by Steve Timmer

Sep 10, 2013, 8:00 AM

On comments – Old candidates never die edition

Commenter Ned observes, in response to Old candidates never die, a story about the latest installment in Tom Horner and Tim Penny’s serial biliousness in the Sunday Strib:

I’ve wondered why the StarTrib publishes these guys. Their analysis is always so shallow or deceiving. I have worked in job training programs for many years; their take on how much they cost is inaccurate or misleading at best. Even ‘short term’ jobs they mention are valuable in that they give the person experience that they can take to the next employer. Most job training programs are designed to do just that, give the person a start or entry into the world of work, be it a specific job or simply an entry level job. Obviously, not every person in job training has the same background or prior work experience. Studies show the money spent on these programs pay back multiple times what they cost; it appears they have ‘cherry picked’ the statistics they want to support their theory.

These guys are symptomatic of what has happened to the StarTrib in recent years. I suppose they think publishing these guys and Katherine Kerstin equals diversity of thought between conservative and liberal but they devote too much to the conservative view. If the StarTrib wants to do that perhaps they should get conservatives that actually know something such as… someone like the late Wm. Buckley? After subscribing to the StarTrib for about 30 years I cancelled my subscription last year…just can’t take this BS in my hometown paper anymore.

I agree with Ned that the line up of regular commentary writers could use some, um, improvement. To me, though, the value of the newspaper is its reporting of state, Capitol, and local news. The genesis of what I, and most other local web writers, write is the morning paper, or its electronic equivalent. I’ve been spilling Cheerios on the Strib in the morning for a very long time, and I am not going to stop now.