I'm with Shelby, but for different reasons. Good luck to Douglas. And the news that he's no less craven and reductionist in his thinking than any executive at Black Rock certainly relieves me of ginning up even a scintilla of sympathy for the little feller.

But, really, who cares about all this inside-studio calumny at this point? I guess in KARE's calculus, the answer is CJ and her tens of thousands of peers in this celebrity-starved market.

As far as I'm concerned, weather could be a crawl. If there's violent weather imminent, they could have the font flash. The sirens around town still work for me. They're to let us all know when to get out our "home video" cameras, right? Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

LAMBERT: Douglas seems to understand that the TV weather "shtick" might be on its last legs. But people want the info -- with interpretation -- for a variety of reasons, not all emergency-related. Beyond that, his demise is a precedent-setter ... if 'CCO doesn't stumble too badly.

Don Shelby mentioned that the news on Paul was wearing on the people who "fully supported him." I'm pretty sure he didn't mean financial support. Kare11 is giving Douglas what he needs more than 'attaboys' and that's the money to do what he's really good at doing - local weather for an audience. C'mon guys - friendship shouldn't get in the way of somebody making a living.

Joanne Henry

LAMBERT: I don't think KARE is giving Douglas money -- just the opportunity to remind people that he is still in the business of makig money.

I think the local TV news can be handled in about 10 minutes. 3 minutes to fires and murders, 3 minutes to Governor Pawlenty and the Legislature, 3 minutes to car crashes and bank robberies. Then 30 seconds on tomorrow's weather and another 30 on how the Twins/Vikings/Wolves/Wild did. The rest is fluff and filler. Paul Douglas is ahead of the curve on this (dare I say) front.

P.S. Impressive that PD has avoided interviews, but agreed to meet with you. You guys with big hair must stick together.

LAMBERT: You really know how to deliver a shot, don't yopu?

Wait a minute...you're saying Shelby is SERIOUS when he whines that public sympathy for Douglas is taking a toll on the weatherman's former co-workers? Also that he has conveyed as much to Douglas "as a friend?" I mean...that's rich! I guess handling his own firing with "grace and dignity" isn't sufficient and Douglas is expected to vanish into thin air so as to not remind anybody at WCCO of what happened, especially during sweeps.

Come clean, Lambo. You made all this up didn't you? Nobody is that venal, not even an anchorman. In fact, I'm sure Shelby would have stepped in to prevent Douglas's ouster if he hadn't been so busy working on that big investigative piece for the past six months--the one we're all going to miss anyway because we'll be watching John Stewart as usual.

LAMBERT: Have you ever even MET someone within 'CCO's target demo?

Actually, I haven't been out of the house in years.

LAMBERT: Well at least let the 200 cats out from time to time.

Can it be very far in the future that we will see Shelby and Fairbourne doing the news and weather from rocking chairs? Next thing you know they will be wishing happy birthday to centenarians ala Willard Scott. I don't ever want to be part of that demographic.

Douglas' new weather concept has a symmetry to what Clear Channel did to local radio programming in small markets.

LAMBERT: Except that Clear Channel's "voice-tracking" isn't live, is usually pretending to be local and is of no use at all in inclement weather.

one guy in minnesota giving forecasts to stations all over, because they don't need a local guy to do local weather? huh. what will they think of next? getting rid of local movie and tv critics at local newspapers? think how different everything would be if that ever happened.

LAMBERT: Not "if" ... "when".

Many of us would love to take a shot at an ex-employer following getting canned. What better opportunity than on the first night of sweeps. Even you Brian may have taken a shot (or two or 100) at KTLK.

Shelby must be having a bad hair day or something. He is nuts if he thinks that Douglas needs to consider his former peers when making any business decisions. I'm not a huge fan of Douglas, but I love his entrepreneurial spirit and wish him the best in his new venture.

LAMBERT: What? ME take a shot at KTLK? Whatever for?

re if/when --

you losing your sense of humor, brian? i was talking about YOU. but seriously i was wondering how, or if, things are really different when guys like you aren't in the papers any more.

