Over the course of last year, when the Star Tribune metro columnists and editorial board were engaged in full frothing rage against all things conservative or Republican, we noted with incredulity/amusement that they seemed to be going out of their way to alienate a substantial portion of their potential customer base. Through biased, incompetent, inaccurate reporting and hyperbolic, ranting editorials the Star Tribune's message of hate and exclusiveness was relayed loud and clear to the 48% of Minnesotans who didn't believe voting for Bush in '04 meant endorsing a "narrow, perverted vision" (or that YOUR SCHOOLS ARE BURNING! or whatever).
We've naturally curtailed commenting on the belches coming out of the Star Tribune. Anyone who is paying attention to the local press, and who is intellectually honest, already knows it's happening and us pointing it out serves no better purpose than us pointing out that we breathe air and drink water. (Sorry to kill your next two blogging ideas, Atomizer).
We do still read the Star Tribune on occasion, particularly the sport page. And this week I was amused to see the effort to alienate the customers extends now into even this refuge from the free fire zone of the editorial pages. Check out this from columnist-for-life Patrick Reusse, commentary on why underperforming Vikings QB Brad Johnson wasn't booed enough on Sunday:
That serves to reaffirm that many Vikings fans are phonies at best, and overly fond of the idea of having a white quarterback at worst.
If you were among the thousands sitting there in silence as the offense stumbled through the second half Sunday, and want to claim you wouldn't have been screaming for Daunte's neck in the same circumstance, you are lying and you know it.
The Vikings fans are phonies, racists, and liars, according to the Star Tribune's lead sports columnist.
Professional football is, of course, the most popular sport in the country. The Vikings are by far the most popular team in town. Despite the lack of affection returned, people love the Vikings and love to watch the games on Sunday. And they love to read about the Vikings in the paper, as anyone familiar with the spike in single copy sales on Mondays following Vikings games, will attest.
Yet Reusse sees fit to utilize his precious column space, not writing about the actual game he's supposed to be covering or the team itself, but savaging the fans (his readers!), based on no more evidence than his own prejudices and his expert analysis of booing behavior.
Reusse's disdain toward the customers isn't a new phenomenon. A recent example came just a couple of weeks ago where he was working out his internal demons with this comment, again about the significance of booing behavior. This time not complaining that the fans didn't boo enough, but that they booed too much in the direction of an underperforming punter:
Followers of the Vikings are a collection of ungrateful louts.
Definition of lout: an awkward and stupid person. Unfortunately, the target of this booing happened to be white or Reusse might have had another opportunity to call someone else a racist.
Reusse is also a fixture on KSTP-AM and last week I heard him bitching about how he "hates" winter sports, particularly basketball and hockey. He said he used to love to go to Gopher's men's basketball games at Williams arena, but now goes only when he "has to" in order to write a column. What a despicable admission from someone employed for the sole purpose of enhancing the knowledge/entertainment of those who love those very sports.
Reusse's bored and contemptuous mindset toward his job is that of a sheltered union employee working for a monopoly. You can disrespect and ridicule the customers, then laugh and cash that fat paycheck every two weeks. The customers will be back, what other choice do they have? And what is his employer going to do, fire him? (Cue the union shop steward's laughter).
Bill Simmons is one of the most talented sports writers in the business today. He provides critical, yet always insightful and entertaining commentary about sports. Probably because he still loves sports as much as the fans he's writing for. He is currently employed by EPSN.com, primarily because he couldn't get hired by any traditional newspapers. In an interview earlier this year he discussed the reasons:
The bottom line is that newspaper unions have killed this business--writers stay too long and never leave, and young writers who would kill to have their jobs never have a chance. Quick, how many Boston columnists have been hired in the past 10 years at one of the two papers? Here's your answer--Howard Bryant and Jackie MacMullan.
So when someone like (Dan) Shaughnessy is bitching behind the scenes that I (or any other internet columnist)"never go in the clubhouse," well, you know what? I would have loved to have gotten a column that way. But all the dead weight was blocking my way.
Clearly, I was good enough to do this for a living, but there was no way I was every getting a chance doing it conventionally. That's what pisses me off. I never even had a real chance. I mean, this is the only industry where companies PAY PEOPLE TO LEAVE. Look at what just happened at the Herald [now at the Globe, too] - they had to spend four years worth of salaries to dump all their dead weight. This is a good system? If I suck for the next two years, you know what happens? ESPN doesn't renew my contract and I'm unemployed. With newspapers, you could basically hand in scribble for 20 years and they have to keep paying you. It's bad business. That's why so many newspapers will be going under soon, if they aren't already.
Make sense to me. But will it ever make sense to the other awkward and stupid racists cheering for the Vikings? Maybe only after they realize there are other places they can go for their sports journalism needs without getting taken for granted and abused.
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