Robyne Robinson Makes Her Own News

Yesterday, Robyne Robinson signed off after two decades as news anchor for KMSP, Channel 9.

Today, on his Twitter post, Minnesota DFL gubernatorial candidate Matt Entenza announced that he had chosen Robinson to run with him as his lieutenant governor.  It was probably the worst-kept secret since Brett Favre decided he wanted to play for the Minnesota Vikings.

It also raised a lot of questions.  When Robinson announced her resignation from the TV station a couple of weeks ago--at the same time WCCO's Don Shelby did, stealing his thunder--she said it was so she could concentrate on her burgeoning jewelry business.  Few people believed that, because they figured something else was going on that might have prompted a career switch.

Also, when reports surfaced that Robinson was considering Entenza's offer, she continued to anchor Fox 9's newscasts, leaving the political stories (some of them involving her) to others.  Seeing that most news organizations frown on journalists who seek political office while on the payroll, KMSP should have pulled Robinson off the air immediately if she didn't do so first.

Robinson isn't the first former KMSP news anchor to get into politics.  Rod Grams became a U.S. Senator for one term.  Heather Harden served on the Bloomington City Council from 2000-2005.

As for Entenza, the former state legislator has so far spent thousands of dollars on TV ads portraying himself as a humble attorney from Worthington who claims that "we can't cut our way to greatness".  That money comes courtesy of his wife Lois Quam, who used to be an executive with United Health Care, which happens to be one of the largest health insurance providers in the country.

For all that, however, Entenza is barely making a dent in the polls prior to the August DFL primary against former Senator Mark Dayton and the party's endorsed candidate Margaret Anderson Kelliher.  One of these three will go on to face Republican Dick Emmer for the job now held by Governor Tim Pawlenty.

Maybe that's why Entenza chose someone with name recognition, but little political experience.  Only time will tell if this is a stroke of geniuns on Entenza's part, or a sign of desperation.  One way or another, the Entenza/Robinson ticket is already making headlines.

"American Idol": Lee Greenwood vs. Jewel

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"American Idol", the TV show that has come to influence music as much as the iPod this past decade, is about to crown the next person who could successfully interpret songs made famous by somebody else.

While "Idol" remains a cash cow for Fox, the show is in a transition period.  Paula Abdul has been replaced as a judge by Ellen DeGeneres, the talk show host who has no connection to the music business other than dancing to the beat.  Simon Cowell, the persnickety judge who helped make the show what it is today, is leaving to help launch another talent show for Fox called "The X Factor", which won't debut until the fall of 2011.  (Abdul is reportedly considering joining Cowell on "X".)  And the show's ratings, though remaining high, have been slipping in the face of competition from "Dancing With The Stars" on ABC.

One of the reasons for the ratings drop is that, according to people who pay attention to the show more than we do, is that the level of talent this year isn't the greatest.  Which is how we ended up with Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze in the finals that were held Tuesday night at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles.

Both Bowersox and DeWyze had three rounds to prove themselves to the judges, and to the millions of viewers with cell phones at the ready (preferably AT&T) to cast their votes.  Here's our score card.

• In Round One, DeWyze went first with the Simon and Garfunkel classic "The Boxer".  He had a generic male singing voice booming out the lyrics, making him sound like Lee Greenwood.  Bowersox performed "Me and Bobby McGee", made famous by Janis Joplin.  Jewel, not Joplin, came to mind.
• Round Two:  DeWyze did a boisterous, upbeat version of "Everybody Hurts", a downbeat R.E.M. tune.  Bowersox' take on Alannah Myles' "Black Velvet" was OK, not great.
• Round Three:  DeWyze's version of U2's "Beautiful Day", complete with a chior, shouldn't give Bono much to worry about.  Bowersox did "Up To The Mountain" for her finale.  It's not a great song, but she knocked it out of the park.

We're not saying Lee DeWyze is a bad singer.  We just think that he could do much better with original material.  And with that voice, he could be a welcome addition to singing the National Anthem at baseball games and Republican fundraisers.  Just like Lee Greenwood.