LAMBERT: Oh, ME!? The silly answer is that the paper I worked for regarded me as liability and felt they were much better without my, uh, "services". The more serious answer is that the business model is breaking down so fast I don't know that they could staunch the misery even if they did make an effort to hang on to their -- how shall I say this? -- "provocative" writers.

By the time the real story comes out how Paul Douglas manipulated his exit from WCCO, forced KARE 11 to let him out of his no compete clause, double dipped from...oh forget it. I mean start with the fact his name isn't even "Paul Douglas" and basically you have a fraud trying to live out an ageless Tommy Kirk public persona.
As for the national/local weather deal, good luck. Sinclair Broadcasting tried it with News Central. Once the locals find out you are delivering Florida tides while mispronouncing Chassahowitzka from
Minnesota, you'll understand why Clear Channel has major public acceptance problems with " one format fits all.

LAMBERT: I'm putting you in the Paul Douglas "high negatives" category.

Wait a minute. I missed Shelby's I-Team report while finishing my DVR'ed "Lost." But you mean to tell me he's bitching about PD stepping on a 6-month investigation of... waterless urinals?

LAMBERT: I'm checking out last night's "features" for a blog later today. As for "Lost", I didn't think it was one of their better episodes. I mean, Benjamin Linus walks into Widmore's bedroom? If anybody needs heavy round-the-clock security it's that character.

So, KARE teases us with the Paul Douglas interview. WCCO teases us with something like " Tonight at 10, Don Shelby talks about Paul Douglas' return to TV." Both piqued my interest, but Shelby's piece (fortunately not played at the same time as the Douglas interview) was the most bizarre TV moment I have ever seen. Shelby thinks CCO's blunder has played out too long? Then leave it alone and let Douglas make his millions. OK, I take that back. The most bizarre: "How would you like to swim in raw sewage?" Thank you, Randall Carlisle.

LAMBERT: My favorite Carlisle-ism ... while reading a story about the DNR stocking lakes from airplanes, "What do you think goes through the fish's mind as it falls into the lake?" Ask yourself ... what was the last time you thought of the fish's feelings?

anyone else notice how much like rumsfeld old paul douglas sounded on kare last night?

like this --

"was i surprised?"

"yes, i was."

"am i going to get through this?"

"why, yes, of course i am."

"do i see that this is just a business decision and nothing personal."

"absolutely."

LAMBERT: And he will soon be hailed as a "liberator". Oh wait, that was Cheney.

No...my negatives go much deeper than Paul Douglas.
I want everyone to get up -right now- from their computer screen. Go to the window and scream, "I'M MADDER THAT HELL AT OLD MEDIA...AND I'M NOT GOING TO FAKE IT ANYMORE."

LAMBERT: But if we don't fake it how will anyone know we're having fun?

Ya know, while we're on the subject, doesn't it piss you off when Don Shelby tries to act like he's Joe Sixpack, counting pennies, cleaning his own gutters and caring about the price of gas when he's pulling down WELL over a million a year?

I know there's a certain "persona" he has to project, but others who are in the same boat manage to stay away from having to "fake" having a normal income. They do their job and don't fall into the trap of having to act so "folksy" that they must somehow make an "I can relate" comment. No they can't. I don't care how much empathy or sympathy one has (or can exude for the camera or microphone); when you've got that much, you DON'T personally care as much as someone making $50k or $70k a year. Period.

Figure it out. If you make $100k a year and gas is $3.50, the guy who makes $1 million a year is paying YOUR equivalent of 35 cents a gallon. So if it goes to 40 cents, will he get pissed off? Would you?

Seriously, if you ask a relatively industry-clueless blue-collar Joe Sixpack how much Shelby makes, I guarantee you they'll say "Oh, I dunno, couple hundred thousand maybe."

Same goes for people who feel sorry for Douglas Paul Kruhoeffer. Even if Joe Sixpack thinks he made a "couple hundred thousand" last year and feels sorry that he "lost his job," they'd blow Bud Lite out their nose if they knew he sold Digital Cyclone for $45 million and lived in gated Bearpath until he and Laurie moved into a 4,000 sq. ft. house on Lake Minnetonka.

