Media

MnIndy video: Coleman’s staff ejects reporter from press conference

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign staff ejected a Minnesota Independent reporter from a press conference at campaign headquarters Wednesday afternoon. The MnIndy reporter made it as far as the inside of a small press conference room at a drab office park in St. Paul when a staffer asked who he represented and on that basis said the reporter would have to leave. In response to protests that MnIndy is a news outlet like others in the room, the staffer replied, “Right, and it’s funded by George Soros,” and escorted the reporter out. It’s the fourth time the senator’s campaign has denied access to local independent media at a media availability. Video (think “Blair Witch Project,” set in a boring office interior) after the jump. Spoiler alert: Norm’s door is extremely squeaky.

Mingle with the media: Join us at The UpTake’s fundraiser

We’ve been kicked out of Norm Coleman events together (The UpTake two times, MnIndy twice, including today). We’ve been handcuffed, dodged impact rounds and were maced by RNC cops together. And we’ve shared plenty of excellent news footage. So now it’s time to give something back to our good friends at The UpTake. This Friday, [...]

Shock-jock Baker: Media to blame in murder of transgender person

KTLK radio’s Chris Baker followed up his Nov. 14 comments about a transgender person being a “mutilated lesbian” with a tirade in which he blames the media — and transgender people themselves — for the murder of Latiesha Green in Syracuse, New York. He says “a majority of the blame does not lie with” the killer, but with the media who “enable people who need serious psychological counseling.” Now activists from Soulforce Q are trying to get on Baker’s show to discuss the issues.

Fox News on Car-ballot-gate: Old fictions die hard

As David Brauer and Emily Kaiser both point out, Michele Bachmann’s Tuesday appearance on Hannity & Colmes also included another “retread”: the now-disproven story about 32 ballots being left in Minneapolis election director Cindy Reichert’s car. Reichert says it never happened, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie swears the same, and even Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty [...]

Can we ‘presume’ the Star Tribune prefers Coleman over Franken?

Does the Star Tribune have it in for U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken? A look at the paper’s coverage over the past few weeks might suggest as much — from labeling the campaign’s efforts to delay certification of voting results “eleventh-hour maneuvering” to foregrounding a GOP talking point about today’s trip to Washington, D.C., by Franken. Or am I being “presumptuous”?

Bachmann-Palin confusion was behind New York Times error

In a not-exactly-rare correction, the New York Times acknowledged it incorrectly indicated that a statement by Rep. Michele Bachmann, praising President-Elect Obama, was uttered on Nov. 5 not Nov. 6. The reason for the error: The paper confused Sarah “Pals around with Terrorists” Palin, who made comments about Obama on Nov. 6, with Michele “anti-American” Bachmann.

U.S. Senate recount: The battle over rejected absentee ballots

What will happen to absentee ballots that were rejected as invalid by local election officials? That’s the question currently roiling the U.S. Senate contest between Norm Coleman and Al Franken as a state-mandated manual recount gets underway this week.

KTLK’s Baker calls transgender man ‘mutilated lesbian’

The day before protests nationally and locally against Proposition 8, the California constitutional amendment that bans gay marriage, right-wing radio host Chris Baker took to the airwaves to call a transgender man a “mutilated lesbian.” KTLK’s Baker called Thomas Beattie, a trangendered man who’s pregnant, “a freak” on Nov. 14 as well. Baker’s contributions to [...]

Slideshow: Prop 8 protests in Minneapolis

On Saturday, thousands of people across the country — in cities like Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington and New York — marched in protest of California’s Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that overrode a state Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex couples to marry. Here in Minnesota, rallies were held in Duluth, Minneapolis and St. Paul. Around 1,000 people gathered near the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis (curiously, the Star Tribune’s story estimates the crowd size at 700, while its subhead put the count at 500). Speakers included OutFront Minnesota’s Kelly Lewis; Jeremy Hanson, an aide to Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, and Minneapolis City Council Member Gary Schiff, among others. Photographer Tony Webster was there and gave us permission to publish a slideshow of the rally.

The Rake/MNspeak hybrid: SecretsoftheCity.com launches

When I interviewed MNspeak founder Rex Sorgatz in spring 2007, he commented on his 2006 sale of his placeblogging site MNspeak to the Bartel family, owners of The Rake (and, formerly, City Pages): “My lingering concern with the site now is actually that they haven’t changed anything (except adding more ads)… I hoped someone would invest in it, push it in new directions, invent new stuff.” Last night, those long-awaited changes have occurred — and MNspeak is no more.