Fraters Libertas

Rage, Rage In Favor of the Dying of the Light

The Star Tribune's latest unsigned editorial on the Terri Schiavo case indicates that the "institutional voice" reflected in their work increasingly has less to do with their iconic stature and more to do with the fact it sounds like someone who is actually institutionalized may have written it. Prepare your most empathetic bed side manner for this seething, frothing tantrum:

But Americans should be embarrassed on her behalf to see Washington's right-wing radicals seize this permanently unconscious woman for a totalitarian fibfest.

And how can America's chief champions of "the sanctity of marriage" justify their brazen intrusion into the personal lives (by lives they of course mean "deaths" - SP) of Terri Schiavo and husband Michael?

And so it is that House Majority Leader Tom Delay, R-Texas, has seen fit to call Michael Schiavo's attempt to honor his wife's wishes (honor her by killing her) "an act of medical terrorism" and of "homicide" -- a characterization so vile it may qualify as slander.

It's a silly obstructionist game, and if American liberty means anything, it will soon end.

Thanks to Washington's bosses, the private business of a Florida man and his vegetative wife is headed for a trip through the federal court system. For Terri and Michael Schiavo it's likely to be a victory tour (You got that Terri? You're dead, you win!)

How can the champions of "small government" -- the very authors of this vulgar, tyrannical escapade -- possibly disagree?

Well, you could always ASK THEM and find out? Isn't that what journalists are supposed to do?

It's easy to mock the Star Tribune for this kind of output. And to suggest the new Conservative editorial voice they are looking to hire to balance their image should be recruited from the Kool Aid Report.

But the sobering reality remains, the Star Tribune is the monopoly newspaper in Minneapolis. It's by far the most dominant news outlet in all of the state of Minnesota. And the above is merely a sample of the extreme and misleading viewpoints they endorse and the gutter level of discourse they engage in from the editorial page. All of it hand delivered to the doorsteps and into the homes of hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans every blessed morning. Believe it or not, many of those Minnesotans (nearly half according to the last election) actually vote for Republicans. Many of these folks also hold moral beliefs in concert with Terri Shiavo's parents and siblings and support the House Republican attempts to overturn a single judge's order to starve that poor woman.

And the institutional voice of the dominant newspaper in the state disrespects them, ridicules them, castigates their motives, and calls them vile, brazen, vulgar, totalitarian, tyrannical radicals.

Editor Anders Gyllenhaal, we know the Star Tribune has its little firewalls set up here and there, and a layer of bureaucracy to deal with reader complaints, and a corrections policy and j-school degrees hanging on the walls, and for all that we're happy for you. But if you're ever up late at night wondering about conservatives and why they seem to hate your paper, let me ease your mind with this little hint.

That editorial right there - this is why they hate you. Now go back to sleep. Pleasant dreams.
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