I don't mind these guys making this much money. Awesome for them! I really do feel that way. I truly do like to see people do well. I just don't like it when they pander in an oh-so-condescending way and try to act like "average" Minnesotans so people will like them more. They are NOT average Minnesotans no matter how much they either want to be or want us to think they are.

Dave McShades

LAMBERT: Well, the evolution in local TV news is going to bring the "stars' " standard of living a little closer to that of their viewers. But I'm sure you've imagined this same argument on the scale of the national celebrity reporters. Worrying about $60 fill-ups is a complete abstraction.

Teleprompter readers are not "stars" anywhere but here, aka Media Palookaville.

CJ is their chief enabler.

But then, she "writes" for a paper whose overly earnest editrix pleads about how they are all about the "news" the readers expect, then publishing "Withering Glance" every Sunday.

PS: Did you catch the Strib referring to Deb Hopp's characterization as a "femme fatale" in a recent charity related legal dust-up story?

LAMBERT: You are dangerously close to over-quota on "Withering Glance" references.

Oh, is there a new "quota" on mentioning that the earnest Nancy Barnes insists on representing the highest "journalistic news standards,", then publishes the gay ramblings of two old queens every Sunday?

Next you'll be defending the race baiting screeds of "playwright" and columnist Syl Jones?

I must have missed the memo.

LAMBERT: Bertram, my boy. A big daily newspaper, by definition, is supposed to cover the activities and views of EVERY group in it's market. There are of course niche publications where you can avoid any and all interaction with alien (or is it strangely compelling?) viewpoints. Is Der Sturmer on-line?

Really? "EVERY group" in it's market?

Then where is the "today's Hmong Insider" column?

The "Butch Lesbian Tickler File" column?

Or, the "Conservative Catholic Cackler" column?

I think you get my point.

There is NO other "major daily" that carries such ridiculousness, let alone in it's SUNDAY (family) edition.

But I will be sending my proposal to Miss Nancy today for a "Hetero-Exurban Conservative Armed Bunker Sports and Scotch Digest" column.

"EVERY group"! For a minute there, you were confirming the nasty liberal doctrine of separating everyone into "groups".

Hahhahahahahhaah!

LAMBERT: Try pitching a, "Perpetually Terrified, Armed to the Teeth and Overly Insistently Hetero Bunker Mentality White Male Victim" column. You and Kersten might overlap. But the Strib seems concerned with keeping your subscription.

"Or, the 'Conservative Catholic Cackler' column"?

I say, Bertram old bean, are you having a bash at rebranding Ms. Kersten's column. Or have even you ceased reading her, too?

What false assumption are you basing your Kersten bashing on? All I've seen are, mostly, citizens take back the neighborhood type stories.

As our resident eco-anchor it would be Shelby's responsibility to address this ethanol debacle through a project energy piece. Nada.

LAMBERT: When I think fear-mongering I think Kersten flogging Twin Cities "madrassas".

Speaking of CJ, Withering Glance, and earnest pronouncements about news from the editrix -- I tried to buy a couple extra copies of today's Star Tribune so my young-adult daughters could have their own clippings of the top-to-bottom "centerpiece" package on the release of Grand Theft Auto IV that occupies half of the front page. Unfortunately, every store near me was sold out by 10 a.m. I also just heard that circulation among youth and young adults has suddenly skyrocketed. Apparently, the paper has finally hit on the formula for a turnaround.

Not!

LAMBERT: Hey, they'll get fewer complaints about "Grand theft Auto IV's" nauseating violence than they would about those "racey" Miley Cyrus photos.

Well, 108, forgive me for using my own experience and wisdom and not yours. Her usually disingenuous and inttellectually dishonest column. I've given up reading it.

LAMBERT: I just read Power Line a minute after hers appears on line. Its usually pretty close to word for word.

What are you saying Brian? That she innaccurately characerized it as a madrassa, or that as good, liberal, multi-culturists we have to look the the other way, because you know, its diversity and all.

