Northern Minnesota paper shot at ...

Well, I could have paraphrased Mr. Rosie: Shot at and missed, sh*t at and hit.

Would that have been better?

 

Bemidji isn't in Michele Bachmann's district, is it?

 

Bemidji's so far north it's in Turner Overdrive's district.

 

"How dare you not cover cheerleading!"

 

Bemidji is not in Bachman's district. Her area is much further south.

And Bemidji isn't *that* far north.

 

Rosie: That's true ... by Minnesota standards. Bemidji is no I-Falls!

I'm also surprised -- and thankful -- that violence doesn't happen more often at newspaper offices.

An exception happened at the Soo Evening News in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., in the late 1990s. I think somebody died as a gunman came in the front door and started shooting. Several from the newsroom took cover in the darkroom (remember those?). I believe the guy was a former delivery driver.

 

I worked at a small paper where the side entrance opened directly into the newsroom, and the news desks were situated in front of a large series of windows, where passersby on the sidewalk could practically read our computer screens.

First thing the new ME did was move his desk so he didn't have his back to that window. Said something about not being another Wild Bill Hickok.

 

I think there was also a weekly paper in the 1990s in New Hampshire that had a gunman come in. The editor was killed when he tried to physically confront the guy, saving other people's lives.