Minnesota Independent: News. Politics. Media. » Nick Coleman

Brauer: Strib’s Kersten, Coleman to lose columns

Paul Schmelzer — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:58:27 +0000

MinnPost’s David Brauer, who has documented the financial woes at the Star Tribune better than anyone, writes that a memo went out at the paper today revealing that the paper’s conservative and liberal columnists, Katherine Kersten and Nick Coleman, may be losing their columns. Both can keep jobs at the paper as reporters. Brauer writes, “To put it mildly, that would be a stretch for Kersten, who has never held such a journalism job. Expect a gigantic eruption from the right wing.” He says management’s buyout memo says they’re seeking “up to three” metro columnists — gossip columnist CJ? James Lileks? — and “up to one” editorial cartoonist to take buyouts (Steve Sack?).

Here’s more details of the memo.

Video: Strib’s Nick Coleman on media exclusion from Sen. Coleman event

Paul Schmelzer — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:46:03 +0000

While the Minnesota Independent and The UpTake were barred entry from Sen. Norm Coleman’s “press availability” today, Star Tribune columnist Nick Coleman made it inside and gave The UpTake’s Chuck Olsen first word about what went on. Sen. Coleman said he’ll no longer run negative attack ads, but the topic of who’s buying his suits didn’t come up in questioning.

Asked about independent media being kicked out of today’s press conference, he said, “It’s interesting that politicians and public officials may resent these citizen journalists and self-described journalists. … I don’t really get the distinction that was being made, except that politicians on the defensive in a time of crisis like this may just want to make it as simple as possible and cut out the people they feel are ‘partisan.’ But that’s a two-edged sword because a lot of the politicians and public officials may have their own partisan citizen journalists and bloggers who are taking their side. … I guess once you do that, then it’s fair game.”

MnIndy Video: Independent media ‘not welcome’ at Coleman ‘media availability’

Paul Schmelzer — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:03:47 +0000

An Oct. 9 press release from campaign staffer Tom Erickson said that Sen. Norm Coleman would “hold a media availability” Friday morning. But when I arrived, Chuck Olsen of the citizen-videoblogging group The Uptake had already been refused entry. When I tried to walk in, Erickson barred me entry as well, stating that the event, held in Coleman’s campaign office, was for “credentialed” media only. When I asked how one gets such credentials, he said that only “legitimate” media were welcome. As journalists from local media filed past — Star Tribune columnist Nick Coleman, MinnPost reporter Joe Kimball, TPT host Eric Eskola — Coleman staffers refused to share what criteria is used to determine what makes a news operation legit.

Watch Olsen’s video of the incident here. Larger video here.

City Pages “Best of” issue: Media notables

Paul Schmelzer — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:02:20 +0000

After a technical glitch kept City Pages’ “Best of” edition offline awhile, one of its winners, the blog Mediation, offered a quick tweet: “I think it takes guts to not have your biggest issue of the year online on time and then go after vita.mn instead. Well done, CP.” Now that it’s up — and Mediation’s honor still a part of it — here’s an utterly incomplete list of the media standouts:

Best columnist: Nick Coleman. I agree: This longtime Stribber “found a cause big enough to support his righteous outrage” in the 35-W collapse. Can’t wait to see the ipecac-like effect this has on rightwing bloggers, who already rack up thousand-word screeds on their dislike of Coleman.

Best weatherperson: “Filthy rich” Paul Douglas

Best (non-TV) weather person: In a wide, wide field of possiblities, the nod goes to Jimmy “Dutch” Gaines of Dude Weather for his “hilarious skewering of the cult of the ‘meteorologist.’”

Best citizen-based media outlet: Duh. The UpTake.

Best local website: MNspeak. I like it too, for the info and odd assortment of personalities, but shouldn’t technology play a role in a best-site honor? As its creator Rex Sorgatz told me last year, MNspeak hasn’t implemented any site updates since he sold it in 2006; by outward appearances, at least, that still seems to be the case. (A biased aside: for sheer technical weirdness, my vote would go to my old employer, the Walker Art Center, for its new site for teens.)

Best local blog: Mediation. I agree on the choice, but City Pages fails to mention the entire point of Taylor Carik’s site — media — and seems clueless about his Tumblr template: “[H]is stripped-down site simply offers links to other web pages he finds interesting, with perhaps a sentence or two of comment, as if he’s doing this simply as a public service.”

Nick Coleman on the ultimate answer for peace in Iraq

Leigh Pomeroy — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 17:08:47 +0000

“Drop Bachmann on Baghdad,” he says

From Nick Coleman’s January 11 column in the Strib:

All that nonsense about the Iraq Study Group was a waste of time, as was the 2006 election, in which Americans thought they were expressing disapproval of the war.

more inside

As it turns out, all we needed was to get Baghdad Bachmann into the fray to find out what to do. I don’t know why we didn’t think of it long ago: Michele goes to Mesopotamia and we get a solution! She is very sweet to offer, and she should be deployed as soon as possible, so we can get this thing wrapped up.

In case that’s not enough, we’ve heard the military is already planning the super-ultimate weapon if the limited Bachmann bomb is not enough: The Bush-Bachmann Baghdad Bunker Busting Big Boomer.