Krebs column: Is journalism dying? It depends on who you ask...

November 1, 2009

By Randy KrebsTimes opinon editor

I’ve been a professional journalist for almost a quarter century, and I (willingly) followed my father — who followed his father and mother — into journalism and the newspaper business.
I tell you that because when I say “I’ve heard my entire life that newspapers and journalism are dying,” you know I speak the truth. And yet the industry is still here. More importantly, and according to the latest buzz, 70 percent of these operations are profitable.
Yet Wednesday I attended a panel discussion, “Newspapers, Internet, And The Future Of Democracy,” featuring some knowledgeable journalists and educators, all of whom seemed so convinced that newspapers and journalism are dead that, well, I wondered if I should show up for work the next day. (I did — and we even printed a paper, put information on the Web, helped people express their views, etc.)
The event was part of a bimonthly series of informal discussions on issues related to public policy and politics, sponsored by St. John’s University’s McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement. It featured host and political science professor Jim Read; Kathleen Hansen, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota; Katie Johnson, Communication Department at St. John’s/College of St. Benedict; and Nick Coleman, senior fellow, McCarthy Center, and award-winning columnist.
As much as I respect their opinions, I must say these panelists made perhaps the most unforgivable journalistic sin: They didn’t check out all sides of the obituary — I mean story — before they wrote it.
Indeed, from what I heard them say, none of them have researched — much less worked in — the world in which I work, the world of small daily and weekly newspapers.
Don’t get me wrong. I certainly see and agree with some of their broader points.
Yes, the digital age is changing journalism. (I’d argue those are good changes, but that’s another panel discussion.) Yes, the traditional newspaper model needs to change. (It is changing; see www.sctimes.com.) And most certainly, the biggest newspapers and media companies in America are facing serious financial and journalistic challenges.
Yet to hear the panelists tell it, the struggles of the Star Tribune and a handful of other major metro newspapers make it certain that all other newspapers will die. And soon. After all, if The New York Times can’t make enough money to keep its Israel bureau open or if the Strib has to cut its Washington staff, well, that can only mean one thing: The St. Cloud Times and weekly newspapers will go under, too.
Sorry, but at the least, I call that conclusion arrogant. More so, though, I question its accuracy. (Last I checked, the Strib emerged from bankruptcy and still is among the best and biggest newspapers in the Upper Midwest.)
More importantly, from the Minnesota Newspaper Association: Of the 3,133,857 Minnesotans receiving newspapers, only 27 percent (873,249) are receiving a daily newspaper. That means 2,260,608 are receiving a paper that is not printed daily. Additionally, only 17 percent receive the Strib or St. Paul newspaper.
The reality is newspapers are like any industry. The parts that make up “the industry” all vary — in size, product, mission, technology, customers, profitability, etc. Those individual parts either evolve or they die. When hasn’t that been the case?
And while I fully acknowledge that the industry is in perhaps its biggest time of change, I can’t stress enough that it’s an industry built not on the printed word, but on providing news and information — two things more in demand today than at any other time.
So while it is troubling that some big metro daily papers are caught up in a recession while battling massive debt, from where I sit — the newsroom of a small daily newspaper — I don’t see those struggles dragging down the other 70 percent of the parts that are still profitable.
Sure, at some point your news and information might not come in the form of ink and dead trees. But you still will want that product. The challenge for the industry is to determine how to gather and deliver it in a profitable way.
That’s very different than declaring newspapers and journalism are dead just because a few of the biggest trees might be falling.
This is the opinion of Randy Krebs, St. Cloud Times Opinion Page editor. He can be reached at 255-8762 and rkrebs@stcloudtimes.com.

The Florida State University summer program for undergraduates.

The 19th Annual Summer for Undergraduates Program
will take place: May 17- June 11, 2010.

Applications will be accepted beginning October 1, 2009, and must be postmarked by Friday, March 26, 2010.

