Are media part of the problem?

By Joe Spear
Free Press Editor

A potential breakthrough in the country's partisan gridlock was almost stymied by some media reports of the event.

The meeting between President Barack Obama and House Republicans in Baltimore last week is being heralded as a kind of event never before witnessed in American politics: Obama and Republicans talked civilly about their differences, even suggesting sincere efforts at compromise.

But you wouldn't know from reading this Associated Press report that made a lot of the major daily newspapers in the country, including The Free Press.

Here it is:
"In a remarkably sharp face-to-face confrontation, President Barack Obama chastised Republican lawmakers Friday for opposing him on taxes, health care and the economic stimulus, while they accused him in turn of brushing off their ideas and driving up the national debt."

Sounds like business as usual right?

But read this report from the same meeting by New York Times reporters Peter Baker and Carl Hulse.

"President Obama denied he was a Bolshevik, the Republicans denied they were obstructionists and both sides denied they were to blame for the toxic atmosphere clouding the nation’s political leadership. At a moment when the country is as polarized as ever, Mr. Obama traveled to a House Republican retreat on Friday to try to break through the partisan logjam that has helped stall his legislative agenda."

A paragraph or two later: "For an hour and 22 minutes, with the cameras rolling, they thrust and parried, confronting each other’s policies and politics while challenging each other to meet in the middle. Intense and vigorous, sometimes even pointed, the discussion nonetheless proved remarkably civil and substantive for a relentlessly bitter era, an airing of issues that both sides often say they need more of."

"Remarkably civil" in one report, and "remarkably sharp face-to-face confrontation" in another.

I watched the CNN extensive tape of the meeting, and can't believe the AP reporter watched the same meeting I watched. It was a rare and civil meeting that gave me hope as an American, that there is some common ground and some sincere willingness on both sides to reach that common ground and solve the problems.

The civil theme rang through on other commentary I've since watched on the event. Howard Kurtz on CNN's Reliable Sources detailed the unusual civility as did his guests.

Unfortunately, one guest noted, this kind of meeting, will probably never happen again, because it took away ammunition and fighting points from both sides in their war of rhetoric.

That will be extremely unfortunate. Nonetheless, I will award the first ever Free Press bipartisanship award to both House Republicans who invited Obama to the meeting, and agreed to allow cameras in, and Obama, who accepted the invitation even though it could have been a Daniel into the Lion's Den kind of situation.

Revolution in the air

By Joe Spear
Free Press Editor

When I made a reference to revolution in a recent editorial, the feedback was surprising, and slightly scary.

One comment came from a regular "My View" contributor who was appalled I made reference to hoping the next revolution wouldn't need "cannons." I guess it was sort of an off-hand reference to the American Revolution, but that the loose use, even if metaphorical, of weapons is certainly not my usual style. Seemed like a convenient crunch to give some spark to the opinion.

Such use leaves too much room for emotional interpretation in these times where shooting up workplaces and schools is all too frequent.

The other comment came from the other side, the dark side you might say: an anonymous sympathy card for my loss, and some hand-written scrawl saying something like, "If you didn't notice, the revolution has already started."

Kind of scary. Kind of creepy. As a writer, I will be more careful about my light treatment of weapons metaphors. Lesson learned, I guess.

In an interesting coincidence, this week, we also carried the story of a Blue Earth County deputy who made, he says, a joking reference to "shooting the place up" in reference to his unhappiness with a union contract. The sheriff's office didn't get the joke. He's been charged with a felony.

Tim Walz, and bigger issues in America

In 20 years in journalism, talking to politicians of all stripes, I think Tim Walz is one of the most straight forward elected officials I've ever met.

I don't agree with every one of his positions, but at least you know where he stands. And if he hasn't made up his mind on something, he tells you.

What's more, it doesn't seem like he cares if he loses the next election. I like that, and it's another rarity. His focus is on what he can do for his constituents in the time he has. That's rare.

He's a quick study. He's got a very quick mind to answer even sometimes off-base questions from journalists. He seems very knowledgeable. In the short time he's been in Washington, he seems to have grasped the flaws and benefits of the system.

He told The Free Press editorial board that he's not interested in the fighting words. One of his opponents, Allen Quist, basically said he was a "radical" more of a problem than terrorists. Walz didn 't even address that directly with the editorial board (previous elected officials we met with would have made that the first thing they spoke of), but instead, just kind of passed it off as "something he doesn't do."

Spending time with vitriolic fighting isn't in his game plan.

Why we don't favor East, West, Loyola etc

By Free Press Editor Joe Spear

It's been a longstanding buzz among the Mankato area's faithful sports fans that The Free Press somehow favors East, West, Loyola. We were once challenged with favoring Belle Plaine!

I've been on the end of phonecalls where fans have argued we favored East, another call where we favored West and other calls about favoring Loyola. All of which suggests to me we're doing a pretty good job of spreading the coverage out.

There is no intention to favor any one team. We would have no incentive to do that because we don't know the favorite teams of our subscribers or advertisers. Even if we did, we wouldn't do it. We're a newspaper, one of the last institutions in American where fairness is still discussed.

Still, the buzz persists.

