Minnesota’s long state political nightmare continues — but it’s Nirvana for journalists and talk show hosts.
Republican Norm Coleman is going to court to challenge comedian Al Franken’s hair-thin victory over Coleman in the bitterly contested Senate race that ended in a controversial recount. Bad news for Minnesota residents, since it’ll likely drag on for months. Bad news for Democrats, since it’ll keep a needed seat out of play. Good news for the media since it’s a hot story that is far from its conclusion — the kind of story readers, listeners and viewers will follow intently (bringing ’em back again and again for more):
And it’ll also provide a hot, ongoing topic, perfectly suited to rage-filled rants and indignant callers, for talk radio hosts, particularly conservative talk radio hosts:
Cartoon by Mike Lane, Cagle Cartoons
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.