Overview

The Summer for Undergraduates Program at Florida State Law is the largest of its kind and has become a model for other law schools nationally. Approximately 60 undergraduate college students will be chosen from the applicant pool to participate in the four-week long program.

SJU Graduate Chase Cushman '06 -Where’s Obama? Ask 'the Minnesotans’

Chase Cushman, Political Science Major, CSB/SJU ‘06

Where’s Obama? Ask 'the Minnesotans’


ERIC ROPER, Minneapolis Star Tribune, October 23, 2009
WASHINGTON

Only a handful of people have their hands on the president's daily schedule. In the Obama administration, four of them come from Minnesota -- a tightknit crew that helps plan almost every detail of the commander-in-chief's day.
They spent years bouncing from campaign to campaign together, in a happenstance journey that has landed them at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
"It's always a joke that it's the Minnesotans who have kind of taken over the scheduling office," said Chase Cushman. "And it's been that way since the [Obama] campaign."
Not long ago, Cushman's biggest worry was likely shaving seconds off his swim time as a student at St. John's University.
Now his responsibilities are weightier and on occasion can even put the 25-year-old associate director of scheduling in the Oval Office with President Obama and his advisers. Last spring Cushman was there to brief Obama on an upcoming trip to the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad.
"You sit in a room with David Axelrod and like the guys that know stuff and they're looking at a kid from Monticello to ask him what they're doing," Cushman said.
But usually the Minnesota contingent operates behind the scenes, keeping people such as the communications team, advance planners and cabinet secretaries on the same page.
Working alongside Cushman is associate director of scheduling Lizzie Nelson, a 26-year-old Wayzata native who describes herself as "air traffic control" among the dozens of stakeholders at any given event. They create detailed timelines of the president's day two or three days in advance.
"As it gets closer to the time frame where you need to get down to the nitty gritty, that's sort of where we come in," Nelson said.
Deputy director and surrogate scheduler Joe Paulsen, 25, a Minnetonka native, coordinates with members of the cabinet when they participate in events with the president and keeps the rest of the White House updated on the cabinet's schedule. When cabinet members arrive for a public presidential event, it's usually Paulsen who greets them. He is also the son of Terri Bonoff, a Minnesota state senator who ran for Congress last year.
Their point of contact in the West Wing is St. Paul native Jessica Wright, 27, deputy director of scheduling. A University of Minnesota graduate, she focuses on Obama's schedule several weeks out, translating the goals of top advisers into a rough timeline.
"My job I would say is more just kind of taking all of the different things that people want to do and finding a way to make a day fit all of the different messages and all of the basic day-to-day things that we have to do," Wright said.
The influence of orderly Minnesotans in the administration extends beyond the president's scheduling staff.
Just down the hall from scheduling is Pete Selfridge, a 38-year-old Minnetonka native who leads advance operations for Vice President Joe Biden.
"They'll put the schedule on paper and then we make it real outside of the White House," said Selfridge, who began working in the White House more than 10 years ago, sorting invitations in Bill Clinton's scheduling office.
Long journey together
Many of the young Minnesotans on the White House staff have spent their entire careers in politics together.
Several met on U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar's campaign. Wright was Klobuchar's personal aide, Paulsen worked in advance and Nelson coordinated volunteers. Cushman was the personal aide to DFL House candidate Patty Wetterling.
Paulsen, Wright and Nelson each moved to Iowa to join the Obama campaign, where Franny Starkey, formerly Klobuchar's director of scheduling and advance, was the Iowa trips director. Starkey is now Michelle Obama's director of scheduling and advance, working alongside Minnesota native Semonti Mustaphi, the First Lady's deputy press secretary.
After the Iowa caucuses, Paulsen, Nelson and Wright moved to Obama headquarters in Chicago, where Selfridge and Cushman were also employed.
"We've known each other for a while and our department is sort of a family," Nelson said. "We hang out outside of work. I mean they're my friends, they're my co-workers."
So how did so many Minnesotans end up in scheduling?
"We've talked about it before," Cushman said. "We just kind of thought maybe it's because Minnesotans are pragmatic, we like to plan things."
Every day in the White House brings its challenges.
"One of the things I like most about my job is that it's not very routine and every day is very different because the nature of what we're doing just changes constantly," Wright said.
Selfridge relies on a vast network of freelance advance planners around the country to help him arrange dozens of events a month. He spends most of his time coordinating the entire operation from Washington.
But working for the president and representing the United States also has its unforgettable moments.
Wright, who reports to the director of scheduling, recalled representing the United States during negotiations in Canada before the president's trip there in February.
"You sit on either side of the table and they talk about what they want to do and then they're like, 'United States delegation, what do you think?' " Wright said. "And I turned and everyone was looking at me."

