Star Tribune

Updated: Shortly after the Star Tribune reported that the faith-based Riverview Community Bank had been shut down by the state, we — like others — noticed that the paper’s online report deleted a reference to Mary Kiffmeyer, the former Secretary of State and current state representative who has close ties to the bank.

This is some extremely shoddy journalism from Mickey Kaus. The Slate blogger asks if “ACORN chicanery” elected Sen. Al Franken, who won a razor-thin 2008 race for the U.S. Senate after eight months of legal challenges. Kaus links a “tactfully phrased Minneapolis Star Tribune story” to argue that fraudulent votes might have stolen the election [...]

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.

Community papers can’t catch a break: As the Minneapolis paper formerly known at The Bridge shuts down — even, apparently, online — a paper that stopped publishing two years finds itself on the receiving end of a lawsuit. Also, to sidestep mayhem at health care forums, local social media experts are trying a more civil exchange online.

Here’s a nice break from gloom-and-doom stories about the demise of journalism: rare praise for a daily newspaper — specifically, our own Star Tribune. And I concur.

After yesterday’s Star Tribune piece on Rep. Keith Ellison’s pilgrimage to Mecca late last year, the 5th District Democrat is firing back, asking the paper for a correction in a letter to the editor today. The Strib article by Kevin Diaz reported that the congressman’s trip was paid for by the Muslim American Society of [...]

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.

The rapid devolution of print journalism gets regularly lamented for all the right reasons — among them the losses of investigative voices, institutional memories and checks on the powerful. A less-noted side-effect is cities’ loss of revenue from recycling newsprint.

William Dean Singleton, CEO of Media News, the St. Paul Pioneer Press’ parent company, says online pay models for news are the wave of the future. And in a new interview, he notes that the St. Paul paper is among his most profitable  properties using what he calls the “Media News model.”

Minnesotans have have had enough of Norm Coleman’s efforts to overturn the result of the U.S. Senate contest, a pair of new polls indicate. The Star Tribune’s Minnesota Poll found that 64 percent of respondents think Coleman should concede the race, while just 28 percent indicated that the Republican’s appeal to the state’s top court [...]