The Star Tribune represents the mainstream media at work in Minnesota. It relentlessly peddles the left-wing line on its news pages and its editorial positions.
It is, moreover, a profitable business owned by a billionaire. Glen Taylor bought it in 2014 for $100 million. He may have assumed some of the paper’s debt in the process. It reportedly makes a substantial amount of money churning out its product. According to a 2019 Traffic Magazine story posted by the Star Tribune: “The paper has been solidly profitable each of the last 10 years.”
Last year Taylor hired former Walz administration commissioner of economic development Steve Grove to run the newspaper. Grove puts a face on the partisan nature of the paper.
Minnesota would be better off without the Star Tribune. It adversely affects the state’s politics and public policy as well as its major institutions, generally pushing them ever further to the left.
All in all, it might be difficult to imagine a worse object of philanthropy than the Star Tribune. However, that’s not how Grove sees it. In his 2024 report to readers earlier this month, he advised (link in original): “We are…positioning ourselves to access funding from philanthropic sources, a growing trend in journalism. To that end, we’re hiring a development director to spearhead this new effort for the Star Tribune.”
I thought ridicule was the appropriate reaction. In the post “Shady Grove” I invited readers to mock Grove as he extended his tin cup.
No one at the Star Tribune thought to disseminate or promote my train of thought in the paper. This week, however, the Star Tribune platformed a group of far-left activists who want to harm Alpha News, on whose board I sit. See Kelly Smith’s Star Tribune story “Activists urge Minneapolis Foundation to rescind 2022 donation to Alpha News.” Subhead: “Activists want the Minneapolis Foundation to rescind the donor’s $11,500 grant to Alpha News, which they say may have been used to make the film ‘The Fall of Minneapolis.'”
The horror!
At Alpha News we seek to provide a contrast to the Star Tribune. We are organized as a 501(c)(3) and therefore entirely dependent on the generosity of readers and the gifts of grantors who support our work. To qualify for a donation from donor-advised funds managed by the Minneapolis Foundation, by the way, the 501(c)(3) status is all that is necessary. This simple fact somehow escapes the notice of Kelly Smith.
Responding to Smith’s story, Alpha News president Alex Kharam observed in his email message to subscribers:
“The Fall of Minneapolis” has received more than 6 million views and counting.
The documentary has struck a nerve.
Here is our response: We will not back down. We will double down on journalism.
As I say, we seek to provide a contrast with the Star Tribune. Alpha News makes its content freely accessible here. Readers can view The Fall of Minneapolis for free at the link. Alex invited readers to make their tax-deductible donations here. Annoy the left with your own contribution.
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