Eric Roper • 202-408-2723

Carol Connolly an Evening of Poetry and Conversation

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn.

– Carol Connolly, the first poet laureate of St. Paul, Minn., holds a reading, conversation and book signing at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14 at the Art Center Lecture Hall, Saint John’s University, Collegeville.
The presentation, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by The Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement, and co-sponsored by the SJU University Chair in Critical Thinking.
Connolly will be joined in conversation by Nick Coleman, senior fellow at the McCarthy Center and newspaper columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper, and Mark Conway, director of the Literary Arts Institute at the College of Saint Benedict and an award-winning poet.
The event celebrates the publication of Connolly’s most recent book of poetry, All This and More, which was released Oct. 1 ($17, Nodin Press). Her previous book of poems was Payments Due, which was later released in a revised version, Payments Due: Onstage Offstage. The book was adapted for the stage and enjoyed two-year runs in both Los Angeles and Minneapolis.
McCarthy, who was a poet himself, said of Payments Due: “Hard-thought poems – not of loose words but of rock – surprising observations, images and metaphors. Don’t read if you are afraid.”
Connolly, who was named poet laureate by St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman in 2006, has had a varied career in media. She has worked as a writer with the New York-based Warner Brothers Wonder Woman Foundation; served as a columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper and Mpls.-St. Paul Magazine; been a commentator on 1500 KSTP-AM radio; and been the “Duchess of Dish” at KARE-TV. Her “Hearsay” column appears in each issue of Minnesota Law and Politics magazine, and is a Star Tribune book reviewer.
She has also been actively involved in politics. Connolly served on and then chaired the St. Paul Human Rights Commission, and served three terms as Minnesota Racing Commissioner. She is also the founder and co-chair of the Minnesota Women’s Political Caucus.
In 1968, she volunteered for McCarthy’s historic presidential campaign, and they became close friends.
“He (McCarthy) was such a lovely guy,” Connolly said in a story in the St. Paul Legal Ledger Capitol Report. “My feeling on Gene was that he really was a poet. He looked at things as a poet would, rather than as a politician.”

Hagel: Rudeness in Politics Must End

Former U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska delivers the third annual Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture on Wednesday in the Stephen B. Humphrey Theater at St. John's University. (Jason Wachter, jwachter@stcloudtimes.com)


By Dave Aeikens • daeikens@stcloudtimes.com • September 24, 2009

COLLEGEVILLE —

Former U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said the political discourse in the country has turned so poor that it threatens democracy and America's international standing.

Hagel spoke for about 40 minutes Wednesday night at the Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture at St. John's University. Hagel, who served in the Senate from 1997-2009, was the first Republican senator to speak out against the Iraq war.

"I am concerned our country has lost a good deal of what Eugene McCarthy is all about," Hagel said.

Addressing an audience of more than 400 students and other guests that included McCarthy's family and former U.S. Sen. Dave Durenberger and former U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy, Hagel questioned whether the country will allow rudeness to take over the political system.

"Public discourse has gotten so raw, so rude, so embarrassing it has really debased our system," Hagel said.

He said any fool can stand up and scream and any fool can stand up and call names.

"It takes conscience and courage to find a solution to a problem," Hagel said.

