Nick Coleman: MPR's exit interview
Deposed Star Tribune columnist Nick Coleman sat down for an interview with MPR's Cathy Wurzer. Their 17-minute discussion provides a thoughtful manifesto on what it means to write such pieces.
I've withheld judgment on Coleman's replacements, Jon Tevlin and Gail Rosenblum, because I know the gig is tough and requires some settling in — both for the writers, and for readers accustomed to a different style. But Coleman's take, partially transcribed below, is a jumping off point for my early thoughts.
MPR's Bob Collins has a "Cliffs Notes" version of the segment here, You can also listen to the interview here:
MPR's Cathy Wurzer asked Coleman about his column-writing goal:
Well, there’s so many different ways to write a column, there are many different ways to approach it, but I was taught by the Catholic nuns on West Seventh and Randolph that you’re supposed to make a difference. Writing is supposed to make a differnce.
It’s a gift if you have it, they gave it to me, and I sort of adopted their sensibilities, too, which is you write about people and their real concerns and their real issues. You try to tackle their common interests with a common touch and find the common purpose. I guess these days this kind of makes me some kind of dinosaur, but I actually think newspapers are supposed to make a difference.
... A lot of it is just keeping up with the rush of current events, but also sometimes it’s to give, I think the license of a column — if one still exists — is that you can use it as a way to provide insight into what is happening to people in common, everyday occurrences, why it’s happening.
And you know sometimes really the job is to point the finger at people, powerful people especially, who may not be exactly speaking candidly or even honestly about what is happening in our culture and in our community.
This is my big problem with the columnists so far: powerful people have had it really easy. We might disagree about who deserves the whack, but except for a stray Ponzi schemer, the "co" in columnists has stood for "conscientious objector" when it comes to judgment-making.
I get that not every column should be about politics, or be a takedown. I don't need phony tub-thumping or forced verdicts, and columnists should be allowed to write the three words that strike terror into talk radio hosts: I'm not sure.
But right now, such license is being wasted! I admire Gail Rosenblum's writing, but when she does a piece on peanut-allergic kids trapped in tin can at 30,000 feet, forced to break out epinephrine syringes because Northwest Airlines coddles Georgia's goober industry, I want to know what she thinks. Otherwise, it's just a feature story with the writer's picture.
Coleman continues:
I don’t understand why media don’t want to make a difference. And you can’t do that in a partisan way, and you can’t do that in a subterfuge kind of a way. You need to be open, but you have to be able and willing to address and tackle the real issues of the day.
You know, this debate has happened in media after the Iraq War began. A lot of media people have asked, well, why did we just do all this "he said, she said, the government says, this other expert says" and we never questioned, we never independently asserted, our own brain power on this and looked at what was really at stake and what was really happening.
And that was an interesting discussion but seems to have gone nowhere.
And a lot of media, especially the parts of the industry just trying to hold on right now, are trying very hard not to get anybody upset or mad. And are trying not to be accused of getting anyone upset.
And I don’t think it’s just a printing press for making money or losing money. There’s supposed to be some kind of higher calling to be in this business, or you might as well be doing something else that has shorter hours and better benefits.
Nick didn't say it, but you don't have to squint between the lines to hear him calling out the Star Tribune. He's referencing not just outrage-free columnists but the outrage-light editorial page, where truly provocative callouts have become an endangered species.
But don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Perhaps it's my own sail-trimming, but there are plenty of good journalists throughout the Strib who produce stories that get people mad about the right things. Yes, the paper has sadly sanded down its bully pulpit, but I think they're more committed to hard news these days than under ex-editor Anders Gyllenhaal, who hired Coleman.
Nick concludes with his take on taking flak, why management kowtows to an angry few, and the goodbye he didn't say in print:
I think people right now are afraid of speaking up and speaking out. … It’s really a crazy environment, unfortunately, where we have fewer people willing to stand up then that makes them easier targets because there are only so many heads sticking up above the ground.
That’s very intimidating. It’s very intimidating and a lot of people can’t handle it. It’s not easy. You have get a stuff skin and develop an indifference to being called … I can’t even tell you on this microphone, the kind of things, the comments on my column.
I would go to the people in charge and say why is this word being used next to my name. And they’d go, "well that’s supposed to be filtered out." But you have to spell it right, and of course, a lot of these commenters don’t know how to spell nasty words correctly.
It’s an intimidating environment, I think it’s a somewhat degraded media environment right now. As we get quicker, and we have more technology, more reach, more resources in some ways to tell stories, we seem to be getting less willing to actually tell them meaningfully because someone might object.
And the ones who might object and call you those dirty words misspelled on your website have an impact way out of proportion to those many readers.
