The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

I want to talk about how incredibly lame the morning news programs in Minneapolis are. Take KARE's "Sunrise" program: to show how you should dress your kids for the weather, they have a QVC-esque shot of two blonde, beaming Nordic children with or without jackets, slinging backpacks over their shoulders next to the weather statistics. How are these people not laughed off television? And grid-iron geography??? Incredible.

The twin cities local news is head and shoulders above 90% of local new casts around the nation. That being said, I loath watching televised news. There is 5 minutes of information crammed into 30 minutes of Girl Scout fundraisers and weather.

two words:

Amy Hockert

thanks jibbers, tpt's almanac and I shared a laugh over that.

I love Don Shelby and his opinions, he not only presents the news, he tells me how to think about it.

Amy Hockert is sort of foxy... compared to the Brucatinator. Why can't tv news cover actual local news?

Any mnspeak-ers doing NaNoWriMo? This is your last free weekend for a while.

How do I find these people that own these mansion and only use them 2 weeks a year? I would love to lounge around in them the rest of the time and would even mow the lawn! Will I need a tux and Guthrie tickets to meet them. Would a Lexus keychain help? What about some nice Cole Haan shoes?

There have to be some house sitting positions out there?

I sign up for NaNoWriMo every year, and sometimes begin a project but never finish. I like to follow along with other's progress though.

I was going to suggest one of the many fundraisers happening around town at any given time. I wsh I would've saved it; I found a site that lists all the local fundraisers through 2006. Maybe someone can find it.

No contest. Egg salad.

Good points. I could definitely splurge on some drinks and dinner if I find the right place, but I don't think I'll be joining any country clubs in the near future. Time to dust off the suit perhaps and look up some fund raisers or charity events. With the holidays coming up, I should be set.

Rybak. I was undecided but when it comes to it, I like RT's enthusiasm for the city and want to see what he can do with another term.

No smoking in Minneapolis needs to stay!

But then again, I'm still a little drunk from the boots last night at Gasthofs. We were going to stop in for a drink at Stasiu's, but didn't. What is that place like?

Peter McLaughlin may have lost me on "flip-flop": http://citypages.com/databank/26/1274/article13246.asp. Did anyone listen to the debate last night? McLaughlin: "At least I match my socks." What kind of platform is that?

so we're at 2 for rybak; one mclaughlin? i want an informal poll here.

hooha please, down syndrome is not fair. maybe half awake would be less cringe-worthy?

Oh...I"m voting for Pete. I don't happen to live in SW mpls or a 52 story condo.

I don't live in SW Mpls or a 52 story condo either. But I am interested to hear more because I don't completely agree with Rybak either. Apparently, he wants a Best Buy downtown. But for me, it might come down to the smoking ban issue; putting business interests over public health is not cool.

i'm pro-choice on smoking

Just last week I was forced into a bar to grab a drink. I was horrified the entire time, but at least I didn't smell like smoke.

What does smoking have to do with drinking anyway? I can't smoke in a movie theater, or at work, or in the elevator up to my 52 story condo - why should I be able to smoke in a bar. People have survived without smoking in those environments for years, this is just the next step.

That said, I also think it should be a statewide ban, and not just area by area.

Let's say I give the non-smoking lobby the health issue thing, based on the fact that those poor restaurant workers are submitted to smoky environments. So let's get this out of the public policy forum -- a lot of vices are criminalized, but you can still pretty much do them if you wanna, like gamble on sports or snort or smoke harder drugs. But can everybody finally agree that non-smokers are less cool than smokers? Smokers are more tolerant, more socially engaging, and less selfish. They stay up later. They can hold their liquor better. Their kids are a little less know-it-all-ish because they've been exposed to less oxygen. They pick role models from the movies or from music that are cooler. They're just generally a better hang. Right?

NO SMOKING!!! but lemme have that abortion whenever i want

To Phil M - your house is not a public place. A bar is. It also is a business, with employees. OSHA exists for a reason.

Ben - no one pours drinks down your throat in a bar against your will.

Well I guess if the owner of the bar was the only employee and the sole proprietor then the OSHA argument would go out the window. OHSA only protects worker not owners.

My original point was this - McLaughlin supported the ban until he began to consider its "economic impact" (quoting MPR). He called it a public health issue. So, according to him, he is weighing business interests with public health.

In thinking about it thou...(This part may be very digressive and uninterestig so just skip it unless you are interested in the arcane workings of OHSA)

For OSHA to set a rule about exposure to a chemical first it has to find an acceptable exposure where the normal portion of the population would have a minimal chance of ill effects if exposed. To set this limit NIOSH (National Institute of Safety and Health) would have to find these exposure limits through actual testing. NIOSH would then send recommendations to OSHA. Those recommendations would be put together into a proposal that would then have to be put to public review and comment. Then they could potentially enact a new law. Meanwhile in 2135 the law is enacted minutes before the Vogons demolish the earth to make way for an intersteller bypass.