The world is as combustible and interconnected as it has ever been, Hagel said. But the U.S. has great capacity to solve the problems of the world.

"We will never get there if we so debase the process we use to get there," Hagel said.

Hagel pointed to the tenor in the debate on health care policy changes as an example of where the public discourse has gone off the tracks. He said the screaming and rudeness has to stop.

"This is not what a civilized society does," Hagel said.

Hagel said McCarthy, a St. John's graduate from Watkins who served in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, worked to solve problems and disagreed with others in a respectful and honorable way. McCarthy in 1967 was among the first to challenge President Lyndon Johnson, a fellow Democrat, on the U.S. policy in Vietnam.

"That is another dimension on why McCarthy was so important at a very important time," Hagel said.

Hagel said President Obama is confronting more problems than Abraham Lincoln.

He said he has seen how the country has lost its ability to self-govern because it is paralyzed by partisanship.

"We have to bring some semblance back of a governing coalition in the country," Hagel said.

Is the Media ‘Fairness Doctrine’ Fair?

Is the Media ‘Fairness Doctrine’ Fair?

Can our government ensure balance in viewpoints better than the media market?


COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – David Rehr, Ph.D., the former president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters and a 1981 graduate of Saint John’s University, speaks on “Is the Media ‘Fairness Doctrine’ Fair?” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6 at the Alumni Lounge, Quadrangle Building, Saint John’s University.
His appearance, sponsored by The Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, is free and open to the public.
The Fairness Doctrine was a policy of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission introduced in 1949 that required the holders of broadcast licenses to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was (in the FCC’s view) honest, equitable and balanced. In 1987, the FCC abolished the Fairness Doctrine.
No legislation has been introduced in the current Congress to reintroduce the doctrine. But prominent legislative leaders and former Presidents have called for its reinstatement. It could also be reinstated by a simple majority vote of the five members of the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) or through other FCC regulatory orders.
Rehr will review the history of the doctrine and argue that the federal government should not regulate media fairness or balance. “It was a mistake to ever institute the doctrine and we must prevent any attempt, directly or indirectly, to regulate speech under the guise of balance.” Rehr contends. Dr. Rehr will argue that in the past both Republicans and Democrats have used the doctrine to suppress their opponents speech.
Any FCC regulation or law which has the outcome of restricting political speech must be opposed by the citizenry with vigor.
Rehr will make the positive case that technology and market competition is generating a better informed electorate than ever before in the history of the nation.
Rehr earned a bachelor of science degree from SJU in business administration, and went on to earn master’s and doctorate degrees in economics from George Mason University. He has served as a member of the SJU Board of Regents since 2007.
Prior to joining the National Association of Broadcasters in December 2005, Rehr worked as the president of the National Beer Wholesalers Association and as a chief lobbyist to the U.S. House of Representatives for the National Federation of Independent Business. Rehr has been ranked by Beacham’s Guide to Key Lobbyists as one of the 125 most influential lobbyists in Washington, D.C., was listed in Washington Life magazine’s “Power 100” list in 2007 and was annually listed as a “Top Association Lobbyist” by The Hill publication.

2 St. John’s alumni to be honored for public service

September 10, 2009

2 St. John’s alumni to be honored for public service
Men will receive the first Eugene McCarthy Public Service Award

St. Cloud Times staff report

COLLEGEVILLE — St. John’s University will honor two alumni posthumously for their public service.

John Brandl and Gerald Christenson will receive the first Eugene McCarthy Distinguished Public Service Award during the third annual McCarthy Lecture and Dinner on Sept. 23.
Brandl served in the administration of President Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s, first as an analyst with the Defense Department and later as a deputy assistant secretary in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. He later served 12 years in the Minnesota Legislature representing parts of south Minneapolis.

Brandl also was a regent at St. John’s from 1991-2000 and helped launch the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement. He was a distinguished professor of public policy at St. John’s and the College of St. Benedict, and a professor and former dean of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

Christenson, a native of Litchfield, helped design the Minnesota school funding system known as the “Minnesota Miracle” because it made the state responsible for most public education funding. He helped create a federal youth employment program during the 1960s and was chancellor of the Minnesota community college system.

