Monday, May 07, 2007

Actually, I would like to start a subscription.

Bush apologist James Lileks' inane Star Tribune column about nothing (seriously, it is always vague commentary about Target ads or some such thing, and referred to as "humor") was cancelled recently, because the paper wants him to report actual news. Please note that his actual column is not political, and it is a kind of humor column that is horribly outdated. There is a huge uproar in the right-wing portion in the blogosphere about how horrible this is. They are encouraging people to cancel their Strib subscriptions.

My reaction? I have lived in Minneapolis for five years, and I have never paid for home delivery. I get most of my news online. I picked up the phone and ordered home delivery.

I told everyone that I spoke to that it was because they cancelled Lileks' column.

The column itself was a waste of space, but more than that, the ten seconds a day it took him to write the column and get paid for it allowed him the leisure to write here (look to past posts for political stuff). And that is what the right-wing blogosphere is upset about; the Strib is not going to be subsidizing Lileks' political commentary any more. If he were a political columnist, I might understand the uproar. Lileks is free to write anything he wants on his website if he has the free time once he has a real job, just like anyone else in America.

I also sent this email to the Reader's Rep:

Ms. Parry—

I want to congratulate the Star Tribune for getting rid of some dead weight. James Lileks' column should have been cancelled years ago.

Upon hearing the news, I subscribed to home delivery.

Regards,

Kate


************Edited to add************


Please note that I don't think this is some sort of wonderful journalistic advance on the part of the Strib. Getting rid of all of the columnists isn't good journalism, it's just cheaper for them. Lileks is far from the only one that this is happening to--and that is part of my point. That, and the right-wing gnashing of teeth, along with Lileks' asking people to contact the reader's rep on his part just annoyed me enough that it was worth less than $20 of my money to make a point of doing exactly the opposite thing.

3 comments:

Grendel said...

Dear gods. I just read his rambling blather on the bee disappearances and how it's not so bad, no big deal. Yeaaaahhhh... 19 billion added to the agricultural industry if I remember my NPR. 1/3 of all produce pollinated by commercial bees.

Nope. Not a problem at all. This is precisely why I should be allowed to carry (and use indiscriminately of course) a firearm.

Vika said...

Oh, I would be discriminte.

I shoot Stupid on Sight.

Grendel said...

Well. . . something would have to provoke me so that's how it would generally work out. :)