Bob CollinsIt’s almost as if NPR’s standards & practices boss had Minnesota newswriters in mind when he issued his annual memo today on what not to say when telling stories about the weather. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
By Bob Collins
Bob Collins retired from Minnesota Public Radio in 2019 after 12 years of writing NewsCut and pointing out to complainants that posts weren’t news stories. A son of Massachusetts, he was a news editor 1992-1998, created the MPR News regional website in 1999, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started several blogs, and every day lamented that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.
Wayne Lo roamed the campus of Simon’s Rock of Bard College in Great Barrington, Mass., my home before moving to Minnesota. He thought he was getting commands from God to kill people. And so he shot them, killing one student and one professor, wounding several others, including a student from Minnesota. Read more →
Disrespect without accountability seems to be at the heart of a lawsuit the Young Conservatives Club of Edina High School has filed after some students refused to stand during taps at a Veteran’s Day observance at the school.
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Here’s a list of topics and guests scheduled for today on MPR News programming. Read more →
This tweet, from Rochester Post Bulletin photojournalist Andrew Link, is the sort of thing that can bring a tear to an old-school news junkie. Read more →
Vonn is getting the Dixie Chicks treatment because she weighed in on the question of what it means to represent the United States? Read more →
The eye is drawn to the smiling politician in the center of this Associated Press photo, until you follow the line created by linked hands and see the face of his spouse, and a different story — different words, if you will — is revealed. Read more →
Every day we look at the day’s news and try to answer a question: Who are we? What kind of people are we?
Really, it’s an impossible question and an impossible answer. We’re a lot of different things.
But that’s not going to stop us from declaring that we’re a people who stop to help a rabbit in the midst of a devastating inferno.
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Maybe a month ago, sexual harassment wasn’t a partisan issue. With Franken’s exit, Democrats, who’ve pushed John Conyers and Franken to the curb this week, are gambling that they can make it one. Read more →
Brendon Manuel Dos Santos, 23, was found not guilty of attending a noisy party in Grand Forks yesterday, but was he on trial for that charge or was it really because he wouldn’t so something he didn’t have to do. Read more →
Here are the topics and guests scheduled today on MPR News programming. Read more →
2017 has been the year of big mouths, bluster and blathering Tweets. Time’s choice is perfect because it focuses on forced silence that is ending because two small, nearly whispered words on the social media of choice: Me too.
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Here’s Wednesday’s list of show topics and guests on MPR News programming. Read more →
Here’s your moment of Minnesota Zen. Read more →
Comedian John Oliver pretty well nailed it while participating in a panel he was moderating about the 20th anniversary of the film ‘Wag the Dog’ when he asked Hoffman about allegations that he groped a 17-year-old intern on the set. Read more →