David Brauer

MinnPost’s David Brauer takes the Star Tribune to task today for failing to credit Minnesota Public Radio on an MPR story that the Strib got via the Associated Press. Irony alert: Frustrated by just such uncredited swiping, the Strib banned local media from picking up its stories via AP earlier this year. Double-irony alert: Yesterday, [...]

Brett Favre mania has struck the mainstream media, with the former Packer’s signing with the Vikes getting big play at the dailies, MinnPost and local TV newscasts. But unbeknownst to many, Favre may have landed a local sideline job — writing for the Star Tribune.

Identical shots of Sunday’s implosion of Minneapolis’ Lowry Avenue bridge grace the covers of both dailies… just a day before both papers run the same New York Times story on Iran on their covers. Plus, Fargo’s Roxana Saberi inks a book deal, and the Examiner(s) examined, inside.

In its humble return, this edition of the intermittent Media Monitor catalogues: Ed Kohler’s latest analysis of City Pages (charged with rampant photo-swiping), a look at how a local Black History Month supermarket promotion has gone national, an acknowledgment of the power of “Brautweets,” and more.

“The recount has not even started in Minnesota and somehow Al Franken has already shaved nearly 500 votes off the incumbent lead.” So said Sean Hannity on Fox’s Hannity & Holmes yesterday, in a segment featuring Gov. Tim Pawlenty. While Pawlenty pointed out concerns about “statistical irregularities” in the changing vote tally in the race between Al Franken and Norm Coleman, he repeatedly said there’s no evidence of wrongdoing. Still, Hannity continued questioning that: “Is the fix in? … Do you suspect cheating is going on?”

What Hannity — and to a lesser degree, Pawlenty — fail to acknowledge is the history of vote tallies changing pre-certification. And both pass on the lie that Minneapolis’ election director found, as Hannity erroneously puts it, “32 absentee ballots hiding in the trunk of her car — all of them conveniently going to Al Franken.”

Today’s media round-up: The Secret Service warned mainstream media sources about alleged threats against them by RNC protesters (this independent media site didn’t get such tips). A look at how Twitter served as the “police scanner of the 21st century newsroom.” And more.

Sarah Jane… Coleman? A reader tips MinnPost’s David Brauer off to a big-time goof at KSTP in March. In its coverage of the premature release of jailed Symbionese Liberation Army member Sarah Jane Olson, the station showed an image of another ’60s-era radical — Norm Coleman, then an anti-war protester. Watch the video.

On the objectivity [...]

Let me be the first to admit: Media stories about other folks in the media tend to be self-aggrandizing, self-referential, and just plain self-absorbed. This isn’t to say that I don’t think there are important media stories to be had out there. The corporatization of media makes it more important than ever that the public [...]

WI progressive daily stops printing: Madison, Wisconsin’s 90-year-old afternoon newspaper is no more — at least not in print. The Capital Times published its last print edition on Saturday; it will continue to report online news as well as put out two free tabloids, which will be inserted into the morning paper, the Wisconsin State [...]