NickColemanmn.com
Nick Coleman admits that he’s “a rotten churl” for criticizing MinnPost’s “MinnRoast,” which had politicians singing and joking to raise money for the nonprofit news site. “MinnPost could accomplish its goal without putting on a burlesque of bad taste that creates the appearance of conflicts of interest and suggests that the press and the people they should be bird-dogging are swell drinking buddies,” he writes. || MinnPost founders write about on Friday’s event. || I asked MinnPost press critic David Brauer about Coleman’s criticism of MinnRoast. His response:
As a media critic, I have to appreciate others’ criticism of us. There is clearly the appearance of a conflict when those we write about help us raise money.
Since I cash the checks MinnPost sends me, I’ve chosen to let others cover the issue; any analysis I would make would look self-serving or hypocritical. But since you asked, I have not attended MinnRoast the past two years in large part because I am personally uncomfortable with the conflict Nick Coleman describes.
That said, I can testify that in the three-plus years I have worked for him, Joel Kramer has been a highly ethical boss who has never told me what to write and what not to write, no matter who the donor. I have, for example, criticized Himle-Horner or its principals at least twice in the past year, even though as Nick noted they sponsored MinnRoast. Not a peep from Joel. He’s simply not wired to censor writers based on donor considerations. That’s why so many of us work for him.
While Joel’s integrity is something I can testify to personally, I can’t blame outsiders for criticizing MinnRoast’s inherent potential conflicts. In the end, media critics must raise the important questions so readers can analyze the situation for themselves.
