What passes for journalism in Minneapolis

There's a fellow named Jeremy Herb at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune whose full-time job appears to be trying to link Rep. Michele Bachmann with "extremists."

Last week I told you about his effort to connect Bachmann with Coral Ridge Ministries, founded by the beloved late Dr. D. James Kennedy. It seems Bachmann was interviewed by Coral Ridge for a documentary on the evil of socialism. The program, "Socialism: A Clear and Present Danger," aired nationally a few weeks ago and now the video is for sale. It's a wonderful work – and I, myself, am one of those interviewed for it.

Herb and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune didn't directly attack Bachmann for criticizing socialism. They did an end-run. It seems Coral Ridge produced an excellent video a few years ago called "Darwin's Deadly Legacy" that accurately documented how the "Origin of the Species" author's work led directly to the worldview of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, making the Holocaust possible and possibly even inevitable.

But it seems the busybodies over at the Anti-Defamation League denounced the Darwin documentary – and, thus, it became "controversial" in the eyes of Herb and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Now, mind you, Bachmann wasn't involved in the Darwin video. But she was involved in the subsequent socialism video. And that, in the eyes of Herb and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, presumably makes her an anti-Semite – even though the Darwin video recounts the Holocaust as one of history's darkest moments.

Go figure.

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That is the kind of extreme guilty-by-association game they play at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

This week, Herb and the paper have a new scandal with which to link Bachmann.

"Michele Bachmann is a featured speaker at a conference sponsored by conservative media outlet WorldNetDaily that also includes several 'birthers' who have questioned President Obama's American citizenship," writes Herb. "Bachmann, who says she has no connection with the birther movement, will speak at the 'Taking America Back' conference, held in Miami Sept. 16-18, along with WorldNetDaily founder Joseph Farah, Ann Coulter, former Rep. Tom Tancredo and nearly a dozen others. Many of the speakers, including Farah, former presidential candidate Alan Keyes and author Jerome Corsi, are considered prominent birthers."

Isn't it sad what has become of American journalism?

This is best they can do to undermine Bachmann?

Obviously that is their sole intention.

This woman must be squeaky clean if that's their best shot. And you know Michele Bachmann is. She scares these people because she is smart, articulate and a woman of conviction.

Week after week this goes on in Minneapolis.

The only scandal is that a newspaper would continue to publish this kind of garbage and stay in business.

I speak with some authority here as a guy who has run daily newspapers in markets bigger than Minneapolis. I'm not just a "birther," as this report suggests. I actually ran daily newspapers for 20 years. I've written more than a dozen books that have sold millions of copies. I've published books that have sold millions more. I created the oldest and largest independent online news source on the Internet. I write a nationally syndicated column. I hosted a daily nationally syndicated radio show for three years. I even taught journalism at one of the nation's most prestigious universities.

But, for the sake of sliming Michele Bachmann, I am characterized as "a birther," a label I have not chosen for myself. It's one others have chosen for me due to my conviction that the Constitution of the United States should actually be observed – even with regard to the eligibility requirements of the president.

So what can you do about all this?

• If you live in Minneapolis, cancel your subscription to that birdcage liner.

• Come to our "Taking America Back" conference this September in Miami and give Michele Bachmann a standing ovation.

• Make sure you purchase that socialism video.

• And make sure you also get a copy of that Darwin video.

That ought to get them really mad over there at the Star-Tribune.