Letters

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Media bias?

Just because Republicans think Minnesota media have a liberal (news) bias does not mean there is such. People generally think a medium is biased if they report the world or actions that they do not like. It is psychologically (and politically) more comforting to think the medium is biased than accept what is (usually) accurately reported.

Your headline is in fact misleading. It should have said that x percent of Minnesotans think media is biased. Not that it is “alive and well.” A bit like the pot calling the kettle black, isn’t it?

Roger Parkinson
Naples, FL

Political mouthpieces

I read with interest the article on biased news reporting in Minnesota (“Stirring the Pot: Most Minnesotans believe that biased reporting contributes to our polarized political climate,” Spring 2022).

The most shameful aspect of Minnesota’s polarized political climate is not the fact that polarization exists. It is the fact that the Democratic Party controls a monopoly on news dissemination and censorship through our state’s two largest newspapers: the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press. And local TV news channels are not much better.

When one considers the fact that more than 40 percent of Minnesota’s population voted for President Trump, and that Republicans earned enough votes to gain control of the State Senate, it is shocking to see that a huge swath of Minnesota citizens have no major newspaper representing their viewpoints nor serving as their mouthpiece in the political spectrum.

How is a news monopoly an accept- able feature in any democracy? Our state’s largest newspaper should be renamed the Democrat Party Star Tribune. Its political endorsements certainly support that perspective.

If such a monopoly existed in other industries, citizens would scream for antitrust investigations and protections.

Minnesota Republicans should demand a level playing field and put forth policies and campaigns that hold the news media accountable for their biased and monopolistic reporting of the news. A democracy cannot survive when one party controls the media and a large number of other voices are drowned out. This isn’t Russia or China. Or is it?

Corby Pelto
Minneapolis, MN

Eye-opening issue

I always enjoy reading an article or two from Thinking Minnesota but Issue 27 was amazing.

For “Feeding Frenzy,” why hasn’t someone gone to jail, why hasn’t some- one been fired? Why hasn’t the governor resigned, isn’t he responsible?

For “Doubling Down On CRT,” two weeks ago I sent my State Representative Tom Bakk a note asking about CRT in Minnesota. His answer was true but misleading. He suggested I contact someone on the education committee for more information. I did contact a radium Republican on the education committee that in my opinion after reading your article outright lied to me.

Great Job. Keep up the good work.

Bryan Noble
Duluth, MN

Broken promises

As someone who was hit hard financially by the ACA, it was with great interest that I read Peter Nelson’s, “The Return of the ‘Death Spiral.’” I guess I’m not surprised that neither Nelson nor American Experiment mentioned the elephant in the room. While controlling the House, Senate, and White House, Republicans failed to deliver on their much-touted campaign promise to “Repeal and Replace.”

Ed Nelson

From all sides

You are treasonous, racist, bigoted cowards. John Whalen is a racist idiot that shows you might be right in tightening immigration…

Owen Hall