Brehm: Alpha News deserves respect from its competitors

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of material from 11 contributing columnists, along with other commentary online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

It’s not an easy time to be a legacy media outlet in the United States. According to Gallup, the amount of trust Americans maintain in our mainstream news organizations is at the lowest levels ever recorded. In the 1970s, right around 75% of the people in this country trusted the “mass media — newspapers, TV and radio” either “a great deal” or “a fair amount.” That percentage has now essentially flipped, with 69% of Americans now declaring that they either do “not [trust the media] very much” or have no confidence in it whatsoever.

The amount of enmity and suspicion that exists today toward major U.S. news sources is not just a bad thing for reporters and publishers; it’s not good for our republic. The American founders viewed the press as a vital source of accountability for their new government. As Thomas Jefferson wrote: “The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” Hear! Hear!

One way to restore more credibility between the American public and the press is for members of the media to ditch the too-common condescension they sometimes direct toward new alternative sources of news. All journalists should welcome intrepid reporting, no matter in what form and where from, that tests one another’s work and challenges accepted narratives with new data. Nothing grows trust more than accountability from competitors.

Some of that condescension unfortunately showed up in the Minnesota Star Tribune’s recent coverage of the fifth anniversary of the tragic death of George Floyd. While a news organization should defend — with vigor — its objective assessment of historical events, deriding the upstart conservative media outlet Alpha News and its reporter Liz Collin, as the Star Tribune did in its special edition that day, was both unhelpful and unfair. Alpha News is a significant media organization that regularly breaks important news, particularly on crime and fraud. And Collin is a smart, multi-Emmy-Award-winning reporter deserving of respect, even if one disagrees with her takes.

Let me be clear: I think Derek Chauvin belongs behind bars. His contemptible conduct on May 25, 2020, was unquestionably criminal. But is it damnable that Alpha News examined the facts of this historic case and based on its own investigations, challenged certain aspects of the government’s official findings in a public forum? Healthy media should encourage scrutiny and outside inquiries, even when the outcome may not fall in line with consensus.

While I strongly believe that the Star Tribune and other veteran Minnesota news organizations must continue to play a critical role in the state’s civic life, Alpha News should too. As WCCO Radio’s Jason DeRusha said of Alpha News recently on his show, “They do some serious work.” Certainly so.

During the height of the 2024 presidential campaign, Alpha News provided critical coverage that gained national attention regarding misleading statements by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, then the Democratic vice presidential candidate, about his military record and time in China. Voters deserved an unvarnished view of all the candidates in that critical contest.

And in a state run mostly by Democrats, Alpha News has provided important accountability to the ruling party. It was the first outlet to report that an empty container of White Claw Hard Seltzer, an alcoholic beverage, had been found in the car that two high-ranking Democrats — Minnesota State Auditor Julie Blaha and Senate Minority Leader Melisa López Franzen — were in when it rolled over as they traveled from Farmfest in the summer of 2021. And that DFL Chair Ken Martin had been summoned to the scene to serve as the “point of contact” with law enforcement. This was a big story that needed telling.

Alpha News also uncovered earlier this year that certain state employees were being subject to mandatory DEI leadership training that taught “the U.S. Republican Party is overtly and boldly claiming a white supremacy, autocratic agenda.” Thanks to that reporting, this absurd curriculum is no more and our state workforce is better off for it.

And Alpha News brought much-needed depth of attention to the carjacking epidemic that engulfed Minneapolis and St. Paul in the post-pandemic era. In 2022, Liz Collin bravely rode along with deputies from the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office during three different shifts to produce an important story highlighting this dangerous crime and the impressive members of law enforcement trying to clamp down on it. Our streets are a little safer today in the Twin Cities thanks to this work.

My first gig after graduating from college was working as U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s press secretary in Washington. While I dealt mostly with large legacy media organizations in that role, there was an upstart little Minnesota blog called Power Line that reached out to me from time to time, too. That kind of news medium was a new thing then, but it seemed important, and I treated them the same way as any other reporter. That turned out to be prescient, as it was Power Line that revealed falsity in a major “60 Minutes” segment on President George W. Bush that ultimately led to Dan Rather’s resignation from the CBS anchor chair. I learned then that even new little outlets can do big things. Alpha News is no different and is worthy of being read and respected.