Every election season it usually doesn't take too long for one political candidate or political party to accuse The Free Press of bias or favoritism in coverage of candidates.
Sometimes, it may look like we're covering one side more than the other. Believe me, we really try to play it pretty even, and we rely on our reporters to tell us why they think a certain event should be covered and why one can be listed in our campaign notebook as an item of interest.
Local newspapers must focus on local people. So the local candidates will get top priority in coverage in many, but not all cases. Relevance to our readership is another consideration. A candidate discussing local government aid might get more attention than one speaking say on U.S. foreign policy.
Above all, we must focus on information that will be useful to our voters. I'm always amazed how candidates want to get coverage for every stump speech they make, even if it's the same one time after time, but are less willing to answer hard questions about their voting record.
But we know the public and our readers want us to be fair in our coverage and that is what we strive to do with the added criteria of local relevance.
One thing we want to make clear to all candidates: We don't endorse any candidates for any office. We discontinued our endorsement practice in the 2008 election.
We don't want to be viewed as "kingmakers" and suggest that our endorsement would somehow translate to our readers feeling we favor one candidate over the other in news coverage. The editorial page opinion decisions were and are always made separate from the decisions on coverage.
It doesn't mean however, we won't take it upon ourselves to criticize a particular candidate's position on an issue.
Our readers expect us to use our knowledge of the issues from covering things for decades to inform them about the impact policies may have on them.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
Riverfront Park fireworks
From where I was sitting Sunday night, the Riverfront Fireworks were a hit.
One tip: don't sit behind the street lights, they will dull the full effect of the fireworks. I'm guessing the streetlights can't be turned off for safety reasons.
But there was plenty of room for pulling up a chair at Riverfront Park, even when the band was still playing.
I parked a few blocks away on 4th Street and had no problem getting out. The traffic seemed fairly well dispersed. The crowd estimate was about 5,000 at the park, with a capacity to comfortably hold twice that amount.
The allowance of alcohol in coolers didn't seem to create any problems. Everyone seemed pretty well-behaved. The music could be heard fairly well in front of the bandstand, but not off to the side, probably good by design.
Lots of folks watched from their homes and their yards and parked at different places around the city. The map the city provided offered ratings of the view from various places around town. That was a good idea.
The map was published big in the Valley Section of Saturday's Free Press and online.
All in all, the new location for fireworks worked well, and is worth considering doing it there again next year.
One tip: don't sit behind the street lights, they will dull the full effect of the fireworks. I'm guessing the streetlights can't be turned off for safety reasons.
But there was plenty of room for pulling up a chair at Riverfront Park, even when the band was still playing.
I parked a few blocks away on 4th Street and had no problem getting out. The traffic seemed fairly well dispersed. The crowd estimate was about 5,000 at the park, with a capacity to comfortably hold twice that amount.
The allowance of alcohol in coolers didn't seem to create any problems. Everyone seemed pretty well-behaved. The music could be heard fairly well in front of the bandstand, but not off to the side, probably good by design.
Lots of folks watched from their homes and their yards and parked at different places around the city. The map the city provided offered ratings of the view from various places around town. That was a good idea.
The map was published big in the Valley Section of Saturday's Free Press and online.
All in all, the new location for fireworks worked well, and is worth considering doing it there again next year.
Friday, July 2, 2010
New face of blogs
We're in the process of making our blogs a little easier to find and hoping you can access what we believe to be some added value to all the news we are now providing in print and online.
One of the best ways to access all blogs at once so you can find the writer you're looking for is simply to go to the green navigation bar at the left side of our website and find "Free Press Blogs" and then click on it.
You'll find some 10 blogs there on everything from sports and fitness to pets.
Our Pets on Parade blog also asks readers to submit entries as the title says showing off their pets or just exchanging some helpful information on pets.
One of the best ways to access all blogs at once so you can find the writer you're looking for is simply to go to the green navigation bar at the left side of our website and find "Free Press Blogs" and then click on it.
You'll find some 10 blogs there on everything from sports and fitness to pets.
Our Pets on Parade blog also asks readers to submit entries as the title says showing off their pets or just exchanging some helpful information on pets.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Mankato high school sports: All children above average?
By Joe SpearFree Press Editor
I didn't grow up in Mankato, and I'm always struck by how many of the high school sports teams not only make it to state championships but win a good share of them.
When I ask our sports staff if Mankato doesn't have an unusual share of state tourney appearances and wins, they doubt that is the case. They would have more knowledge than I would on it, but it always seems like Mankato high school athletes, like the children of Lake Wobegone, are "all above average."
