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Paul Gustafson

Minneapolis, MN
Commenter for
4 years 2 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 01/22/13 at 12:53 pm in response to Return to the U: The Confession

Hi David,

I'm Paul. Another late graduate.

I'm here to say, there is no shame in graduating late.

I was going to graduate in spring, 1973 from Bemidji State College, Magna Cum Laude. Alas student activism got in my way. I was wrapped up in MPIRG (Minnesota Public Interest Research Group) activities. And, there was a Bad War going on....

I actually went thru graduation (I think the Powers That Be at Bemidji did not want to shame a member of their first Honors...

Posted on 12/03/12 at 04:54 pm in response to Newspapers still waiting for digital salvation

Hi John,

I have to accept your numbers on the financial failings of newspapers.

What you don't address is the financial prospects of alternatives like your platform - MinnPost.

So far, I see no robust journalistic platform - national or local - to replace the dying newspapers.

What do you see on the horizon? And why do you think they are viable? Those are the crucial questions you do not answer....

Posted on 12/03/12 at 10:50 pm in response to Newspapers still waiting for digital salvation

I'll look at the website you suggest.

Nonetheless, you didn't address my question. What I want to know is how, in your opinion, platforms like MinnPost, which you are writing from, have financial viability.

Posted on 08/28/12 at 11:30 am in response to GOP's Supreme Court victories come with stinging dissents

The Minnesota Supreme Court decisions in these cases say they were decided "Per Curiam" - which means "For the Court."

Not so with these highly politically loaded decisions.

Here, we have two pointed dissents from Justices Paul Anderson and Alan Page. The writer or writers for the court majority were equally vociferous. This is the furthest thing from a united court.

Yet, the majority hides the authors of these two decisions under the "Per Curiam" clock of unanimity....

Posted on 05/14/12 at 07:45 pm in response to Occupy skepticism: Journalism and the fallacy of authority

Hey Grace,

Your comment is just gratuitious. Shame on you. If you do not have information about the Strike Force that is new, how dare you try to leverage this MInn Post thing into a comment about that unit. You give progressives a bad name with this kind of tactic. Get Over Bob Fletcher....You do damage to your own cause.

Posted on 06/15/11 at 08:34 am in response to Background claims by state Senate's global-warming skeptic fail to check out

What a treat to see Don Shelby the Reporter doing a fine story.

Before he did his anchor gig at WCCO-TV, Shelby was a hellacious reporter for that station.

The pay's not great, Don, but I imagine the satisfaction is priceless. Great to see you back in the saddle.

Posted on 04/16/11 at 02:06 pm in response to Just why should we care about legal services for the poor?

Apparently, Hal Sanders thinks that state judges have no First Amendment rights. He thinks they should stay out of politics.

That's a strange notion because judges are elected officials in Minnesota and almost every other state.

That's even a stranger argument because it's conservatives who have been pressing to get judges to make comments about where they stand on public issues.

Conservative politicians are fond of pointing out that judges are elected officals. And...

Posted on 04/15/11 at 09:03 am in response to Just why should we care about legal services for the poor?

I agree with Judge Burke's comments.

There is another argument for adequate funding of our state's public defense system that is compelling:

When there are not enough public defenders, the whole justice system slows down and becomes less efficient.

Back when I was a court reporter for the Star Tribune, I saw judges and prosecutors waiting around while over-extended public defenders scurried from courtroom to courtroom to handle their too large caseloads.

And that...

Posted on 03/15/11 at 01:10 pm in response to Phoning it in: Fascinating figures from Pew's 'State of the Media' report

The Pew Report is expansive, and contains a wealth of information. It will take days to digest it all. I recommend anyone interested to dig deeper.

Yet, a big splash in this report about the amount of information the public gets from mobile sources needs context.

What information are they looking for there? Traffic. Weather. Restaurants.

That factoid is hardly enlightening about where the public gets news about public affairs. That's the news needed by citizens to make...

Posted on 03/13/11 at 03:52 pm in response to Star Tribune: The Current doesn't deserve taxpayer funding

Like it or not, when an organization like NPR has a fund-raiser so stupid as to engage in outrageous generalizations about a certain group there is a price to pay.

And finger-pointing at the other side doesn't change that.

The solution is simple: don't hire people like that.

I hope NPR stands for not getting involved in the petty left-right stuff that too often goes for "political analysis" on blog-sites. It should be better than that.

Anytime an organization...