Since the smoking ban went into effect, many bar employees have lost their jobs and many others have suffered a substantial loss of income. They must be eternally grateful for the heartfelt patronage of the smoking advocates.
Sarcasm aside, I am a reformed chain smoker, and having spent last weekend in hazy Chicago bars, I am selfishly thankful for the smoking ban. However, the worker's health rationale has always struck me as a cloak of compassion for the selfish preference of people who spend very little time in bars. Most bar employees oppose the smoking ban. Who are we to say what's best for them?

Govt is basically here to tell us what is good for us and what we can and cannot do. Think...hmm Speed limits, liquor laws, to infinity and beyond!

No one slams the newspaper for having comics and Suduku. So why can't the TV have a section on our website for Halloween pet costumes?? It's one of the most popular pages... which perhaps says more about the consumers of news than the provider. And it's funny!

We do our best... obviously we can do better. It's always difficult to balance the "important" with the "interesting" and the "illuminating." We try to do some of each, but there are only so many things you can cram into a 15 minute news hole. I've worked in many places-- Twin Cities local news viewers get a much higher quality of serious news than anywhere I've been before. For what that's worth.

Enough with the OSHA and the poor exposed servers. Can we get a psychological handle on the anti-smoking hysteria? It's got something to do with anti-corporatism, doesn't? People are pissed about the invisible hand of lobbyism and the profiteering that goes on at Evil Empire type businesses like RJ Reynolds. It makes anti-smokers seem like muckracking public advocates who are more consciencious. The tobacco fat cats are straw men for all the pent up frustration people have towards government and big business. That's it, right? And it's an easy thing, if you're a politician, or employed by anyone, really, to get behind. It's not controversial to pick on smokers. Because aren't their much more harmful environmental protections that The People haven't pushed for?

Either it's my anti-corporation, populist theory, or non-smokers are passing laws because of the nuisance value of second hand smoke, and just justifying it by sticking up for those poor restaurant workers. (Most of whom smoke.)

I can see at least 4 different future city pages stories in this thread.

I hope we get a citation.

Mclaughlin, he seems to actually care that the crime rate is up 25%.

Yes, Steve, I believe you've got it.

Seriously people, we have an open forum and you want to talk about the smoking ban? Hey everyone, spring called, it wanted it's open forum back.

2003 called, it wants its "____ called, it wants its ____ back" back.

well, its up that high and Rybak doesnt have an answer, so I just assume get someone who cares.

I am also a former chain smoker and was against the ban when it was first proposed in St. Paul. But you know what? I like it! I don't want to reek of smoke unless I'm actually smoking. So there.

As for the crime rate, in the debate last night, the only thing that McLaughlin could give in terms of specifics of what he would do differently than Rybak was ... the same thing, but a year ago.

the other day i opened a jar of wheat germ and noticed a warning on the label that said: "Contains wheat ingredients." are we a bunch of morons or what?

Okay ... G. Gordon Liddy, I. Lewis Libby ... coincidence?????

Jason: First, you are awesome for entering in the media discussion and posting on this site. Second, the pet slide show is super funny. No one's knocking that. I kind of want a little city dog now.

But third, setting aside the bits of entertainment, the local news is still seriously flawed, especially the lame morning shows. Can we possibly have a week where we don't have to hear about "sex offenders"? Or an interview with the Minnesota sister of someone who lived in the devestating path of Hurricane Wilma?

Taylor- I totally agree with you about the morning shows. It's tough. Every time I do a serious story, I hear nothing about it. Every time I do a silly story, I get tons of e-mail. It's very difficult to do "news" for a mass market. I consider myself a young person (30). If I went news with a particular slant or bent.. I know where to find it. If I went ultra-local stuff, I come here. It's hard to know what kind of stories to put on TV that will get the young, educated professional to come and watch.

Tonight, I'm trying to do a story on the Oak Street Cinema's 24-hour-film festival. They've given local filmmakers 24 hours to put together a horror movie-- due tonight at ten. That's a story that has great visuals, and tells a story from the local arts scene. I fight for the kinds of stories that don't appear anywhere else on TV...

Uggh how lame are those "Minnesota Connection" segments? I think amy hockert is probably the hottest news anchor 'round here.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/110/5694015.html

mmmmmm love the taco belles

Anyone have a link or details about the film contest? Nothing @ mnfilmarts. I am sooo out of the loop lately.

And jderusha: the only thing we really want to know what you think of with respect to the news is whether you think CCO has anybody hotter than Amy or not.

