When Did The Star-Telegram Become A Good Paper?

While the title of this post may seem a bit snotty, it’s not what this post is actually about (well, it is and it isn’t). What this post is actually just me commenting on how much I love the description of Carole Strayhorn in this paragraph from a Star-Telegram story:

Strayhorn, a Democrat-turned-Republican who switched to independent in January, dismissed the broadsides as “phony attacks’ from Austin insiders, and particularly from Republican Gov. Rick Perry.

Then, to actually hit on the headline of this post, when did the Star-Telegram start, well, kicking some ass?

Over the weekend, I was talking with some other like-minded political writers and this topic came up. Believe it or not, you might actually hear the phrase “did you read the Star-Telegram today” at a gathering of people who follow politics very, very closely.

As a former MSM staffer at another Texas daily, we always referred to the Star-Telegram as the “Startlegram,” and generally considered it one of the “ok” Texas dailies.

Recently, though (before our very eyes, it seems) the Star-Telegram has become a top tier daily in Texas as it competes head-to-head with the DMN. When it comes to statewide political coverage, I’d say the Star-Telegram’s coverage has now surpassed that of the Dallas Morning News in many instances (excluding the totally awesome Karen Brooks…it’s tough to top her; I’ve enjoyed a lot of Christy Hoppe’s stuff, too).

This will continue, I’m sure, as the DMN does its layoffs.

I’m sad to say, however, that I haven’t paid attention to the names of the writers at the Star-Telegram. I’m going to start, though. Moritz and Tinsley are a couple I’m familiar with and I’ll start keeping better track, since the FWST staff is distinguishing itself.

Funny story on why I haven’t paid such close attention, by the way. In my Bloglines subscriptions, the Fort Worth Star Telegram’s state RSS feed is the first one in a folder I have called “Texas Papers.” Don’t ask me why, but I’ve never been able to get the feeds in alphabetical order. Anyway, that’s the first one I check every night, morning, time I go to Bloglines, etc. Until a few months ago, I always assumed the Star-Telegram’s state feed was AP copy, because at one time that’s all that seemed to run on this particular feed. One day, though, I read a particularly excellent story (can’t remember what it was now) and wanted to see which of the state’s AP writers wrote it. It turned out to be a story by a FWST staffer.

FWST also boasts Anna Tinsley on its staff now. She used to cover the capitol for Scripps Howard. That, no doubt, has helped build the state reporting staff tremendously.

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