On Aug 5, 2005, at 11:59 AM, David Tilsen wrote:
The purpose of this post is not to fully explore anything, only to
say that to those people who really care about how our city
government works, how children are served, then there are a lot of
important issues between all of the candidates. It just requires
people to think, and, at the risk of being called an elitist like
John Stewart, most of the media believes their readers and watchers
don't.
[He says, hoping not to sound too defensive...]
I actually think more than a few local media outlets are into policy
to (some say) a fault.
I know Steve Brandt has to fight the overlords at the Strib for
substantive stuff, but he does a much better than average job of
getting nuance into School stories.
I think both papers I edit (Skyway News and Southwest Journal) are
sometimes so dense with policy that light actually has trouble
escaping. (I'm actually very proud of our commitment to substance -
if anything, my papers err on the side of earnestness. Our biggest
challenge to embrace complexity and detail and make it readable.)
Craig Cox is of course doing great work at the Observer. The paper's
interviews with policy leaders has allowed them to flesh out their
vision.
When City Pages turns its megatonnage on a city issue (witness the
police-legal-payouts story), it can go quite in depth. I don't think
they do it enough, but the same can probably be said of the rest of us.
I don't want to suggest there are outlets that focus too much on
ephemera; there are. But I think the quality outlets exist here, too.
All that said, David's questions about Peter's education stands are
wise and frankly, better framed than anything I've come up with so
far. I will, of course, rip them off at the first opportunity.
I, too, feel a lot of the recent chatter on this list has been
campaign surrogates engaged in hyperbolically assertive defenses of
their guy or gal. I value open-mindedness and those who embrace
complexity. I applaud David's post for asking questions that can
generate open-ended answers that inform us better, rather than
bludgeoning us with overly hardened conclusions. I hope we all follow
his lead.
David Brauer
Kingfield
PS, a little thing, but it's Jon Stewart, no "h" in the first name.
REMINDERS:
1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If
you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL
PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list.
2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.
For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html
For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract
________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn
E-Democracy
Post messages to: mailto:[email protected]
Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