Just the championships I can remember, give West at least two football state titles and two basketball state titles or near in the past 10 years or so. Both East and West have made the high school hockey tournament as well. East has been in the state basketball tourney several times and lost a very close game in the state football championship, if I remember right.
Excelling in hockey and basketball also seems to run counter intuitive as you see schools usually good in one major winter sport, not two.
East track team is well known for its success at state tournaments and now we again have the East girls golf in the state tournament.
Again, maybe it's just me. Where I went to high school, we made it to the final game in the State High School Hockey Tournament last in 1961. Washington High School in St. Paul never got past the second game of sections as far as I can remember in the last 30 years.
When I was a junior we did make it to the finals in our section baseball tournament, losing our bid to state to St. Thomas Academy, I believe.
Anyway, it's good to see so many Mankato kids doing well in athletics at the state level. If someone has a little time, I'd be interested in a history of state titles for Mankato schools. There must be a record book somewhere that could indeed prove if the kids in Mankato were "all above average," compared to students in the rest of the state.
Monday, June 7, 2010
For Helen Thomas, the ax just fell
By Joe Spear
Free Press Editor
The ax finally fell on Helen Thomas, longtime White House correspondent who started her career as a beat reporter with UPI and covered 10 presidents starting with John F. Kennedy.
Hearst Newspaper Corp. helped her decide to retire quickly and suddenly after some untoward remarks about Israel and the Jewish people, telling them to get the "hell" out of Palestine and go home.
Her dismissal isn't as surprising as it is in leading one to think about the rather powerful interests that can get one canned in the news business. She admits what she said was wrong, and apologized. We suspect she wasn't fully aware of what she was saying and the tone.
Nonetheless, it was interesting to me that even the White House Correspondents club? voted to rebuke her and remove her front row seat. I didn't realize the White House correspondents had jurisdiction over seating in the briefing room.
Learn something new every day.
This should be some good fodder for the news cycle, and I'm sure Howard Kurtz will be talking a week after the fact on his "Reliable Sources" media show on CNN. By Sunday, I would think we would have explored every angle, but then again, this business needs news, and the death of one of its own is sort of a morbid, macabre curiosity
Free Press Editor
The ax finally fell on Helen Thomas, longtime White House correspondent who started her career as a beat reporter with UPI and covered 10 presidents starting with John F. Kennedy.
Hearst Newspaper Corp. helped her decide to retire quickly and suddenly after some untoward remarks about Israel and the Jewish people, telling them to get the "hell" out of Palestine and go home.
Her dismissal isn't as surprising as it is in leading one to think about the rather powerful interests that can get one canned in the news business. She admits what she said was wrong, and apologized. We suspect she wasn't fully aware of what she was saying and the tone.
Nonetheless, it was interesting to me that even the White House Correspondents club? voted to rebuke her and remove her front row seat. I didn't realize the White House correspondents had jurisdiction over seating in the briefing room.
Learn something new every day.
This should be some good fodder for the news cycle, and I'm sure Howard Kurtz will be talking a week after the fact on his "Reliable Sources" media show on CNN. By Sunday, I would think we would have explored every angle, but then again, this business needs news, and the death of one of its own is sort of a morbid, macabre curiosity
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Gubernatorial candidate budget plans
By Joe Spear
Free Press Editor
Here's a look at the plans of gubernatorial candidates for solving Minnesota's budget deficit as submitted to the StarTribune.
It's a crucial issue, and voters should demand these candidates have a plan as soon as possible.
In my assessment of the plans below, Mark Dayton has by far the most detailed plan. We give him credit for taking the politically risky move, thought a move of integrity, for telling people what exactly what he plans to do.
Kelliher's plan seems second most detailed.
I would give Horner and Entenza's plan a tie for details
Emmer has the least detailed plan, relying on slogans and somewhat unclear plan to "peel back the onion" of spending.
Here's a StarTribune editorial calling for more details from candidates
Mark Dayton's plan
Tom Emmer's plan
Matt Entenza's plan.
Tom Horner's plan
Margaret Anderson Kelliher's plan
Free Press Editor
Here's a look at the plans of gubernatorial candidates for solving Minnesota's budget deficit as submitted to the StarTribune.
It's a crucial issue, and voters should demand these candidates have a plan as soon as possible.
In my assessment of the plans below, Mark Dayton has by far the most detailed plan. We give him credit for taking the politically risky move, thought a move of integrity, for telling people what exactly what he plans to do.
Kelliher's plan seems second most detailed.
I would give Horner and Entenza's plan a tie for details
Emmer has the least detailed plan, relying on slogans and somewhat unclear plan to "peel back the onion" of spending.
Here's a StarTribune editorial calling for more details from candidates
Mark Dayton's plan
Tom Emmer's plan
Matt Entenza's plan.