The latest talk comes from an examination of Wednesday sports section. West girls basketball got the big front of section play with picture, even though they lost. East girls won of course, and just had a little write-up (although it was also on the front of the section.) How can this be? The Free Press must favor West, and they downplay East's victory, goes the talk

Well, first of all, when we assign a photographer and reporter to cover a game, we don't know who's going to win. Second, we don't have a photographer to staff every game every night. In fact, our night photographer has his hands full just getting to two of what could be dozens of games going on in the region.

We also select what to cover based on whether the game is in Mankato or at some distant location. Sending photographers to away games would take even more time away from hometown coverage.

Beyond that, Sports Editor Jim Rueda tries to spread around the coverage to be fair to all schools. Some might argue we should cover mostly East, West and Loyola because we're a Mankato newspaper. But they don't realize that half of our circulation is in Blue Earth and Nicollet counties and half is in the surrounding seven counties.

Again, we don't favor. We report sports in the fairest way possible. And we recognize the efforts of all the young people doing their best.

Conversation with a carpenter, potential governor

By Free Press Editor Joe Spear

Sen. Tom Bakk has a powerful position in state government as chairman of the Senate Tax Committee, but he often refers to himself as a carpenter, and he says, "carpenters know how to solve problems."

He has been traveling outstate Minnesota, though he is from the Iron Range, because, he says, he'll need to win the governor's race in rural Minnesota, the 1st and 7th congressional districts. He stopped at The Free Press Monday to talk with myself and political reporter Mark Fischenich.

When his office requested a meeting, I asked that the topic be focused on bipartisan solutions to Minnesota's problems. The senator certainly obliged us.

He thinks a Democratic governor from rural Minnesota has a better chance than one from the Twin Cities. I tend to agree. But he doesn't really talk political strategy all that much, except when it matters to getting things done. Last year, when the DFL and Gov. Tim Pawlenty were at odds over the state budget, Bakk was trying to talk to the governor, trying to give him some of what he wanted, while the DFL could get something they wanted.

Bakk proposed a tax credit for angel investors that would have offset proposed tax increases on high-income earners, thus giving Pawlenty a "no tax victory" by making the deal revenue neutral.

He's practical about such things, noting that when one side feels like it got run over, it will hold grudges, and it will take longer to mend those fences, take longer to get things done. Hence, the need to get the governor some of what he wants.

Bakk describes himself as a centrist, and quite frankly, he's the most centrist candidate I've seen of either party in a while. He has championed tax credits for small businesses, angel investor tax credits that he says may give employers an incentive to add jobs, a hallmark of his campaign. A tax credit may provide the small business the equity it needs in a project to get the bank to issue a loan, something Bakk says is still not happening all that much.

He had proposed last year giving businesses their sales tax exemptions up front, instead of making them pay and fill out a lot of forms for a refund. He says 40 percent of small businesses never apply for the refund because it's too much hassle. He still favors the idea, and it would go a long way to helping a lot of small business invest in capital equipment like computers and machinery.

He said the switchover of the way the state pays this would have cost the state $75 million, one-time money, but the proposal did not win support last year. This year, of course, the state has no money.

He's also realistic about the state budget situation. He says the state can neither tax, nor cut its way out of a potential $5.4 billion deficit, coming due in 2013. That's why he puts the emphasis on jobs, so as to hopefully get the tax revenue flowing again.

He has a few ideas that have merit on the budget fix, and you can tell he's thought through the political implications. At some point, he'll be offering those to both parties and the general public, but they are ideas, in my mind, that would be tough for both sides of the aisle to turn down.

Not bad for a carpenter.

Comics not always humorous

By Free Press Editor Joe Spear

Newspaper editors are easy targets when they change the comics.

So, for the last few days, I've fielded phonecalls and e-mails about our decision to change up our comic selection, replacing "For Better of For Worse" with a new comic called "Lola," and another called "Cul de Sac."

I'm visited by comic salesman once a year or so, and every once in a while one of them is a good enough salesman to give me enough courage do what needs to be done - change some content that some readers are emotionally attached to.

I replaced "For Better and For Worse" mostly because it was complete reruns going back to 20 years ago. There was no new material for at least a couple of years now. And as I run a "news"paper, I feel obligated to provide readers something new every once in a while.

I also reviewed the different demographics of our comics. We look at what comics appeal to what demographic. We have lots of comics that appeal to the family demographic, including "Zits" "Baby Blues" "Blondie" "Peanuts" "Between Friends," "Baldo" and "Red and Rover."

We have the comics that appeal to what I consider younger readers who don't mind a little spice or edginess in their comics. That would be "Dilbert," "Get Fuzzy," "Mother Goose and Grimm" and "Pearls Before Swine."

The new comic strip "Lola" is about the life of a woman in her late 70s who is living with her son and daughter-in-law. She's also a bit edgy. She reminds me of many a feisty older woman who have called me from time to time. She reminds me of the Irish mother from Montgomery who scolded me like a school boy, telling me I was going to tell her who ratted out her two fighting sons who made the news.

Anyway, I'm sure some will miss "For Better and For Worse," although she does have a Web site and it is interesting to know, in real life, the "For Better and For Worse" real life husband and wife are no longer together.

That had nothing with our decision, however.

I've learned the comic business is cutthroat with salesman often offering incredible deals if we will just dump one of their competitors' comics. It's a bit ironic that the business of comics is so serious. But I also know the business of changing up comics can be serious to readers.

All I can say is: lighten up. Try the new comics.