Now, all the ones who call me names, by the way, know I’m gone, and they’ve been doing a dance on my grave for a month or more. It’s only the decent subscribers who paid for the paper for many years or decades and who liked my column and wanted to read it, and wonder where it is, they’re the ones who’ve been calling up and emailing me saying, “I hope you’re on vacation.”
So I’m sorry I wasn’t able to say to them, “Yes, I’m on vacation; could be permanent."
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Comments (23)
Thanks for doing the transcribing work.
I have a gripe with this graf:
This is my big problem with the columnists so far: powerful people have had it really easy. We might disagree about who deserves the whack, but except for a stray Ponzi schemer, the "co" in columnists has stood for "conscientious objector" when it comes judgment-making.
Fraidy-cat columnists aren't a good analogy to conscientious objectors who refuse to kill or otherwise participate in war.
Chris -
You make a good point. For the record, I didn't intend to denigrate the guts it takes to be a genuine CO during wartime.
We'll miss you Nick hope to see you writing again. Good article ya'll.
I'm not sure naming Gail Rosenblum is exactly the epitome of class on his part. I agree for the most part politically with Coleman, but sometimes his writing had to much of the "I." I think there has also been a tendency with some Strib reporters to become part of the story, something I learned in J-school was not particularly desirable (and now I'm doing it...).
The facts and quotes in Rosenblum's story spoke much more forcefully than any sanctimonious protests on her part. It would be different if she were an expert allergist or one of the parents or people struggling with that allergy.
There is a danger with journalism of writing down competing quotes that seem to equalize each other. Journalists should be able to point out (even in non editorial writing) when a statement is not only misleading but demonstrably false. I particularly remember Bob Dole blaming Clinton for starting the war in Somalia, and not a peep from the journalists to say it was in Bush I's tenure. There are thousands of examples of this.
So the trick is to do this without being like Geraldo Rivera, getting bloodied himself, or shedding the obligatory tear.
I miss Nick Coleman terribly. We disagreed on things, agreed om others, but it's always been a pleasure to read a writer.
It will come as no surprise to anyone that I am one among many that think Nick's retirement has been long overdue.
I mean it was only a matter of time before the old fella found himself incapable of dodging pop cans thrown at him by the subjects of his interviews, and as any good union man would tell you, no one should have to bleed to earn a paycheck.
But instead of risking a misspelled adjective, for my farewell gift to Nick I'll defer to Jay Rosen, who as a highly respected Professor of Journalism at NYU, can be counted on to provide not only proper spelling, punctuation and syntax, but possibly one of the most erudite synopsis of Nick's contribution to his craft that I've ever seen.
http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2004/10/02/coleman_...
"A stupid piece of writing cannot become a genre classic unless it is aggressively stupid, or stupid with great purpose, high flourish, true style. I think everyone who clicked a link and read Coleman's hit piece on bloggers saw it as a potential classic right away."
So long, boyo. We hardly knew ye.
David,
As you've touched on many times, Tevlin & Rosenblum are "safe" columnists who I seriously doubt will generate the ire of readers the way Coleman or Kirsten ever did or will.
I really liked that Nick still sounds pissed and genuine about the state of media. You can here the conviction in his voice, and the passion that he still has for his vocation.
I wish him the best, but I hope he doesn't go back to doing the "man on the street" bit on Fox 9 News.
#4 Jeff --
Don't blame Nick for that one; it was me talking.
I agree sanctimonius protests are bad, and so are forced conclusions. But I simply had no idea what Gail thought should be done, other than an oblique reference to a strident few on either ends. You don't have to be an expert to have an informed opinion, and I yearn to have her say what she thinks rather than speaking completely through her subjects.
I don't want to harp on that column; it was just an example. And I don't want Gail, or Jon for that matter, to stop telling real people's stories. But there has to be more than that, a sense of mission, what should be done, a rallying cry when appropriate. And yes, a finger in some puffed-up pooh-bah's eye.
There's been almost none of that so far, and that worries me.
#6 You can disagree with Coleman's anti-blogger screed , but just because Rosen was picturesquely offended doesn't take down a guy's whole career. Rosen's not God, either.
Readers should demand more than passive wordsmiths trying to embrace corporate employers with one hand and trying to write with the other.
Collins over at MPR asks the question..."Should Journalism make a difference?"
All I can say is, if you have to ask, maybe you aren't appropriately paper-trained?
Whatever the media format, here in the time of economic and political crisis, the reader-of-news expects more than copy-cat headlines and watered down opinions on the editorial pages or by independant thinking columnists. So where have all the good guys gone... investigative journalists, muckrakers; all those 'the-question-is-an-active-verb' voices,eh?
