Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sits for an interview with Star Tribune journalists in his office at the State Capitol in St. Paul on Dec. 12, 2024. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
"The Minnesota Star Tribune masquerades as a newspaper," New York Post columnist Miranda Devine posted on X. "It's actually a Democrat front, hiding news, twisting facts, lying outright. One of the worst in the country."
Additionally, the paper’s CEO is a man named Steve Grove who served as Gov. Tim Walz’s former commissioner of employment and economic development, which has sparked criticism from some who say that the paper is hesitant to pin Walz to the fraud crisis.
Fox News Digital spoke to several locals who argued that media outlets either didn’t cover the scandal thoroughly enough or, in cases where it was covered, Walz’s oversight role was downplayed.
"The Minnesota Star Tribune has proven itself to be nothing more than communist fish wrap," Republican House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who represents Minnesota 6th Congressional District, told Fox News Digital.
"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 [state Attorney General] Keith Ellison’s watch. 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."
INSIDE MINNESOTA’S $1B FRAUD: FAKE OFFICES, PHONY FIRMS AND A SCANDAL HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
The sun shines on the Minnesota State Capitol. (Steve Karnowski/Associated Press)
Grage painted a general picture of newsrooms in Minnesota filled with staffers sympathetic to the DFL, Minnesota’s Democrat Party apparatus, and said a key problem is the fear of being labeled "racist" in their coverage of fraud in the Somali community.
"In regard specifically to the Somali fraud scandal, newsrooms will come back at them and say, ‘Well, we can't run that because we're gonna be accused of being racist.’ And at the end of the day, that's where a lot of this has stemmed from," Grage told Fox News Digital. "I mean, we can talk about the media complacency, the severe funding deficits for Republicans in our campaigns, but a lot of the time it's just simply put, people are afraid of being called a racist."
Fox News Digital reached out to the Minnesota Star Tribune for comment.
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/media-complicity-blamed-as-feds-say-minnesota-fraud-crisis-could-reach-9b-shown-their-true-colors