Stop reading or buying the Star Tribune now, it's a biased right-wing tool of a NY investment firm

[dpbrown]

It ceased being a newspaper when it became a tool of Avista Capital Partners.

In 2007, the McClatchy Co. sold it for $530 million, under half of what they bought it for in 1998.

Since then it's become a reliable right-wing mouthpiece, and all of its talent has peeled off or been fired.

Dump your Star Tribune subscription now, if you haven't already.

The Star Tribune once provided an essential balance to biased right-wing editorial policy in St. Paul and in many outstate regions. Now it's just part of the problem.

The CEO of Avista Capital Partners, Thompson Dean, only contributes to Republicans, including to Rudy Giuliani’s PAC. Norm Coleman was the only Senate candidate to receive money from Giuliani’s PAC last election.

Thompson Dean was also a fundraiser for John McCain.

Giving any money to the Star Tribune right now, including by buying a single newspaper, is funding the right-wing machine that's trying to turn Minnesota red.

Supporting, reading, buying, or recommending the Star Tribune at this time is akin to sitting in front of your Alzheimer's grandmother saying over and over again, "Don't you remember me?"

Expect a similar result.

[Love Bug]

1. I quit buying the Strib after they endorsed Coleman

I quit buying/reading the Pioneer Press after they endorsed Bush.

All one has to do is read the Strib's coverage of the Senate race and recount/trials to see where their interests lie.

[kikiek]

18. Me too. I told them that also.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. The Strib does suck hard enough to bend light these days.

I have -- shamefully -- failed to cancel my subscription, mainly because I am hopelessly addicted to crossword puzzles. However, I can probably satisfy that habit in other ways. Thanks for the reminder. Tomorrow I shall cancel my subscription.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. That's what makes it so hilarious when the wingnuts who make online comments

keep referring to it as "the Red Star" and criticize it for its "liberal bias."

What's their idea of a good newspaper? The Ku Klux Klan Gazette?

[eyepaddle]

6. I don't think even that would be ignorant and hate-filled enough for them

I've just spent a few minutes reading through the comments on the State Union COntract, and the only thing I can deduce is that mony of the commenters simply want EVERYONE to suffer as much as possible--always.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. Yes, there are some mind-blowing combinations of mean and dumb

exhibited in those comments. They even give unfavorable reactions to undeniable facts.

One of the wingnuts once misinterpreted one of Debra Saunders' columns and started ranting against "San Francisco liberals." When I pointed out that Debra Saunders is a long-time far-right conservative, the comment received some unfavorable ratings. :wtf:

[eyepaddle]

8. Do you mind if I use that?

"ind-blowing combinations of mean and dumb..."

That nails it perfectly.

RipAnderson--we're looking at you, djstaloch, you to.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. Oh yeah, who knew there were so many nasty idiots in the Twin Cities

RipAnderson, the apologist for the insurance agencies. The various "Joes," perfect little followers for some fascist, and jstrong, whom I picture as some retired curmudgeon.

I just tried to comment on somebody's inanity but the Strib website keeps telling me I'm not registered, even though the upper leftthand corner says "Welcome (the name that I use over there)." Go figure.

[eyepaddle]

10. Somebody posted a comment along the lines of

"I see the guy with the 45 screen names is here today" and I busted out laughing at that.

I forgot my Strib password and just never really bothered to have them send me a new one.

[no name no slogan]

19. RipAnderson! There's a name I haven't heard in years!

I used to fight with him all the time back in the mid-90s when the Strib used to have a bulletin board (they might still, but I think they got rid of it). Believe it or not, he used to be more Arne Carlson-esque, but I guess he's gotten more wingnutty with time.

Thanks for the memory! :)

[dflprincess]

11. It's like Janine Garafalo said on Countdown last week

"These people have minds that can't process the truth."

This was after Keith showed the video of the guy who stood up at one of the "Tea Parties" and asked how many people there were making more than $250,000/year and when no on responded he then told them they didn't have to worry about Obama raising their taxes. You could almost hear the blood vessels bursting in their brains as they tried to understand his words.

[qb]

4. I remember years ago when I couldn't wait to dig into the morning paper.

Now as I walk past the green vending boxes I'm not even tempted to stop & read the headlines. Total crap.

[glinda]

5. Strib's conversion to Right-Wing paper has hurt MN deeply. Where are people like my

parents who do not use computers or those who are lower income or people who wish to get local info to go? The Strib has had more negative articles about Dems and given large amounts of space to promote Republicans in a positive light. I am very very sad to see what has become of a paper that I was very proud of. I never thought I would ever say it but I hope they close totally and hope something good rises from the ashes also that people like my parents can read and get informative rather than propagandist articles.

[question everything]

13. Not necessarily

It is making an effort to have both right and left syndicated columnists. Thus, they will have Krauthammer and E. J. Dionne. Ruth Marcus and George Will, etc. Even locally, they will have two opinions side by side. Same with their political cartoons.

The problem is that while traditionally liberal newspapers like the LA Times and the strib are making an effort to offer opinions from both side of the spectrum, the conservatives ones do not bother. Like CNN and Fox.

[glinda]

14. Strib places the positive spins for Repubs in prominent places in paper.

They bury basically the positive on Dems the majority of the time.

[Lucian]

12. I only read it for the travel and a&e sections.

Everything else in it is crap.

What is a good newspaper to read in MN these days? Now that the Strib is red, and the Pioneer Press endorsed Bush (I haven't read it since then), what else is there?

[mn9driver]

15. The Strib is in the process of Tombstoning its liberal commenters.

I've been knocked off over there a couple of times for calling right-wing lies exactly that. It's no longer worth the click.

[Deja Q]

16. I was incensed when they were going to offshore their graphic design division...

Then came the soliciting kids - who didn't understand what 'offshoring' was, but said that for every subscription sold, they'd get a reward and lamented on how their career goal in life were to become basketball players...

Trust me, I won't even look at their paper - much less anything else.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

17. I remember the Strib when the Cowles family owned it

One of the most reliably left newspapers in the country. Sad business, this.

[lindisfarne]

20. Support MN independent minnesotaindependent.com

[qb]

21. You can't even rely on their entertainment section any more.

I needed to find out movie times for the kids and didn't have internet access so I sacrificed 2 quarters for a paper. To my chagrin, most of the theaters listed only a web site, some listed phone numbers, and only a few had show times in the paper. Southdale doesn't bother listing in the Strib at all.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. Their arts coverage is terrible

Somehow the Portland Oregonian, a generally lousy paper, manages to have two classical music critics, cover nearly every music event in town, and review almost all the theater that is produced. Portland is one city instead of two, but it's about the size of St. Paul alone, so it's not as if it were East Podunk.