The Star Tribune has a new chief executive officer and publisher. His name is Steve Grove. He is moving straight from the Walz administration to the leadership of the dominant local newspaper. As I have had occasion to observe over the years, the Star Tribune reads like the public relations arm of Minnesota’s DFL Party. Grove now visibly manifests it.

Today the Star Tribune publishes Grove’s thousand-word column on his taking the reins at the Star Tribune. He acknowledges the challenges of a changing media landscape in deadening language: “Today’s challenges are different, but require that same bold commitment to embracing new technologies, platforms and business models that help us meet readers where they are — in ways that inform and inspire every day.” He loves, loves, loves the paper. Like Hillary Clinton running to represent a state she had never lived in, he’s going on a listening tour.

Grove thanks Star Tribune owner Glen Taylor for reposing his trust in him. Taylor is also the long-time owner of the NBA’s Timberwolves franchise. He has a high threshold for mediocrity. Insofar as Taylor gets his news from the Star Tribune, I am afraid he is unaware of the paper’s persistent bias.

Not once in his thousand-word column does Grove acknowledge the Star Tribune’s problems with readers who don’t love the paper’s relentless tilt. Is it possible he doesn’t care or doesn’t know? Grove’s silence on this point is unimpressive even if it is unsurprising.

NOTE: I would like to add a citation to my 2018 post-election assessment: “The role of the Star Tribune.”