Crystal Bowersox, by default really, is our choice as the next American Idol.  However, her style is more suited for coffeehouses and radio stations like Cities 97, which makes her chances of a successful career iffy at best.  Maybe Sarah McLaughlin can find a place for her on the upcoming Lilith tour.

The winner will be announced at the end of tomorrow night's bloated two-hour finale.  If history is any guide, the fickle fingers of  "American Idol"'s mostly female audience will make Lee DeWyze the winner instead, leading him to a career path matched only by Taylor Hicks and Kris Allen.  And Simon Cowell's decision to leave the show will prove to be sound.

No Clout, No Freedom

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For the past 10 months, three American citizens (two men and one woman) have been holed up in an Iranian prison.  They have been awaiting trial on charges of spying and entering the country illegally.  The Americans, who we are not naming, claim they were hiking in the mountains of Iraq and accidentally stepped across the border.  The truth, if there is such a thing in this case, lies somewhere in between.

This past week, those three Americans got visits from their mothers, who were hoping to secure their freedom while they were there.  Not only did that not happen, but Iranian officials declined to meet with the mothers.

You know what's missing here?  None of these individuals have the diplomatic or media connections that journalists Roxana Sabieri and Laura Ling had when faced with a similar situation, at least none that we know of.  We were reminded of this when Laura and her sister Lisa appeared on CNN's "Reliable Sources" to promote a book they had jointly written.  (To see the interview, go to www.cnn.com/video.)

In Laura's case, she was covering a story for Current TV about North Korean women escaping to China when she was arrested for briefly stepping across the North Korean border, then was charged with spying and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.
 
The task of freeing Laura fell to Lisa, a well-known journalist who has appeared on "The View", Oprah Winfrey and the National Geographic channel.  Lisa told CNN that she worked her connections to make sure that (A) the American media limited its coverage of the incident, and (B) the leadership in North Korea (read:  Kim Jong-Il) sees her pleas for her sister's release on CNN, a channel she said they trusted.

Ultimately, it took former President Bill Clinton, whom the North Koreans seem to admire, to win Laura's release.  But not without a little help from the Obama administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

No doubt Laura Ling is lucky to be alive after all that.  But there's a fine line between being in a dangerous part of the world for a legitimate purpose and being stupid.  Especially when those parts of the world are run by leaders who may or may not have weapons of mass destruction, and diplomatic relations between them and the United States are iffy at best.

This does not mean that the three American hikers are doomed to rot in an Iranian prison for the rest of their lives.  We don't even know if diplomatic endeavours to win their release are ongoing.  But we do know this:  Sometimes it's not what you know, but who you know when it comes to getting released from a foreign prison.

Fourth And Long For a Vikings Stadium

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Once again, the Minnesota Vikings struck out in their attempt to convince the state Legislature to give them a new football palace before the clock runs out on their Metrodome lease in 2011.

This time around, the Vikings put on a two-minute drill with two weeks left in the session, putting in provisions that would fund the stadium with fees (or taxes, if you prefer) on sports memorabilia and diverting the funds to pay for Minneapolis' convention center.  Also, the proposal would not have limited the site of the new stadium to Minneapolis, even though the land near the Metrodome is believed to be the team's preferred choice.

The whole thing never made it out of a House committee.  In fact, the only stadium legislation that was passed this year gave the University of Minnesota the power to allow alcohol in certain sections of TCF Bank Stadium.

So now what?  The Vikings issued a statement expressing their disappointment, to put it mildly, at the way things turned out.  But it was a foregone conclusion that nothing was going to get done this year.  Minnesota is in a budget crisis, and the Vikings' efforts were too little and too late, as if Brett Favre skipped the regular season and went right into the playoffs.

