The unwelcome news of Susan Albright’s forced departure as editorial page editor of the Star Tribune prompted her former deputy, Jim Boyd to write a crisp, blunt piece for the Minnesota Monitor, where he works as a mentor and where most of my work is also cross-posted. The money section:

“The issue, however, goes beyond unfairness to an individual. Harte and Avista buy hook, line and sinker the dubious conventional wisdom that the only way newspapers will survive is by going local, local, local. Furthermore, Harte has demanded that editorials in the Star Tribune demonstrate “no sharp elbows.” So local and bland is his prescription for his editorial page. To my way of thinking, that is no editorial page at all. It is a genuflection toward the belief that a newspaper must have such a page, coupled with a determination to make it as inconsequential as possible, a boring page to skip over during your morning read. How that builds readership for a struggling newspaper I do not comprehend. But Harte and Avista own the presses.

Expect no leadership from these pages, because true leadership requires risking the ire of those in power. It requires telling hard truths and pushing difficult choices, whether the issue be local, national or international. A good editorial page serves as the conscience of a community. It bravely afflicts the comfortable, as the old aphorism goes. Harte and Avista seem determined to afflict no one about anything. But Harte and Avista own the presses.”

Do any of you other old farts out there remember the headline on the 1980 Boston Globe editorial, “More Mush from the Wimp?”

As I recall it, President Jimmy Carter had given national address, calling for a spirit of self-sacrifice to solve the national problems (energy? inflation? Not sure.) The editorial page had written a bland editorial endorsing the concept, and it was supposed to be headlined (forgive me, this is from memory) “All Must Share the Burden.” But some typesetter couldn’t stand it and changed the headline to “More Mush from the Wimp.” And it got published that way.

If you click through to read the whole Jim Boyd piece commended above, be sure and check out the comment sections in which headlines for future Strib editorials are suggested.