I posted last week about the many different media approaches to the Iron Range Resources meeting this past Thursday. This is the meeting where Essar Steel received a one-year extension on its loan for its mining and steel project near Nashwauk. Here’s another: Beth Bily reports on the same meeting for Business North, reporting on the same facts with yet another interesting perspective on the meeting. Compare this to the Mesabi Daily News approach to the story. I find Beth’s story to be the clearest and least slanted but the MDN story is the one that appeared before the readers of every Iron Range newspaper, as they are all owned by the same company. Alas, the challenge of our times.
Why bring this up? This story, and the one last month regarding Excelsior Energy’s two-year loan extension, aren’t just about loan deferments. The balance of power and indeed the very future of the Iron Range is wrapped up in these stories. Who calls the shots around here? Because to any casual observer it would appear that developers make promises, then call the shots and everyone else jumps when told. Not true? I hope not, but I’m not seeing any evidence otherwise. And most Iron Range newspaper readers are fed a sanitized version of this predicament.
Meantime, Iron Range schools are in peril. Several notable highway projects need to be completed after decades of neglect. As much as we pretend, our local economy remains closely tied to the price of steel. Young people still struggle to identify with their Iron Range roots and the vast majority of our elected officials have boundless good intentions but few good ideas for the future. We’re not the only place with this problem, but the solution of this problem is the only way we have a future.
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