Jay Weiner wrote an excellent article on the situation for MinnPost, including why he thinks the lease expiration date is not a hard and fast one.  (See http://www.minnpost.com/  for details.)  But here are two other factors Weiner left out:

• The National Football League might want two teams--one each from the American and National conferences--sharing a new stadium in Los Angeles, just like the New York Giants and Jets are doing in New Jersey, so that each could be represented in the nation's second-largest TV market.  The Vikings could be co-tenants with an AFC franchise sunch as the San Diego Chargers or the Buffalo Bills.  And until the facility is ready, the Rose Bowl and Memorial Coliseum are still available.
• In a recent Star Tribune column, Sid Hartman speculated that the Vikings could land at the University of Alabama's football stadium.  First, the NFL would rather see the state's largest city Birmingham build a modern stadium.  Second, why would you want to go up against the Crimson Tide?

If the Vikings have any intention of staying in Minnesota beyond 2011, they need to do a better job of fine-tuning their stadium proposal, which includes putting together a coalition of financial and government partners, as well as cultivating enough legislative support to finally get this thing passed.  Oh, and it would also help if they used a little clock management so the bill doesn't look like a rush job.

The Procrastination Session

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The annual haggling (or so it seems) at the state capitol over what to do about Minnesota's out-of-control budget deficit ended early Monday morning, with nobody too pleased over the outcome.

The state's three billion dollar shortfall was solved mainly by deferring two billion in school payments to 2012, and by rubber-stamping a billion dollar's worth of Governor Tim Pawlenty's budget cuts that he "unallotted", despite a state Supreme Court ruling that he went too far with it.

That simply means whoever is the next governor has a bigger budget mess to deal with, for which that person should write Pawlenty a thank-you note.

As much as this sounds like a compromise, it really wasn't.  Not with Pawlenty cracking the whip behind closed doors, getting his way over a tired (and timid) bunch of House and Senate leaders, so the Governor can claim that he tamed the budget deficit without a single new tax.  That'll play well on the presidential campaign trail, should he decide to try it.  He's also got some positive coverage in the national media, but as is usually the case, they're not as close to the situation as we are.

Since nothing was decided before the Legislative session was mandated to end Sunday night, the Governor tacked on a special session that lasted until noon Monday.  By then, both the House and Senate passed the budget bill and got the heck out of St. Paul.

With the budget being the main event this session, a lot of other things got pushed aside.  Such as a new Vikings stadium, an education bill and shifting economically challenged Minnesotans from a state health care program to Medicaid--unless Pawlenty or his successor decides by January 2011 to make the switch.

However, there was plenty of support for new laws to combat drunk driving.  Big whoop.  At this point, that's like being in favor of Mom, apple pie and cute puppies.

Both Republicans and the DFL need to face reality.  They need to find another way to fund vital programs without raising taxes or cutting back on services.  They need to stop saying no to things that would truly benefit Minnesotans just to score political points.  Most of all, they need to realize that there's no time like the present to get things done.

Don Shelby Retires. So What Else Is News?

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It comes as no surprise that Don Shelby is retiring as WCCO news anchor after a 32-year career at the Minneapolis TV station.  It comes as even less of a surprise that Frank Vascellaro will become his replacement.

The only surprise is that Shelby's last newscast won't be until November, so he has an entire summer and part of the fall to say his goodbyes.  That's better than being dumped out on the street, like so many of his colleagues are these days.

Shelby started out as an investigative reporter, winning many local and national honors for himself and for WCCO.  Then he replaced local broadcasting legend Dave Moore as 10 p.m. news anchor in 1985, but still did some reporting.

More recently, Shelby restricted himself to anchoring the 10 with Amelia Santaniello (Frank's wife), and to doing nightly commentaries in which he often beat the drum about the environment and the possibilities of renewable energy.  For this, conservative viewers would label him "DFL Don" and worse.

What Shelby leaves behind at WCCO is a news operation that used to be the envy of the industry, but is getting more unwatchable by the minute.  Like these:

• The novelty of Frank and Amelia as a husband-and-wife anchor team is wearing thin, with sweeps-month stories on parenting issues and on how they coped with remodeling their basement.
• Resorting to gimmicks such as "The Six" (reporters standing around and chattering) and "Good Question" (no question too ridiculous for Jason DeRusha).
• On crime stories, the "zoom-outs" (for lack of a better term) of pictures of perpetrators and victims against a plain background is annoying and needs to stop.  Like how many times do we have to see mug shots of Faisal Shahzad, who allegedly tried to blow up Times Square, expand like a balloon?
• The use of the word "share" when introducing a report.
• Meteorologist Chris Shaffer may be a nice guy, but he's no Paul Douglas.
• Someone needs to get over the idea that Amelia Santaniello knows anything about sports.  And please cut off her mike while Mark Rosen narrates Twins highlights.  It makes her sound like the Peanut Gallery.

