Media

The revolution will be Twittered

The group of law enforcement agencies charged with handling security during the Republican National Convention had $50 million to spend on weapons and equipment. Riot police were dressed in black body armor from head to toe, equipped with advanced communications systems and the latest in crowd-control weaponry. However, the greatest advancement in the age-old grudge [...]

Journalists on RNC policing: ‘Dark days for press freedom in the U.S.’

As crews picked up after the RNC in downtown St. Paul Friday morning, a handful of local and national journalists went to City Hall and delivered 50,000 signatures pressuring St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and the city and county attorneys to immediately release journalists who were recently arrested in connection to convention protests and to [...]

Fox talk of pols’ drug use leaves Norm speechless

Norm Coleman was having a rollicking good time between RNC floor speeches Wednesday night with Fox’s Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes — bragging about dropping the Xcel’s first puck and tearing into the Dems — until talk turned to Sarah Palin’s husband’s 1986 DUI. That’s when Hannity launched on pols like Sen. Barack Obama whose [...]

Defiance of arbitrary authority sans painful consequences: Cops, Rage and Target Center

“We want tits! We want tits!” came the chant from the floor before last night’s Rage Against the Machine concert at the Target Center. While Funk the War and other groups gave out radical literature from tables in the halls, young men voiced their simpler demand inside, and a young woman in the stands obliged them, as well as the rows behind her and to her right. Like any rock crowd, the Rage audience can quickly become the Jerry Springer audience. Yet some of the band’s appeal lies in the promise that this equation works in reverse.

It wasn’t long before the nearly sold-out crowd was cheering those about to hop the barrier to the floor, a bit of authority-bucking that swelled the mosh pits. And when a female fan flashed openers Anti-Flag, bassist Chris #2 stopped the music to quip that there was probably a Blink-182 show down the street for that kind of thing.

Army of One: ‘Soldier’ billboard that CBS nixed finds new home

A lone billboard portrait of an American soldier, part of a series that CBS Outdoor backed out of last week, will go up today on University and Cleveland avenues in St. Paul. Clear Channel agreed to mount one of the images from artist Suzanne Opton’s “Soldier” project for one month at a cost of about [...]

D’oh! GOPers Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy caught on live mic blasting Palin pick

Earlier today Republican consultant Mike Murphy and one-time Reagan/Bush I speechwriter Peggy Noonan appeared with Chuck Todd on MSNBC to discuss the Sarah Palin drama, and they were caught for several seconds unknowingly speaking on live microphones.
Best bits:
Murphy: “… It’s not going to work.”
Noonan: “It’s over….”
Todd: “Is she really the most qualified woman they could [...]

MnIndy interview: Arianna Huffington

Walking back to Minnesota Independent headquarters yesterday, we happened upon media maven Arianna Huffington who was kind enough to exchange pleasantries and express approval of our fair city.

Bachmann on Larry King video: Palin ‘exudes competence’

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., gushed Monday night on CNN’s “Larry King Live” that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin “exudes competence with everything she’s ever done.” The jumping-off point for Bachmann’s effusiveness was a series of revelations about another election-year pregnancy in Palin’s family, but with Democrat James Carville also on the program, talk quickly turned [...]

The cloud over Sammy Hagar and the RNC

A cloud hung over Sammy Hagar’s concert at First Avenue last night for the RNC’s Southern Delegation, though not for lack of wishful partying onstage or off. The cloud’s name was Gustav, headed straight for New Orleans, three years to-the-Monday after Katrina, and while the bleached Californian seemed blissfully at ease being the longest-haired guy [...]

MnIndy Video: Lawyers seek injunction to stop detentions of journalists at RNC events

The National Lawyers Guild and Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB) filed an emergency motion late Saturday asking judge Mark Wernick to grant “injunctive relief to prevent police from seizing video equipment and cellular phones used to document their conduct.” The groups contend that police are illegally detaining journalists and confiscating equipment.