LAMBERT: "Madrassa" is a pretty loaded term, wouldn't you say? I think I know what she was intending to inspire in her audience.

I believe this is what's Kersten's going for:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/nyregion/28school.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=madrassa&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Actually, madrassa is a literal term. What is it about that school thats not madrassa like?

LAMBERT: And -- just for the record -- you're saying Kersten uses the term in a purely literal manner detached from any hot-button topical reference?

Cmon Leinfelder, give me an example. Otherwise you have no leg to stand on.

Do you have a picture of Che in your house by the way?

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=N2M5OGUwY2Q2YmQ0M2M1ZGVkYzRkNzJhMWE3NWNkOTA=

LAMBERT: Now, gentlemen ...

looks like this thread has legs. though they might be as scrawny as paul's.

Not relevant. Kersten or other columnists (ahem) have no obligation to soften language if its otherwise accurate - which it seems to be in the local case. Its certainly worthy of a column, if not straight news. Charter school non-compliance is a big deal in general. Why should this be ignored? If she hadn't done it, no one would have what with the proclivities of states largest papers.

So whats your beef chief? You just don't like it. I don't care to quibble with the quality of her work in general. I may not disagree. But this continues to be an objection to her presence.

LAMBERT: On the contrary. I do not object to the presence of an unabashed conservative columnist, although her presence suggests that Coleman carries as much water for the DFL as she does for the Republicans, which simply isn't true. I just find her tone ... corny. Every Muslim is only a flight school away from ramming the IDS Center.

Oh, he's got Che in more places than you might imagine.

Lambert doesn't mind his tax dollars funding that madrassa apparently.

He's so "enlightened"!

And he "knows" what Kersten was intending!

LAMBERT: Well, let's put it this way, I'm not pretending she didn't mean what she meant.

So you dont like the word, even though its accurate. Youre arguing for political correctness for Kersten - but not Bill Maher.

LAMBERT: 108, my point is that she "suggests" one thing while pretending to mean something far less inflammatory. Say what you will about Maher, he says what he says in direct and unequivocal terms.

108: You lost me there with that "Do you have a picture of Che?" cliche rejoinder. Deploying that moldy chestnut puts you on a forensic par with Bertram, Jr. and, come to think of it, Ms. Kersten herself.

Look, let's just start with the fact that the woman has no journalistic credentials. Rather, she is the product of years laboring for ideological "think tanks." Put her on the editorial page as a sop to the brayings of the extreme right if she must be at the newspaper. But she does not have the reporting or writing chops for her current job as a metro columnist. This is in dispute where?

She is a hot house lilly who burns no shoe leather in pursuit of stories. Ideology, when it is the theme of one of her columns, trumps a fair accounting of the facts with her. Not always. When she writes something non-ideological, it's soporifically pedestrian and usually stale.

Obviously, you experience her work differently. I'm fine with that and labor under no illusions that anything I've said or go on to say would change your tastes.

But for me, she is an agitprop hack merely posing as a columnist, a token, an ideological affirmative action hire. Hell, better the Strib should work out a deal to run a print version of Powerlineblog.com. It's better written with a certain acrid brio lacking in Kersten's work.

The Strib already have on staff a very talented, proven, nuanced thinker and graceful writer in Doug Tice, who also happens to have a conservative world view. Why they waste his talents riding herd on political coverage is a tragic mystery, in my view. But he may well prefer his more transcendent management position. I don't know. But he's well qualified for the job, aside from that "Y" chromosome, of course.

I and others have many times over said that he would make for an excellent contrapuntal columnist to that horned and pointy-tailed demon of a liberal columnist, Nick Coleman, who has 30+ years of reporting and writing experience as a columnist in both cities.

I've put Ms. Kersten's work well behind me. I've given up reading her in the way a "cutter" gives up razor blades. I encourage you to continue your devoted consumption of her work. Just do us the favor of not regurgitating it here with material like the Che cliche.

You seemed beter than that, 108.

Its apparently not a cliche Jim. I just want to know the deal. Does Keith give them out, can you opt for the T shirt...whats the deal?

