‘One of the worst in the country’: Star Tribune ripped for fraud coverage 

Some commentators pointed out that Star Tribune CEO Steve Grove served in Gov. Tim Walz's cabinet immediately prior to taking the helm at the newspaper. 

By
Anthony Gockowski
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Immediately prior to his work at the newspaper, Steve Grove served as Gov. Walz's commissioner of the Department of Employment and Economic Development. (Office of Gov. Tim Walz/Flickr)

The Minnesota Star Tribune, the state’s largest newspaper, is facing widespread criticism online for some of its recent coverage of fraud.

It started with a Dec. 7 story, headlined, “Trump claims Minnesota lost billions to fraud. The evidence to date isn’t close.”

However, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, which has been leading the charge against fraud in state programs, said in September that Minnesota’s “massive fraud schemes form a web that has stolen billions of dollars in taxpayer money.”

The Star Tribune itself cited the $1 billion figure in multiple articles.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson then called a press conference last week where he said as much as “half or more” of $18 billion spent on 14 state-run programs since 2018 could be fraudulent.

“The fraud is not small. It isn’t isolated. The magnitude cannot be overstated. What we see in Minnesota is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes. It’s a staggering, industrial-scale fraud,” said Thompson, who began working in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota under former U.S. Attorney Andy Luger, a Biden nominee.

Gov. Tim Walz addressed Thompson’s comments the next day, with a Star Tribune headline reporting: “Walz says there’s no evidence of $9B in fraud, exposing rift between state and feds.”

“Walz Tribune spinning hard,” Rep. Harry Niska, R-Ramsey, wrote in response.

“This didn’t age well,” added Rep. Walter Hudson, R-Albertville, referring to the Star Tribune’s Dec. 7 report.

New York Post columnist Miranda Devine then chimed in: “The Minnesota Star Tribune masquerades as a newspaper. It’s actually a Democrat front, hiding news, twisting facts, lying outright. One of the worst in the country.”

Local political analyst and operative Dustin Grage pointed out that Star Tribune CEO Steve Grove served in Gov. Walz’s cabinet immediately prior to taking the helm at the newspaper.

“Local media continues to cover for Tim Walz’s staggering fraud. Instead of holding him accountable for $9 billion in fraud, they try to blame me for protecting whistleblowers. Unbelievable,” commented Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, who chairs the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee.

“We’re cancelling our Star Tribune subscriptions, both paper and online. We encourage the public to do the same,” replied a group of whistleblowers who operate an X account known as Minnesota Staff Fraud Reporting Commentary.

“The media cover-up in Minnesota is a scandal in and of itself. An estimated $9 BILLION was stolen from taxpayers under Tim Walz’s failed leadership, but the blame also falls on the Minnesota Star Tribune for failing to hold Walz accountable,” U.S. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., wrote on X, linking to a Fox News article criticizing the Star Tribune’s coverage.

In a statement to Fox News, a Star Tribune spokesperson defended the outlet’s reporting, saying: “The Minnesota Star Tribune has published more original and revelatory reporting about the Feeding our Future fraud than any other media outlet in the country, including exclusive stories about state oversight failures.”

But to Emmer, the bias is clear.

“They’ve shown their true colors throughout their sorry coverage of the massive fraud in my home state. Fraudsters stole over a billion dollars from taxpayers on Tim Walz and Keith Ellison’s watch,” Emmer told Fox News. “However, the blame also falls on the largest, most widely read newspaper in the state for failing to hold Minnesota’s so-called ‘leaders’ accountable as decent journalism requires. Their bias stinks to high heaven, but that’s not surprising given that their top dog is a former Tim Walz appointee.”

 

Anthony Gockowski
Website

Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.

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