes its debut today as a sort of right-wing Huffington Post, carries a feature by Gov. Tim Pawlenty on his balanced-budget amendment idea. Pawlenty is the only GOP presidential contender whose name appears on the initial main page of the site, which is founded and edited by conservative commentator and [...]

Al Franken recently sought out songwriting help from Orrin “Eight Days of Hannukah” Hatch, the Minnesota senator tells the ECM Publishers editorial board.

Tim Pawlenty is to Republican events what Ne-Yo is to R&B: the ubiquitous “featured” performer. In fact, the Minnesota governor appears to have outstripped the singer-songwriter in racking up special-guest appearances.

Al Franken paved the way. Has progressive talk radio become the Democratic Party’s new farm league for the U.S. Senate? Maybe so, if the chatter about Ed Schultz running to replace North Dakota’s retiring Byron Dorgan turns out to be more than just talk.

Fans of Minnesota Public Radio’s The Current — including even toddlers at the station’s Rock the Cradle events — helped convince a state appeals court that the deal that created the station in 2004 should stand despite a legal challenge.

From Michele Bachmann urging fellow healthcare reform opponents to “slit our wrists” to Tony Sertich warning about “www.anybody.com” running wild at the state Capitol, you have the Minnesota Independent to thank — or blame — for foisting these quotations on the world this year.

Two days after the Star Tribune carried Garrison Keillor’s War-on-Christmas op-ed, the paper prints a “Counterpoint” by Mitch Pearlstein, president of the Center of the American Experiment. Pearlstein calls Keillor “nasty” but “brilliant” — and agrees that Christmas is under seige.