LAMBERT: 108, having a bad hair day? Someone take your parking spot?

And Leinfelder manages to leave Maher out of the entire screed!

Surprise.

Game goes to 108, with extra point for pinning Lambert with the "PC argument" on the side.

I would ask Mr. Hothouse Lilly Leinfeleder if Doug Grow's years as a sportswriter were sufficient "journalistic credentials" to blather on for 15 odd years of lefty loonyism at the Strib, in the exact same pages Kersten is now gracing?

See this is all related.

Grow in fact put out some columns exploring the nuances of the Che T shirt business, ie, the irony that people were actually selling these shirts for profit. I got the feeling he was a Che fan, and thats a sure indicator of a ridiculous mind. He also profiled the mainstay characters at local lefty bookshops. You know - nutjobs.

But you think Kerstens a really bad columnist...

I suppose a real columnist

a) wouldnt have written the madrassa column, because although its newsworthy, the people involved are a protected class.
b) would have used a word other than madrassa, because although its a literal word, its too closely related to a protected class.
c) would have found a way to blame it on Tim Pawlenty or Carl Pohlad.

LAMBERT: I might be with you on the odd characters who have adopted Che's iconic photo as their logo, but as a revolutionary fighting our close, good friend Batista and his mob buddies in Cuba, it's hard to knock him for his choice of enemies.

108, Bertram, Jr.: I get that you like Kersten's columns because they reinforce your calcified world views. What else could possibly explain her appeal to you two? Certainly not the writing. Please understand that it neither surprises me nor troubles me in the least what media you consume.

As far as the veiled McCarhtyesque innuendos, if those are not tired cliches then there are no cliches. Next you'll be telling me you avoid cliches like the plague.

The guy profiled on Politico who's working as Ellison communications director in D.C. also has a piece of the Berlin Wall among the wide-anging artifacts in his eclectic row house. There is no mention of an image of "Che" on his wall in the piece. It may be he has it in his home in an ironic vein. Neither you nor I know. But typically that's all the pissant at National Review could see for a nice little profile of a Capitol Hill character. Case made.

Anyway, I suppose you two lunatics think Ellison's communications guy is nostalgic for the Iron Curtain and the Stasi. How else would your sort interpret his proudly displaying a piece of the Berlin Wall. In your world, ipso facto. It;s guys like you that make Stephen Colbert's job such a challenge. How to parody the self-parodying?

This exchange is feeling a lot like reading a Kersten column. Your sort are like a dog chained to a post lapping up its own vomit. Lap away, lads. I do not care.

Brian:

Please write something new soon before I poke my eyes out.

LAMBERT: I'm comin' to the rescue.

Thou doth protesteth yet again, too much.

"Your sort"?

How shockingly, SHOCKINGLY, condescending!

It's as if you truly believe your own shibbolethic utopian fantasies, wrapped as they are in double doses of self loathing and envy.

Well I'm glad you straightened me out on that.

Nooo, I wouldn't say I 'avoid' cliches. You're a professional writer, I imagine you know cliche and archtype are just literary devices. And that cliches are not false, they're just by definition somewhat hackneyed.

You did clue me in to the idea of ironic decor. I hadn't considered that. Like my 'It's Marty Time' button I keep on my bulletin board, or my 'Hop on the Wynia-bago' T shirt that I cut the grass in.

Cliches are crutches for the lazy or weak minded. And blogonyms, noms de blog for the cowardly.

I say uncle, Jim. I probably am kind of a sally for not revealing my name, but its no use to anyone anyway. I'm not in this club of people writing for CPa, or MSP, or MM, or Metro. Anyway, I don't have time for this - I'm still working on my Ayn Rand puppet for this weekends May Day parade.

While I'm down there, I do expect to see some pony tailed, birkie wearing, Che T shirt wearing, fair trade coffe drinking liberals - and I'll be sure to tell them theyre lazy and weak minded.

LAMBERT: Not bad, 108.

