Via You Know Who, Brian Lambert, writing at The Rake, has a feature story on the Star Tribune's oasis from the madness, Katherine Kersten. Despite Lambert's own political leanings, he appears to give Kersten a fair shot. More interesting is how Lambert characterizes the response to Kersten from other Trib employees:
(Nick) Coleman and a number of other Star Tribune reporters (who preferred not to go on record) see the Kersten “experiment” as essentially this: In hopes of appeasing a rancorous minority, the paper has taken a straightforward, arch-conservative opinion-page writer with no traditional newspaper reporting experience...
And this is a bad thing? In other words, the Trib did not take an institutional approach to Kersten and the rank and file don't like it. The question is: where was the Trib going to find such a person in its news room? (chirp. chirp.)
Lambert himself does take at least one shot at Kersten:
Yet during a conversation, you can’t help but be puzzled by the contradictions she doesn’t see, and wonder if she isn’t another example of a person whose facile intellect and desire to differentiate herself have impelled her to a rarefied stratum of thought.
He offers no examples, except that Kersten describes her family as Republican - but not political, and the fact that she marched against Vietnam. I guess people aren't supposed to evolve.
All in all though, it was an interesting look at the Trib's in house pariah. And, despite her colleagues obvious contempt for her, I have found her to be thoughtful and insightful. Reporting on the flying imams and muslim taxi rules when her own paper ran for the hills, were watershed moments in local journalism.
If you are interested, Kersten herself responds to Lambert's critisicm at her Trib blog.
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