Or try this one:
"If dog bites man etc."...but if reporters dare not even "bite the dog" anymore, the least he can do is kick the 'mutt' once in awhile and get a rabies shot.
Here's another self-scribed twist on that worn out platitude...When man bites God, write about it. When God bites man, get a second opinion.
Or maybe any reporter worth his weight in print should throw a few shoes once in awhile?
Sorry to see Nick Coleman hit the road...but there are a million stories left to be written down whatever path not yet taken.
Good riddance to bad rubbage.
In my view Nick Coleman is malicious, bitter, partisan, lazy and arrogant. He never let the facts get in the way of his political agenda. The self-pity he demonstrated in the Wurzer interview made me laugh out loud.
Remember the "Your Schools are Burning" debacle, Duke? Another Coleman instant classic.
I'm pretty sure (but did not confirm) that the principal that colluded with Coleman to spin that fantasy was fired....we could go on all day, couldn't we?
I was glad to hear that Nick was gone from the Strib as the self-destruction was getting hard to watch. I often found myself beginning to read his column, thinking it would be something worth reading and instead discovered it was another one-sided, bitter, angry rant from someone who at times seemed barely lucid. He still sounds very resentful at the way "a few" readers mocked him, but the truth is he escalated that situation by his retorts. The column he wrote about "if you're going to make fun of me get it right" was downright embarrassing to read, coming from a so-called professional.
I hope he doesn't make the trip to this newspaper.
LM
I notice that the American mainstream media still fail to challenge any statement, no matter how obviously insane, untrue, or ridiculous. Instead, the interviewer turns to the guest-providing-balance to ask what he or she thinks of that remark.
It is utterly refreshing to watch the BBC newscasters who fearlessly take on with pointed demands for clarification remarks that are patently less than true.
David, I have to disagree that the columnist's point of view didn't come out in the peanut allergy column. She showed sympathy for the affected people in way I never heard before, without finding some PR hack to quote about how there's no such thing as peanut allergies, or about how tough it is for peanut producers. Who and what she wrote about really revealed the point of view well enough.
The ironically named Mr. Swift, who once upon a time finished 9th in an 8-way race for St Paul School Board, is usually so vile as to be beyond the necessity of a response. But with this insane slur against the memory of the late Zelma Wiley, the inspirational principal of Maxfield School in St. Paul, he goes beyond the beyonds: For the record, Zelma crusaded for books in her neglected inner-city school (I drew the wrath of the righty mouth-breathers like Swift for trying to assist the campaign) and more than 30,000 books were donated to the school through the efforts of many great people who care about education but, unlike Swift, don't need to run for school board to bring attention to unattended anger-management issues. Tragically, Zelma died suddenly in 2007, too young (49) and much loved and mourned by her city. I covered her funeral, which was held at the Cathedral of St Paul on Labor Day. Mr Swift, as usual, must have been out to lunch.
I miss Nick ! The ease at which he hacks off Swift's point is delicious. Actually I grew to like Nick the crankier he got. I find the new columnists pleasent, commited, tender but not even as contentious as Hartman. The piece on Bachmann and Steele language was delightful but safe.
I hope Nick's agreement with the Strib doesn't stop him from writing for MinnPost.
No, Nick. You were making (as usual) an ill considered rant against the taxpayers, and Zelma made the mistake of allowing herself, and her school to be used as tools for a fool.
In your column, you stated that Maxfield school didn't have enough textbooks as an example of how hard hearted taxpayers, who had just begun to revolt against the yearly ransacking the SPPS conducts, had set the schools on fire, and why only more bales of cash, delivered skippy quick, would put the fire out.
As a result, thousands of books poured in from concerned people.
Unfortunately for you, and for Zelda, few people took the time to investigate and wondered out loud and in public what had happened to the better than $11,000 per student that Maxwell School received each year to educate them.
Things really got out of hand when Sol Stern, a respected researcher and lecturer on public education got wind of the story and got involved.
Realizing that her credibility, reputation and her job was on the line, Zelda was forced to make a public explanation via a Pioneer Press editorial, which consisted in large part of a direct contradiction of the assertions you made in your ludicrous column.
She admitted that her classrooms in fact had all the books they needed, and that what she *had meant to say* was that there were not enough books to let the children take them home and keep them.
Ringing a bell, Nick?
I can't, and didn't blame Mrs. Wiley. She saw an opportunity to garner some publicity for her school, which is certainly something any competent school administrator would do. She had no way of knowing that her story was being put into the hands of a leftist hack that is as well known for his penchant for mendacious amphigory as he is for his complete lack of skill in presenting it.
I failed in my bid for the Saint Paul School Board, Nick; you got me there.
