[Speed Gibson,
Sunday February 20, 2005 at 9:53pm]
Wrong Section
Today's Minneapolis Star Tribune has two Opinion sections, the usual OpEx and today, the Money & Business Section. The latter features a puff piece on State Attorney General Mike Hatch.
With a large picture of somber, reflective Mr. Hatch in a dark business suit inside the Capitol, the article describes his many actions taken against many of the largest health care providers in Minnesota. One would expect that such an article, appearing in the Business pages, would largely focus on these businesses. Instead, Hatch's efforts are the theme and presented very positively. Even the negatives have that "whistleblower" / "David and Goliath" air about them. As I said, it's a puff piece.
Look, it's their paper, and the publishers have every right to print this. It simply should have been part of the OpEx, not presented as some sort of impassive analysis. So let's just file this under "we're objective" for the next time we discuss media bias.
Inside, we have another opinion piece, again with little business relevance as written. "Let's make education a class act" by Fred Zimmerman discusses a number of points about our education system, some of them conservative, like in-classroom discipline. Even so, it, too belonged in the OpEx section.
These are clear examples of what I believe is a not uncommon practice in this paper, perhaps many others.
With a large picture of somber, reflective Mr. Hatch in a dark business suit inside the Capitol, the article describes his many actions taken against many of the largest health care providers in Minnesota. One would expect that such an article, appearing in the Business pages, would largely focus on these businesses. Instead, Hatch's efforts are the theme and presented very positively. Even the negatives have that "whistleblower" / "David and Goliath" air about them. As I said, it's a puff piece.
Look, it's their paper, and the publishers have every right to print this. It simply should have been part of the OpEx, not presented as some sort of impassive analysis. So let's just file this under "we're objective" for the next time we discuss media bias.
Inside, we have another opinion piece, again with little business relevance as written. "Let's make education a class act" by Fred Zimmerman discusses a number of points about our education system, some of them conservative, like in-classroom discipline. Even so, it, too belonged in the OpEx section.
These are clear examples of what I believe is a not uncommon practice in this paper, perhaps many others.