He was also the first commissioner of the state’s Department of Finance, and instituted the revenue forecast.

Christenson was a chief of staff for Fourth District Congressman Joe Karth and a candidate for lieutenant governor in 1966.
Brandl died in 2008; Christenson in 2005.

Former Sen. Chuck Hagel to speak in Collegeville, Minn.

Star Tribune

Last update: September 3, 2009 - 8:52 PM

Former U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel will deliver the annual Eugene McCarthy Lecture at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn., this month. The speech by Hagel represents something of a historical convergence: Dedicated to the memory of one of the most trenchant Democratic opponents of the Vietnam War, it's being delivered by the first Republican senator to oppose the war in Iraq. McCarthy, whose 1968 presidential run effectively toppled President Lyndon Johnson, attended St. John's and was a member of the Benedictine community at St. John's Abbey. He served in Congress from 1949 until 1971. Hagel represented Nebraska in the Senate from 1997 until this year. A Vietnam veteran, he was considered a maverick in the GOP and his name was floated last year as a potential running mate or Cabinet member for President Obama.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public,
will be held at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 23.

BOB VON STERNBERG

The Limits Of Force:

Iraq and Afghanistan Aren't Ours to Win or Lose

Washington Post - Chuck Hagel

The other night I watched the film “The Deer Hunter.” Afterward, I remembered why it took me so many years to be able to watch Vietnam movies.

It all came tumbling back — the tragedy, the innocent victims, the waste. Too often in Washington we tend to see foreign policy as an abstraction, with little understanding of what we are committing our country to: the complications and consequences of endeavors. It is easy to get into war, not so easy to get out. Vietnam lasted more than 10 years; soon, we will slip into our ninth year in Afghanistan. We have been in Iraq for almost seven years.

When I came to the Senate in 1997, the world was being redefined by forces no single country controlled or understood. The implosion of the Soviet Union and a historic diffusion of economic and geopolitical power created new influences and established new global power centers — and new threats. The events of Sept. 11, 2001, shocked America into this reality. The Sept. 11 commission pointed out that the attacks were as much about failures of our intelligence and security systems as about the terrorists’ success. The U.S. response, engaging in two wars, was a 20th-century reaction to 21st-century realities. These wars have cost more than 5,100 American lives; more than 35,000 have been wounded; a trillion dollars has been spent, with billions more departing our Treasury each month. We forgot all the lessons of Vietnam and the preceding history.

No country today has the power to impose its will and values on other nations. As the new world order takes shape, America must lead by building coalitions of common interests, as we did after World War II. Then, international organizations such as the United Nations, NATO, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and GATT (now the World Trade Organization) — while flawed — established boundaries for human and government conduct and expectations that helped keep the world from drifting into World War III and generally made life better for most people worldwide during the second half of the 20th century. Our greatest threats today come from the regions left behind after World War II. Addressing these threats will require a foreign policy underpinned by engagement — in other words, active diplomacy, but not appeasement. We need a clearly defined strategy that accounts for the interconnectedness and the shared interests of all nations. Every great threat to the United States — whether economic, terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, health pandemics, environmental degradation, energy, or water and food shortages — also threatens our global partners and rivals. Accordingly, we cannot view U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan through a lens that sees only “winning” or “losing.” Iraq and Afghanistan are not America’s to win or lose. Win what? We can help them buy time, or develop, but we cannot control their fates. There are too many cultural, ethnic and religious dynamics at play in these regions for any one nation to control. For example, the future of Afghanistan is linked directly to Pakistan and what happens in the mountains along their border. Political accommodation and reconciliation in this region will determine the outcome.