But when I saw the thousands of kids being cheated out of an education the public pays dearly to provide, I felt it was my duty to step up and actually do something constructive about it, as opposed to writing lies to support a failing status quo that happened to fit my political ideology.
When I ran for school board in 2002, 42% of the students were failing to graduate from Saint Paul public schools; six years and billions of dollars of dollars later it still stands at over 40%.
My wife and I had already done the right thing for our own kids by pulling them out of the public system, but I just couldn't face my conscience knowing that so many kids had been left behind in the hands of the types of people you would count your allies.
I'm sorry to learn of Zelma's passing. If it is true that she remained on friendly terms with you, her willingness to forgive is surely a mark of a generous heart.
I tried to listen to the NPR interview. I started late, so I wasn't sure who it was, but I guessed it was Coleman.
When he went into his blogger bad words rant I just had to flip it off. Nick Coleman may have once been a good columnist, but his angry bewilderment at the people commenting on his posts (and they couldn't even SPELL THOSE BAD WORDS RIGHT!!!!!) was more than I could take.
I understood and sympathized with his take on journalism. But the rest of his screed was just nuts.
Sorry, I don't think I'll miss him.
I inadvertently referred to Zelma Wiley as "Zelda" in a couple of places in my last post. They were typos, and not meant as a sign of disrespect to her.
The metamorphosis of communications in general continues. Perhaps the only place where newsprint is still the overwhelming and undisputed medium of choice for a truly captive audience is the bus or the restroom. For reading.
In it's heyday, the investor looked at the stock quotes, the baseball fan went immediately for the box scores, recipes and coupons were clipped, and so on. Unlike their electronic colleagues in radio or television, newsprint was THE medium for cartoon strips and crosswords for those of us needing a daily laugh or challenge.
Regardless of viewpoint, columnists are intended to not only provoke a reaction from readers, but also provide another reason to read--or buy--the paper. Even as the dominance of the daily newspapers as a primary source of news wanes, a shrinking population of columnists are still trying to fulfill their role of being "lightning rods" for their respective publication.
I did not often agree with Nick Coleman's writing, but I do think it is safe to say that his columns were read by many supporters and detractors alike. The same could be said of former Strib columnists Doug Grow, Dan Barriero, Katherine Kersten, Al Sicherman, etc.
Like him or loathe him, another lightning rod has been removed at 425 Portland Avenue. In the final analysis, it's perhaps one less reason to visit the Strib website, let alone buy a copy.
Nick, thanks for making a difference and taking the bullets all these years. Your last column was a real class act. The Strib's failure to even acknowledge your many faithful readers was not.
It's interesting to me how we often just hear what we want to hear when forming judgments about others. A commenter to this post mentioned Coleman's "screed" on MPR. I clicked the link and donated six minutes during my child's nap to hear what Coleman had to say and was pleasantly surprised by the genial and unusually smart and pointed subject matter under discussion. Coleman's tone of voice sounded anything but screed-like; I heard a tone that seemed remarkably charitable, in fact. I heard a fired columnist who was understandably wistful, bewildered, and saddled with resignation.
As a reader I will miss Nick Coleman but more importantly it is my belief that we will be much worse off here in Minnesota off without him. I can't think of anyone working in print in this region who is willing to spend the energy Coleman spent on the abiding lack of good judgment shown to this state by Governor Pawlenty, for instance.
Some readers and commenters to this post apparently could not tolerate the relentlessness of Coleman's criticism of our sorry state of affairs. They can be found asking for less "bitterness" or "nasty" writing, as if the job of a columnist in a state that has been chronically mismanaged and subject to divisive ideology wars and political career-advancement based policy is to admire the lovely new exhibit at the arboretum. I can tell you from having had it rejected by editors at one time or another that truly bitter or nasty writing simply does not make it past any copy editors anywhere, much less assignment editors. It is un-useable. What Coleman was, perhaps, was confident and direct.
Before writing this, I wasted about 15 minutes of my short life taking one commenter's link and getting schooled on the overreaction and misreading of Coleman back in 2004, by the apparently overrated Jay Rosen. When I read the same Coleman column a couple of years ago about Powerline I sent him the only email I have ever sent to a columnist: "You rock." Because for the most part, I thought he hit the nail on the head. But it turns out that if you make generalizations about bloggers in the print medium a world of hurt is unleashed upon your head. Many of these freestanding operations DO often read as if written by men in underwear. Perhaps the vitriol directed Nick's way suggested that his opinion, insulting to bloggers as it was, had the smell of truth to it.
I am grateful for MPR for letting us hear from Nick on his way out and I am grateful for the Strib for the years that they gave him such an important forum.