Diane Rehm, the NPR talk show host, lived every talk-show host’s dream this week when she called out a guest — former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, a presidential candidate — for being late to her studio and calling in on the telephone instead. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Tag: Media

Dan Olson, who for 42 years has lent his voice and talent to Minnesota Public Radio, is spending his last full-day as a member of MPR today. He’s retiring, a feat which is incalculably difficult to do in the radio business. Not many people make it that far. Read more →

Maybe we wouldn’t all be so surprised how poorly the Minnesota Vikings performed last night if the sports media hadn’t been quite so fawning during the preseason. Read more →
Dan Rather starts a new series that appears to involve getting drunk during news interviews. Read more →
This is a rather astounding piece of video from Hungary today, when the refugees who have fled war in the Middle East, broke out of a holding area and raced in search of a better life… through a corn field.
Then a TV reporter covering the story did her part to stop them. Read more →

Did you know there’s a Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg? I do (I even know how to pronounce it) and today it got me in trouble on Twitter because I did what I usually do with NewsCut, I connected unrelated (though interesting) facts with something that’s currently in the news, in this case the effort to rename Lake Read more →
In the changing media landscape, there aren’t many people who can survive in radio and TV for 34 years; it just doesn’t work that way anymore.
That’s why the announcement from WCCO reporter/anchor Mike Binkley today is worth noting. He’s done. Read more →
An announcement that didn’t get a lot of notice when it was issued on Friday prompts us to recall one of the most turbulent moments in the history of public radio — the day NPR canned Bob Edwards, the longtime host of Morning Edition.
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A pretty nice moment wrapped up a pretty awful week last night.
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Christopher Ingraham, the Washington Post reporter who was at the receiving end of Minnesota’s outrage after he presented data showing Red Lake County is the ugliest county in America, didn’t help relations when he doubled-down by criticizing our thin skins.
But yesterday he proved himself a stand-up reporter. Read more →

You get up in the morning, you go to work, you’re on the street doing your job , and then people are dead. Just like that.
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Which is worse? An ex-NFL player advising rookies to always have a “fall guy” if they got into legal trouble? Or a sportswriter who sat on Cris Carter’s 2014 comments at an NFL rookies symposium? Read more →
A silly Washington Post ranking of counties gets the oh-so-serious Minnesota response. Read more →
If you want to see a fine example of the shallow nature of political coverage, look no further than today’s New York Times Q&A with presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, in which a Times reporter tries to address gender issues by perpetuating the focus on a candidate’s appearance. Here’s the section: Do you think it’s fair Read more →
Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch offers no names in his column today detailing just how common it is for female sportswriters to be sexually harassed by the men they cover.
Some of the players in incidents he details required the willful assistance of officials of the teams for which the athlete played. Read more →