No Clue

As readers of my blog know, I have no affection for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Indeed, if I did not need to read the paper for work, you would not find me among their subscribers. (I will say, however, that the paper is quite handy for carpeting the floors of Mr. Mollo, Keets and Shelly's cages.)

Today I read a column by Nick Coleman, a man who refuses to expand the boundaries of his small world, that ignorantly insults one of the finer bloggers in the blogosphere.

Coleman does not identify Power Line by name, but anyone familiar with the back and forth between the Strib and Power Line will be able to identify it. The insults to the rest of us are obvious!

Do bloggers have the credentials of real journalists? No. Bloggers are hobby hacks, the Internet version of the sad loners who used to listen to police radios in their bachelor apartments and think they were involved in the world.

Bloggers don't know about anything that happened before they sat down to share their every thought with the moon. Like graffiti artists, they tag the public square -- without editors, correction policies or community standards. And so their tripe is often as vicious as it is vacuous.

Last week, one fashionable Minnesota blogger -- a bank vice president who is getting a lot of ink and TV time lately -- posted a scurrilous piece about U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton, calling him, "Minnesota's contribution to the psychiatric profession."

Whoa. Maybe bank vice presidents never need counseling. But they sure must need more to do. This suddenly renowned bank vice president posted his ishy Dayton item at 10:30 a.m. on a weekday, making me wonder exactly what it is a bank vice president does.

Yep. Only journalists getting the big bucks from an important newspaper like the Strib can have access to facts and opinions that have any validity, right, Nick?

And while even factory workers get a break now and then, bank executives aren't allowed ten minutes to take the time to insert a thought into their blog - right, Nick?

And, I could be incorrect here, but I thought that Mark Dayton has admitted to having counseling due to his addiction difficulties. Personally, while I do not like to draw attention to an individual's private life and health, it seems that Power Line was only indicating that Dayton sometimes ventures into the "touchy-feely" aspect of politics. Anyone deny this? Seems to me that the truth is a defense.

I wish I could say that Nick Coleman is the only small minded individual at the Strib, the only one who thinks that you must get credentials before you can have access to the truth and reasonable opinion.

Unfortunately - Coleman is only one small part of a much larger problem.

Comments

[Eskimo]

Typical of the media elite. So what is the credential of a real journalist I ask? Dan Rather? Jason Blair? Considering the credibility hits that the vaunted profession of journalism has taken of late, for this guy to make those kinds of statements is chutzpa of the first order.

I would use his column as the main lining of Mr. Mollo's cage. At least it has some use!

Cheers

[Kerry(yes,really)]

"So, Mr. Van Gogh. Do you have credentials? what is you certification for claiming to be a painter? And you, Mr. Newton. Is it true you have no degrees of any kind? And you claim to be the inventor of, what is it, calculus? Ha.

[Robert Blair]

I am amazed that Bloggers have not adopted the kids game hero, Pajama Sam, as their emblem.

He is a little guy who saves the world from the curse of badness and chaos - in his pajamas. The voice is espeically cute, being the same voice actress who does Marge Simpson.