“If Vikings are sold, they could be moved,” blared Sid Hartman’s headline in the April 16 Star Tribune. The dire avalanche of bad-news Star Tribune headlines continued last week.
About the legislature: “Vikings stadium plan in doubt after House vote.” About the governor: “Dayton says stadium bill might have to wait until next year.” The league weighed in: “NFL warning of sale. Move adds pressure for stadium deal.”
The NFL sub-heading continued: “There’s a list of buyers and the Wilfs may be ready to listen with stadium plan stalled.” Sid warned again on April 18: “Pay a little now or pay a lot more later” (to get a replacement team in 10-20 years).
Those familiar with this column and my books might think Sid Hartman was finally admitting to reading my book and columns, or maybe using me as his ghost writer. Everything in the first paragraph you’ll find in Chapter 15 of my 2002 book and in over 20 columns since. We welcome Sid confirming the truth of what we wrote in 2002 and since.
The final deadline will now be February 15, 2013. Will Minnesota meet it or unlock the doors for the moving vans? And why hasn’t Minnesota looked at the ”no new taxes” approaches we identified?
But today’s column is not about the Vikings and their stadium quest. It is about journalism to inform, not to censor, as censorship and closed doors negatively impact our city. The stadium struggle is an example.
Minneapolis is plagued by censorship. My publisher personally delivered a dozen copies of my book to Star Tribune editors and reporters in 2002. When he asked later about his suggestion of a “local author writes book” story and a book review, he was told by then-Star Tribune columnist Doug Grow that the paper’s position was not to acknowledge the book’s existence nor to review the book — that the book was “shelved.”
My publisher later personally talked about this with Jim McClatchy, former chairman and publisher of McClatchy Newspapers (owner of the Star Tribune), in his Sacramento office. McClatchy said he wouldn’t tell the Star Tribune what to do but invited him to contact then-Star Tribune editor Anders Gyllenhaal to talk about it. He called Anders, who continued the blackout of my book.
Furthering Minneapolis-style censorship, the NAACP expelled me for writing the book, especially Chapter 14 (despite heads nodding in agreement at my hearing that what I wrote was true). When Whites and Blacks censor, the obvious question is what else they have kept quiet about on the issues of our city’s people.
Many Minnesota worthies decided over a decade ago (see Star Tribune reporter Jay Weiner’s 2000 book Stadium Games for details) that the Vikings should leave town. I covered this in my book and later put together a “roll call” of over three dozen influentials who agreed. Since then: silence.
If Sid and others are serious, they need to stop jerking the Vikings around and come out clearly for the stadium and repudiate the “roll call” of those who say to the Vikings, “Leave.” Only the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder has had the journalistic integrity to report uncensored.
So I ask: What else has the Star Tribune censored besides those wanting the Vikings’ departure? How about in such areas as access and opportunities in education, employment, City hiring compliance violations, housing, development, community-police relations, taxing and spending, etc.?
Where are the strategists, tacticians, realists yet visionaries? I said two weeks ago that you can’t expect Zygi Wilf to wait around until 2017 to play in a new stadium. Unlike our city and state, they don’t wait. They take action. They know its importance. When will Minnesota?
Consider the solution I proposed a decade ago: (1) bipartisanship from the political parties; (2) corporations stepping up for their “base,” the people of Minnesota; (3) taxpayers being shown clearly how a new stadium can be a year-around benefit and still be done “without new taxes”; (4) adopt the “Save the Vikings” plan again outlined in past columns; and (5) hold a “family meeting,” which we’d be glad to help facilitate/mediate.
The NFL has given its blessing to the Vikings to initiate a move if the 16-year quest of three consecutive sets of owners for a new stadium isn’t fulfilled.
It was unfair of Sid to dump everything on Speaker of the House Kurt Zellers when the DFL didn’t meet the stadium problem when they were in the majority. At this point, Minnesotans have to pull the covers back to see how many hands are opening the door to shove our beloved Vikings to Los Angeles.
Stay tuned.
Ron Edwards hosts “Black Focus” on Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm, and hosts Blog Talk Radio’s “Black Focus V” on Sundays, 3-3:30 pm and Thursdays, 7-8:30 pm, providing coverage about Black Minnesota. Order his books at www.BeaconOnTheHill.com. Hear his readings and read his solution papers for community planning and development, “web log,” and archives at www.TheMinneap olisStory.com.
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