You must tell us now. :-)

aaaahhh, Anna, I sure wish you wouldn't have posted that link. That whole Strib "Land Rush" feature is making me seriously depressed.

everything about the film contest seems to be gone. i think it was originally on the city pages documentary film festival site. had a link to last year's documentaries, because the rules were that you had to reference one of last year's films, plus feature a burrito in the film. but it couldn't take place at a chipotle. entries were due last week. you could drop your entry off at city pages, or mail it in.

wooo-heee! my brown star is on fire taday! hot damn, i need to write in a story to one of my favorite sites - tell em' all about my knarly, toxic fumes rising from the bowl of hell.

www.poopreport.com

I change my vote to Kristin Stinar for hottest news person.

Amy is doing really well on wanderlist for favorite reporters but strangely Alix Kendal is the top local talent for sexiest reporters.

The internet remains an interesting place. Footage at 10.

I would think if DeRusha's wife would let him voice an opinion, he would have to say Jeanette Trompeter is the hottest anchor at 'CCO. Hottie hot hot.

Jason: stop trying to make me jealous. But seriously, for those who aren't familiar with Jeanette (she's been in Mpls for only 6 months or so and does the 5:00 news when a lot of people aren't home yet) she's very personable on the air, but professional. Maybe some people don't like it, but I think local anchors need to show some personality in their broadcasts or people will think that station is really boring and they won't watch. (People have a lot of choices in Mpls/St Paul for local news, and part of the reason why they pick one station over another is the same reason they watch anything else on TV: they like the people on the show.) But Jeanette seems to have a good sense of where the line is between being a "personality" and a journalist. I've noticed that sometimes when the talk on the air starts to degrade towards banter (which it does occasionally) she sort of withdraws from it and doesn't contribute much.

She has contributed A LOT however, to raising thousands and thousands of dollars for charities in Des Moines where she was before she came here, so as far as local news anchors go, I think we're lucky somebody at 'CCO was smart enough to get her to come here.

oh my.

I can't stand these two FLAKES. Pat Evans tries to do the whole soft-spoken Minnesota friendly thing, but I don't buy it, it makes me sick in the mornings. Roxane Battles is just one annoying fake psuedo-starlight. If Kare11 management is reading, drop those two flakes and show more ofEric Perkins and Belinda Jenson, they both have chemistry that is rare.

DUDE - Christoph, are you kidding? Belinda Jensen? Ish. I used to call the weatherline every morning for years and would cringe when she was the reporter on any given day - she always sounded like she was either a) heinously pompous; or b) sucking on something. The combination of her awkward pauses to suck something and the pre-report roto-rooter jingle was enough to make a girl stop calling.

That's because Belinda was sucking on something. I would happily embelish, but honestly, I just don't kiss and tell, it's rude. (this is an innuendo)

Yeah, I guess if you cant be juvenile on the internet where can you be?

Of what age and background is Ms. Trompeter? I havent watched CCO news in over a year.

i can't stand the way i smell when i get back from the MOA. do they have some room with a giant vat of the stink/scent equivalent to muzak that they pump through the entire ventilation system?

Okay, I'm throwing a tomato at myself for this, but somebody has to say it:

BELINDA JENSEN IS NOT A CELEBRITY!

(and she isn't attractive either).

Did anyone else see that llama in Uptown Sunday morning? Near Hennepin and 25th...by the old Shelly's?

so Gérard Depardieu says he's making his last film. one more narssistic actor who thinks we care.

Scott Goldberg drunk, yeah right, and I am the next pope. I don't believe that for a second. Seems nice enough though, 4 feet tall or not.

Belinda Jensen has the fattest ass on TV

I like most of the anchors and reporters on WCCO. Amelia and Jeanette are the prettiest anchors on tv. The only reporter to really get under the skin is Esme Murphy (although her days of shoving microphones in your face are over). What is the deal with her fake eyebrows anyway--are they black magic marker or Kingsford briquettes? It's real distracting--she can be doing the most legitimate report, but all you notice are the eyebrows. Stick to covering the fires, floods, crimes and strikes--she'll never be an anchor.

i'm sick and tired of the opinionated ch 4 and 11 weather forecasters telling how great the 80's and 90's for temps- not everyone likes 80-90's. i'm sick and tired of hot,humid summers and global warming- away with it and bring fall/winter- cold weather rules!!

ch 9 is also good- no opinionated weather forecast- janie is awesome as well- just gives the forecast unlike ch 4 and 11. time for an early fall- crisp, cool mornings. no more 80's-90's.

Amy Hockert in a bikini - that would make me hot & I don`t mean the weather - whew!!!!

Did she ever get married????

So, Belinda Jensen is pregnant again? Terrific. Perhaps she will leave the weather game, permanently, and then we can finally get a decent forecast?

Goodbye, BELL.