A Newspaper Accelerates Toward Its Own Suicide

There's plenty of evidence that newspapers are on their way out. They may not disappear completely from the dead-tree form, but with readership plummeting as more and more people getting their news from online sources, you'd think they'd be madly looking at what works well and would be trying to make the best use of the talents and resources they have. Think again.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, which is already plagued with a hard left editorial page and reporters with questionable objectivity, has just committed the unpardonable sin. They've taken James Lileks, a talented observational wordsmith in whose ability I'm completely in awe, and have dropped him from his regular column and requested him to become a local news reporter. That's sort of like taking NASCAR's Jeff Gordon out of the driver's seat and making him the gas man whose main job is to make sure the gas cans are filled between pit stops. A real waste of talent.

James is not happy, as you can imagine, and doesn't mince words in his online Bleat column announcing the move. I hope that some other organization that recognizes his unique ability will jump in and steal James away. The Star-Tribune certainly doesn't deserve the services of somebody whose abilities they clearly don't understand.