Don Shelby, whatever you thought of him, is one of the last remaining links to the days when WCCO was the gold standard of local TV news.  But style matters now, and it has less to do with journalism than with catering to a certain section of the audience.  And we are all the poorer for it.  Enjoy your retirement, Don. 

Status Quo at the Supreme Court

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Elena Kagan is currently the U.S. Solicitor General, which means that her job is to argue the government's cases that come before the Supreme Court.  By the first Monday in October, she could be helping decide those cases.

President Barack Obama nominated Kagan to be a justice on the Supreme Court, replacing the retiring John Paul Stevens.  It's not going to make much of an ideological dent--the President is simply trading in one moderate for another--but this is going to be the court's third female justice, with Kagan possibly joining Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, so the gender balance is close to evening things out.

Kagan has never been a judge.  But she has had experience working for Thurgood Marshall when he was a justice, and for President Bill Clinton.  She has also been dean of Harvard Law School.  That background may or may not help her in the Senate confirmation hearings to come, but prior experience in wearing judicial robes doesn't appear to be in the job description.

In this partisan age, it's not surprising that those on the left or right would have a problem with Kagan.  She hasn't said much about her positions on hot judicial topics, or how she would rule on them.  Liberals don't trust her because she's not liberal enough for them.  Conservatives will try to block her nomination, or at least drag it closer to the elections, just because they'll oppose anything Obama does.  But unless there's some kind of bombshell revelation about Kagan, she will likely be confirmed.

Like we said, Kagan's nomination won't change the fact that this is still a Supreme Court dominated by conservative justices who were chosen by Republican presidents.  But the longer Obama or some other Democrat occupies the White House, the more interesting things would be if circumstances forced some of those justices to step down.

The Not-So-Big 830, Continued

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Since our last post on the changes at WCCO Radio (some of you might remember it), the station has made some more.  This time, two familiar voices are sent packing as another one jumps aboard.

Two of its news staffers are the latest to take CBS' money and running.  First there's Eric Eskola, who's been the station's government reporter for three decades, and is generally well-regarded.  He'll still be co-hosting TPT's "Almanac" with wife Cathy Wurzer of Minnesota Public Radio.  Other than that, who would want him in this digital age?

Then there's Jeff McKinney, the news reader who attained some kind of notice when he started bantering with Don Shelby when he used to have a show.  We hear he's going to St. Louis.

For a station that bills itself as "Newsradio 8-3-0", their commitment to news is shrinking to the point where it's just CBS News at the top of the hour, and the Frank and Amelia simulcast with Channel 4 at six.  It's getting to the point where, if you want news on the radio, then MPR's the place to go--when they're not begging for money they don't need.

The addition is Tom Mischke, who's taking over Dark Star's old 10-to-midnight time period.  He was employed off and on at KSTP-AM 1500 for several years until they finally gave him the boot.  Then he did podcasts for City Pages, for whom he will continue to provide a column for the alternative weekly.

For those of you who have never heard of Mischke (much less heard him), he's an acquired taste who usually uses his airtime to ramble on about nothing in particular.  He'll fit right into the on-the-air billboard that is WCCO, shilling for his favorite jewelry store.  But there's also the possiblilty that he might be too quirky for the station and its audience, who are more used to normal-sounding people with normal-sounding views.
Let's see how long this lasts.

You have to give WCCO credit for making a run at reinventing itself in the 21st century with the hiring of Mischke.  But getting rid of all those familiar voices will probably end up backfiring on them, if it hasn't already.  That's how it is in broadcasting these days--loyalty takes a back seat to the bottom line.