Cliche and tradition, not the same things. The former is reduced by repetition while the latter's meaning is increased. But I'll grant you, it can be a fine line. But why attend an event for which you have only contempt?

I was kidding, I didnt go. I dont have contempt for liberals. I'm married to one. Mrs. 108s sister very likely was at the parade, she is a nouveau hippie chick. Great gal.

I dont get to discuss politics at home. Thus, you guys have to tolerate me.

I'd say the May Day Parade qualifies as "contemptable cliched tradition".

LAMBERT: Am I more concerned about your spelling or your "multi-cultural" phobias?

If Communism is a "culture", be very concerned.

108: Don't know how else to bring this to your attention. But CP's blog had this item on your gal, Kitty, over at the Strib. Thought you'd want to know: http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2008/05/katherine_kerst.php

And there's this angle on Ms. Kersten's "style" as a columnist David Brauer was covering in April. http://www.minnpost.com/davidbrauer/2008/04/18/1564/kerstens_arabic-school_source_even_more_to_the_story

LAMBERT: Jimmy's on the Kersten-watch.

Nah, I'm on the Kersten-watch watch. But somebody should be watching. The woman's as intellectually dishonest as they come. It's not like the Strib has an ombudsperson.

LAMBERT: Shoot off a note to Randy the Reader's Rep.

For the record, I dont think shes a 'good' columnist. I dont think we have a 'good' columnist here in the cities.

Thats a very border line practice thats been described. It is something they've allowed their editorial staff to get away with without too much consternation. What was his name, Brandt? And as noted, I think the middle age hockey player there gets away with many a demonstrably false premise.

I do think your (Jim and Brian) reaction to her topic selection is visceral rather than logical. Is she making an false case against GTA? I don't think so.

LAMBERT: I don't know how many times I can say this but I think the Strib needed a "conservative" columnist. The choice, as they apparently saw it, was one with an independent voice and attitude who took fair shots as she (it was always going to be a "she") saw it at any party on the landscape -- much as Nick Coleman has done to countless Democrats, though you choose to ignore that. Instead, in Kersten they have a media neophyte clearly in lock-step synch with a particular outside force, Power Line, who applies neither subtlety or wit to her judgments. Nor much breadth of subject matter, either. I forget who said it, Doug Grow I think, but the better move might have been to find a woman who rode ATVs and hunted with the "salt of the earth" conservative crowd, Kersten and Power Line love to lionize but, I'm guessing, never cross paths with.

I know Brian, I agree – shes inadequate.

Perhaps it useful to get the narrative down one last time. Then, I vow to move on.

Coleman moves to Strib. He’s there a couple years, and I think the neo-con blogosphere is perfectly content to merely make fun of the fact the Strib doesn’t have a conservative columnist. It fortifies their belief about the Strib and liberal bias. As if they needed any, but they enjoy it.

Then Rathergate occurs. Coleman, because he’s a blind hyper partisan politically and about ‘journalism’ as something sacred, makes fun of Powerline for engaging in writing and investigation it was perfectly within their purview to do, as citizens no less. He also misstates their relationship with TCF and Dartmouth and whatever mysterious financiers out of context. Bill Cooper ends up getting enraged.

Instead of issuing a clarification and correction, apologizing, Gyllenhal hires Kersten to try and pacify Cooper , Powerline, and other critics.

So I have been fairly amused over the months when the word ‘Kersten’ is used as some sort of cudgel, and more often than not, for things that are not reflected in her body of writing. Especially compared to the often weak and intellectually dishonest work of the other columnist.

Done.

I’d like to see a different conservative columnist. It’s a difficult job. The way I look at it, whatever Nicks getting is worth it as institutional memory alone.

LAMBERT: We'll never completely agree on this one. But the thing about a metro columnist is that -- in my book anyway -- they're supposed to bring a degree of personal idiosyncrasy to their work. readers are supposed to understand their personal peeves and biases. (One of the truly misplaced directives of modern newspapering is forcing personality-driven writers to write instead with the same homogenized tone as every beat writer.) That's why I don't get all that worked up over Kersten. My primary beef, I guess, is that she just isn't fun to read.