Bogging down large armies in historically complex, dangerous areas ends in disaster. In Vietnam, we kept feeding more men, material and money into a corrupt Vietnamese government as our own leaders continued to deceive themselves and the American people. Today’s wars are quite different from Vietnam. But the Obama administration, Congress and the Pentagon must get this right because it will frame the global architecture for the next generation. We must put forward fresh thinking. We can no longer hold ourselves to narrow “single issue” engagement when dealing with nations such as China, Russia, India, Brazil, Turkey or South Korea. The United States needs all these countries and many more if we are to engage the most dangerous challenges — not one at a time, but all together. Our relationships with these nations have matured since World War II, as these nations have matured. Does anyone believe we will get to a responsible resolution on Iran without Russia? There’s a reason we are part of a Group of 20 rather than a G-8. Even the world’s largest economies cannot handle today’s problems alone.

Global collaboration does not mean retreating from our standards, values or sovereignty. Development of seamless networks of intelligence gathering and sharing, and strengthening alliances, diplomatic cooperation, trade and development can make the biggest long-term difference and have the most lasting impact on building a more stable and secure world. There really are people and organizations committed to destroying America, and we need an agile, flexible and strong military to face these threats. How, when and where we use force are as important as the decision to use it. Relying on the use of force as a centerpiece of our global strategy, as we have in recent years, is economically, strategically and politically unsustainable and will result in unnecessary tragedy — especially for the men and women, and their families, who serve our country.

Are our policies worthy of these Americans’ great sacrifices? That question must always be at the fore of our leaders’ decisions. Threats to America come from more than Afghanistan. Consider Yemen and Somalia. Are we prepared to put U.S. ground troops there? I doubt we would seriously consider putting forces in Pakistan, yet its vast Federally Administered Tribal Areas and mountainous western border harbor our most dangerous enemies today. We must shift our thinking, now, to pursue wiser courses of action and sharper, more relevant policies.
The president and his national security team should listen to recordings of conversations that President Lyndon B. Johnson had with Sen. Richard Russell about Vietnam, especially those in which LBJ told Russell that we could not win in Vietnam but that he did not want to pull out and be the first American president to lose a war. Difficult decisions with historic consequences are coming soon for President Obama.

The writer is a former Republican senator from Nebraska.

Jackson Fellows in the Community

Summer music program looks to educate youth on instruments

By Dave Aeikens (daeikens@stcloudtimes.com) - July 29, 2009

Carlos Borgert sat on the floor in one of the event rooms at the St. Cloud Public Library and told a visitor why he was there.
“I really like to play the flute,” the 6-year-old said in a booming voice.
It was the flute that was on display Tuesday in a program called “The Sounds of Summer: Music Exploration.”
Children this week can take part in the program that introduces them to instruments of the orchestra by listening to music, interacting with musicians and expressing themselves through games, arts and crafts.
The first event was Tuesday and it runs through Friday from 2-2:45 p.m. It is open to children in first through sixth grade. Children can preregister, but walk-ins are also welcome.
“We already have education programs during the school year, but during the summer there is kind of the lapse in the program,” said Chris Beckstrand, a St. Cloud symphony intern who is a College of St. Benedict student from Elk River. She helped organize the summer music program.
“The library is such a beautiful space in St. Cloud, we wanted to take advantage of the space,” she said.
Alvin Yu brought his son Willie to stoke his interest in orchestral music.
“I think it is a good chance to give children the opportunity to see instruments from the symphony,” Yu said.
Beckstrand demonstrated the flute on Tuesday. Today, Patrick Thorn will show off the trumpet, and the violin will be featured on Thursday with percussion instruments on Friday.
“I want to play the flute when I am older,” said 10-year-old Ashlyn Kotcho of Sauk Rapids.
Children at the library worked on crafts and watched demonstrations of instruments. The children made masks by using colors on white paper plates. They were told to use the colors they hear when they listen to music. Symphony music played in the background as they colored and the library set out children’s books about musicians and music to entice the children.
“We’ll have a lot of different creative things that get the children thinking and have fun during the summer,” Beckstrand said.