BP: Beyond Pollution

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The oil slick caused by a rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico is an environmental disaster of the first magnitude.  It threatens everything from Texas to Florida in terms of wildlife, tourism and the livelihoods of seafood fishermen.  It will drive up the price of gasoline (already headed for three dollars a gallon), shrimp and crab.  And, for at least the time being, it will shut up the "Drill Baby Drill"  crowd who want to ring America's coasts with oil rigs.

BP, the company formerly known as British Petroleum, is responsible for paying the bulk of the cost of cleaning up the massive mess (expected to be in the billions), since it's their rig that burned down and took the lives of 11 workers.  But the taxpayers will also be on the hook for the amount of government personnel and eqipment needed to control the spill.  The well hasn't been capped yet, and 200,000 gallons a day have been spewing out into the gulf so far.

This could turn out to be President Obama's Katrina.  He's disappointed his environmentally-minded supporters for coming out in favor of so-called "clean coal" and for limited drilling for oil near the coasts--which he will probably have to put on hold while the cause of the BP spill is under investigation.

Most of all, though, the residents of the Gulf are about to get screwed.  If years of litigation by citizens of Alaska affected by the Exxon Valdez disaster (which just happens to be in Sarah Palin's backyard) failed to produce one dime out of ExxonMobil, how can these folks expect anything different from BP and its attorneys?

Like it or not, oil is what this society will be running on for the foreseeable future, whether it comes from here or somewhere else.  There are alternatives, but nobody said they were perfect.  Some examples:

Nuclear Power  Some are touting this as the best and cleanest kind of energy there is.  We can think of a few reasons why it isn't the safest:  Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, terrorism and where to put all that waste.  Also, would you really want someone like Homer Simpson working at a reactor near you?

Ethanol  In several states, there are laws requiring a certain percentage of it to be mixed in with the gasoline you buy.  It's great for corn farmers and the politicians who cozy up to them.  It's not so great for your car's engine, the world food supply, and the energy it takes to make ethanol to begin with.

Wind Power  Those modern-day windmills save plenty on electricity and its costs.  But they can also be unsightly and noisy, which is why some communities have sought to ban them.  Also, how would they work if the wind isn't blowing?

Solar Power  Put some of those panels on your roof and watch the savings go up, though it may not make up for how much you paid for it.  It also might be a problem on days when the sun doesn't shine.

Given the wants and needs of the society we live in, black, gooey shorelines are a small price to pay for getting around in the millions of gas hogs still on the road even after Cash for Clunkers ended.  If there is a new energy source that does the same job as oil, and is plentiful domestically, we'd love to hear about it.

Tom Emmer: Another Right Turn For Minnesota Republicans

Tom Emmer, a House representative from Delano, will be Minnesota's GOP standard-bearer in the race to replace Governor Tim Pawlenty this November.

Emmer got the endorsement at the Republicans' convention in Minneapolis after his main opponent Marty Seifert folded like a deck of cards and conceded.  The delegates were apparently swayed by Emmer's getting the backing of former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Nothing like a God-fearing hockey mom giving her support to a former college hockey player, right?  Especially when it comes from one of the brightest bulbs in the Republican Party.

Emmer represents the modern GOP candidate in that he's very conservative and has enough appeal to the Tea Party movement.  He makes Pawlenty look like a moderate (egads!) by comparison with his pledge to cut state government by another 20 percent, and supporting Arizona's immigration law as a "wonderful first step".  Yet he says he wants to run as a mainstream candidate.  Good luck with that.

Annette Meeks, who is Emmer's running mate, is a think-tank conservative who believes the office of lieutenant governor should be abolished.  Which just happens to be the office she's running for.  And, no, she's not the first person who wants her own job eliminated.

So it's all set for August.  Emmer, who has no serious opposition in his primary, can just sit back and watch while Mark Dayton, Matt Entenza and Margaret Anderson Kelliher duke it out for the DFL nod.  The potential implosion could mean that Emmer has a pretty good shot at retaining the Republicans' hold on the governor's office.