Tom Horner's plan
Margaret Anderson Kelliher's plan
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Mallard Fillmore and Doonesbury
By Joe Spear
Free Press Editor
Readers of The Free Press print edition may notice that longtime comic strip Doonesbury now has an ideologically diverse partner on the opinion page.
Mallard Fillmore is a politically-oriented comic strip we have been running above Doonesbury in the Monday through Saturday editions. It is billed as a politically conservative strip and we've added it to provide readers with a little more variety of political viewpoints in terms of comic strips and cartoons.
The strip has been around since 1994 and is in 400 newspapers nationwide.
Here's how Mallard's distribution syndicate King Features describes the comic strip.
"Mallard Fillmore first hatched from the pen of Bruce Tinsley at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Va.
Today, the celebrated comic strip about Tinsley's conservative reporter-duck fills the bill in nearly 400 newspapers nationwide.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate since 1994, readers of newspapers across the country enjoy the duck's right-wing viewpoint.
Tinsley created Mallard for what he saw as the conservative underdog. The strip is for "the average person out there: the forgotten American taxpayer who's sick of the liberal media and cultural establishments that act like he or she doesn't exist," he says.
"Mallard" almost did not see the light of day. When asked to come up with a mascot for The Daily Progress entertainment section, artist Tinsley showed editors three ideas: a blue hippopotamus; a big nose in tuxedo and cane; and a duck.
Tinsley says the hippo went unused for fear of offending overweight people, and the nose was axed because it would "offend people of Jewish and Mediterranean descent, not to mention Arabs and anyone else with a big nose." Tinsley says he thought his editors were kidding, but they were not.
Once Mallard Fillmore was off and running, his editors requested Tinsley tone down its conservative bias. When he refused, he was fired.
The strip caught the attention of The Washington Times, which used Tinsley's wise-quacking journalist in the commentary section before moving the strip to the comics pages. The rest, as they say, is history."
Always interesting insight into how editors view comic strips.
Have only a couple of comments so far from readers on the new strip. One only saw the first couple of days and decided it was "another liberal" comic strip. I informed him otherwise and told him to keep watching.
It should be apparent by now to many that Mallard does have a right wing point of view.
Another said it provides what he thought was a fitting contrast to Doonesbury, being Doonesbury is more subtle and clever and Fillmore is more loud and unsubtle by frequent use of capital letters.
In any case, let us know what you think of the new comic strip.
Free Press Editor
Readers of The Free Press print edition may notice that longtime comic strip Doonesbury now has an ideologically diverse partner on the opinion page.
Mallard Fillmore is a politically-oriented comic strip we have been running above Doonesbury in the Monday through Saturday editions. It is billed as a politically conservative strip and we've added it to provide readers with a little more variety of political viewpoints in terms of comic strips and cartoons.
The strip has been around since 1994 and is in 400 newspapers nationwide.
Here's how Mallard's distribution syndicate King Features describes the comic strip.
"Mallard Fillmore first hatched from the pen of Bruce Tinsley at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Va.
Today, the celebrated comic strip about Tinsley's conservative reporter-duck fills the bill in nearly 400 newspapers nationwide.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate since 1994, readers of newspapers across the country enjoy the duck's right-wing viewpoint.
Tinsley created Mallard for what he saw as the conservative underdog. The strip is for "the average person out there: the forgotten American taxpayer who's sick of the liberal media and cultural establishments that act like he or she doesn't exist," he says.
"Mallard" almost did not see the light of day. When asked to come up with a mascot for The Daily Progress entertainment section, artist Tinsley showed editors three ideas: a blue hippopotamus; a big nose in tuxedo and cane; and a duck.
Tinsley says the hippo went unused for fear of offending overweight people, and the nose was axed because it would "offend people of Jewish and Mediterranean descent, not to mention Arabs and anyone else with a big nose." Tinsley says he thought his editors were kidding, but they were not.
Once Mallard Fillmore was off and running, his editors requested Tinsley tone down its conservative bias. When he refused, he was fired.
The strip caught the attention of The Washington Times, which used Tinsley's wise-quacking journalist in the commentary section before moving the strip to the comics pages. The rest, as they say, is history."
Always interesting insight into how editors view comic strips.
Have only a couple of comments so far from readers on the new strip. One only saw the first couple of days and decided it was "another liberal" comic strip. I informed him otherwise and told him to keep watching.
It should be apparent by now to many that Mallard does have a right wing point of view.
Another said it provides what he thought was a fitting contrast to Doonesbury, being Doonesbury is more subtle and clever and Fillmore is more loud and unsubtle by frequent use of capital letters.
In any case, let us know what you think of the new comic strip.
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