Media
December 11, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Star Tribune editor Rene Sanchez and managing editor Suki Dardarian have posted a statement announcing the firing of movie critic Colin Covert for plagiarism. Their statement is posted under the heading “From the Editors: Star Tribune film critic resigns after ethics breach.” Covert is a 30-year employee of the Star Tribune. Over a period of years Covert plagiarized phrases from reviews by others including the late New Yorker film critic
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December 10, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and “American Indian leaders” met yesterday with denizens of the open air drug den cum encampment on Hiawatha Avenue at Cedar just outside downtown Minneapolis. The Star Tribune reports that the meeting was “hastily called in response to complaints of harassment and intimidation of humanitarian aid workers at the large homeless camp in south Minneapolis.” Also in attendance was the harassment/intimidation crew from Natives Against Heroin.
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December 9, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Heading downtown Minneapolis several times a week, we watched a so-called homeless encampment grow on a small strip of land along Hiawatha Avenue just before it funnels traffic downtown onto Seventh Street. A tribute to the broken-windows theory of policing, the encampment grew up virtually overnight. Bordering a subsidized Native American housing complex, residents of the encampment reflect the Indian tilt of their neighbors. At one point we saw teepees
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December 6, 2018 — Scott Johnson
There are a few levels of Schadenfreude to be had in Astead Herndon’s New York Times story “Elizabeth Warren Stands by DNA Test. But Around Her, Worries Abound.” Warren’s absurd promotion of test results that contradicted her claim to Native American ancestry has somehow gone missing from the Times story. The Times story is amazing and laughable in its own way, but it represents our dystopian future. The Times story
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December 5, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
On Sunday, I wrote about the riots in the heart of Paris. As a source for how the riots disrupted life in some of the areas where they occurred, I used the report of a friend who lives in the center city. That friend has called my attention to comments critical of my reliance on him. The complaint is that my source, because he lives in a well-to-do neighborhood, is
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December 4, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Heading downtown Minneapolis several times a week, we watched a so-called homeless encampment grow on a small strip of land along Hiawatha Avenue just before it funnels traffic downtown onto Seventh Street. A tribute to the broken-windows theory of policing, the encampment grew up virtually overnight. Bordering a subsidized Native American housing complex, residents of the encampment reflect the Indian tilt of their neighbors. At one point we saw teepees
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December 4, 2018 — Scott Johnson
We have been following Richard Pollock’s Daily Caller story reporting the FBI raid on the domicile of whistleblower Dennis Nathan Cain. Cain was scheduled to appear last night along with his attorney on Sean Hannity’s FOX News show. I flagged Cain’s tweet announcing the segment in part 2 of this series of posts. Breaking news in the form of President Bush’s death interceded to bump the scheduled segment with Cain
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December 3, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Terry Teachout is a learned gentleman and one of my favorite reviewers. Following him on Twitter, I saw yesterday that his account had been hacked by jerks who used it to send out vulgar and racist tweets under his name. His hackers, it turns out, want him to pay a ransom. Teachout tells the story at About Last Night in “Home invasion.” He has re-upped on Twitter @terryteachout1. Twitter, however,
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December 3, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Last week I wasted no time offering contrarian notes on the Cohen plea. The plea deal occasioned the usual media “collusion” hysteria. I thought that Cohen’s plea belied the hysteria. Now RCP’s Paul Sperry adds his own reporting to a reading of the plea deal that is consistent with my own. Sources tell Sperry that Mueller apparently withheld exculpatory evidence in the Criminal Information he filed last week against Cohen
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November 29, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Anthony Scaramucci — yeah, that guy — has rallied to the defense of Alex Acosta, the Secretary of Labor who, from all that appears at this point, gave pedophile Jeffrey Epstein a sweet plea deal instead of insisting on the stiff sentence his crimes warranted. Scaramucci tweeted: @SecretaryAcosta is doing a great job and obviously @realDonaldTrump likes him so time to do a number on him. This is DC: how
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November 29, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
This afternoon at 3:35 (Eastern Time), I will be a guest on the Tom Shillue show. You can click on the link above to listen, or you can hear the show on SIRIUS XM Channel 450 and dozens of stations across the country. We’ll probably be talking about the recent developments in the Mueller investigation, including the Michael Cohen plea agreement, among other subjects.
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November 28, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Minnesota Rep-elect Ilhan Omar seized on the latest FBI report on hate crimes as the ostensible subject of a column for the Star Tribune. The Star Tribune published her column under the headline “Let us stand together as Americans in rejecting hate.” By the third paragraph, with the exception of one sentence portraying herself as a victim, she has moved on from the hate crimes report to her usual leftist
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November 26, 2018 — Steven Hayward
As if we need any more reason to distrust media bias, this juxtaposition says it all:
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November 25, 2018 — Scott Johnson
The Star Tribune never tires of creative ways to tout the alleged benefits of the immigrant waves transforming Minnesota. When one looks for an assessment of the costs, or an assessment of whether the costs might outweigh the benefits, one must look elsewhere. This weekend the Star Tribune touts the coming of “diversity” to the business of craft beer. It reads to me like unintended satire. First we have the
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November 18, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Fake news is a serious problem in our political life. I’m not referring to a pathetically small number of Facebook ads bought by Russian provocateurs. I’m talking about the fake news that was paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee; fabricated by Democratic Party-allied consultants; propagated by the FBI and the CIA; promoted by the broadcast networks, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington
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November 16, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
A federal district court judge today ordered the Trump administration to restore the press credentials of CNN’s Jim Acosta. The ruling came from Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee. Judge Kelly based his decision on a 1977 ruling by the D.C. Circuit. That ruling was not founded on the First Amendment, and neither was today’s. The 1977 decision said the White House must demonstrate a clear process and right of
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November 14, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The White House has banned CNN’s Jim Acosta from the White House grounds. It did so after Acosta, during a press conference, refused to stop talking after President Trump had addressed his question, and then refused to hand the microphone back to a young female staff member. The two — Acosta and the staffer — appeared to have a slight physical altercation. CNN sues under the First Amendment, the Fifth
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