Dear Star Tribune:

Yesterday David Brauer came up with a memo from a headhunter firm looking for a new publisher for the Strib. We've all known about the paper's turn to the right and stupidity for about a decade now, but we've never seen it spelled out in the organization's own documents. In honor of the document I sent the following letter in today, knowing it has about a -2 percent chance of being published:

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For about 10 years now I've seen this newspaper lean then careen rightward. The installment of a movement conservative as the director of political coverage (Doug Tice) and the hiring of another movement conservative (and a racist to boot) - Katherine Kersten - as a columnist signaled the change. Now it's out in the open with the publication of a document sent out by a headhunter firm looking for a new publisher for the Strib that described the "challenge" facing a new hire:

“A unique challenge is continuing management’s successful efforts to change the widespread image of the Star Tribune from a strongly liberal paper to a strictly non-partisan news source and a more moderate and less strident editorial page voice.”

Notice how the document says "image" - admitting the paper isn't really liberal, just that righties perceive it as such. This tack to the right will win the paper no new right-wing readers - they are unconvincable, but it has already lost credibility and readership among true liberals who have a brain, since the paper has been deliberately dumbing itself down for a decade. This pandering to the right is *politically motivated* reporting - the exact opposite of your professed neutrality, and another chip in your already tarnished reputation.