Over the weekend my wife and discussed the possible termination of our subscription to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. For me, an editorial that appeared last Friday was the final nail in a coffin that's been under construction for several years. I thought that I might have to do a bit of persuading in order to convince my wife that the time had come to dump the Strib, but she also has reached the point where the daily aggravations brought about by the paper are not worth its benefits. We haven't decided to completely do away with it quite yet, as we shall continue to subscribe to the Sunday edition. But I have a hunch that it's only a matter of time before our household becomes a Strib free zone.
My post on this topic last Friday elicited some excellent e-mail. From Tom:
Today I contemplated writing my first letter to the editor of the Star Tribune. (I gave up writing letters to the editor back in Cincy, I like the immediacy of talk radio). I was to start the letter with..."The hardest working people in the Twin Cities are the typesetters at the Star Tribune printing plant. Somehow, these people are able to translate the crayon scribblings emanating from the editorial page play pen into the printed editorial I read in today's Strib...".
You caught the essence of the editorial. Since you couldn't go much further without retching, did you see the part about the Bush Administrations "criminal lack of interest". Ponder this for a moment-a major metropolitan daily has just accused the President of the United States with acting criminally. Where is the vaunted chilling effect the Patriot Act has on the other side?
The Clintons had meetings, they were "interested" and they were in high dungeon when people were murdered: 1. World Trade Center I; 2. Khobar Towers; 3. Two different attacks on embassy's (official US grounds) in Africa; 4. The attack on the USS Cole. Last week at my company, a manager famous for having lots of meetings produced yet another dismal year results wise. He was fired. That's what grown ups do when individuals fail to take action and have lots of meetings rather than getting their hands dirty fixing the problem.
Peg advises that giving up the paper has its downsides:
read your post about the strib - and let me announce, about 4 weeks ago, i decided i could NOT take it any longer, and i canceled my subscription.
i've been reading a daily newspaper since i was 5 (i'm 52 now) .... but i could NOT take it a day longer. why should i give TEN CENTS to this rag of an excuse for a newspaper, i asked myself.
not getting it, from a theoretical standpoint, is fabulous.
nevertheless, i should tell you that i miss the obits, i miss bits of the local news, and i miss the advertising! (i never know now when bloomingdale's is gonna have a sale.)
i'm wavering about going back (i actually do need to look at the paper on occasion for my work.)
and it makes me REALLY sad that there is not a local paper with some decent writing & level headed reporting/op eding for us out there.
sigh.
Hmmm....A local paper with decent writing, solid reporting, and a balanced editorial page? A wish that I'm sure many of us share Peg. But with the advent of the internet at least you have alternative sources out there. Without the availability of my daily paper I know that I'm going to be relying on Spitbull even more than usual.
I'm also heartened by the fact that I'm not the only one who's reached the end of their rope with the liberal bias that they have been forced to put up with on a daily basis. Deacon of Power Line renown, also says that Enough is enough:
My family has been subscribing to the Post since my parents moved to D.C. in the late 1930s. I have been reading the paper for almost 50 years. My earliest recollection of reading is sounding out the word "morning" that appeared above the column of legendary Post sportswriter Shirley Povich, called "This Morning." But I'm going to cancel my subscription. I should be able to grab the sports section in the morning without first seeing a ridiculous headline that causes me to start my day angry. With the Post, that's no longer possible.
Amen brother.
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