An unlikely pair of media critics: Montel and the KAREmudgeon

Montel Williams talked trash about fellow members of the media dictating what's news on the presidential campaign trail.

The talk show host was in Minneapolis for a Wednesday appearance at the Sabathani Community Center, as the paid celebrity endorser of Partnership for Prescription Assistance, a program that gives medicine to people who can't afford to pay.

Williams was on with Geraldo Rivera talking about Sen. Barack Obama's the Rev. Jeremiah Wright problem, so in my interview with Montel on the PPA bus, I asked about the pastor I've started calling Rev. Wrong.

The preacher "doesn't matter" and isn't one of "the real issues," said Williams. "We should stop being misled by a voracious appetite for trash. ... I'm really kind of disgusted at the fact that for the first time probably in our nation's history the media is dictating this political campaign more so than the candidates are. Rev. Wright is as important to this election as Bill Clinton was important to this election when Hillary stood by and he did what he had do in the White House. If we're going to hold Obama accountable for his cousin, his friends, his ministers, we need to do the same thing for every single one of the candidates."

"If we're going to do that, that's not a political campaign, that's just a tabloid media attempt at really avoiding the main issues in America," said Williams, who identified the real issues as gasoline prices, growing unemployment, the mortgage and banking crisis, and the trade deficit.

Williams does not endorse candidates and disdains members of the media who think they can sway the public by disclosing their political preferences.

Williams said the fact that he's in the Twin Cities for PPA "really should be the embarrassment of every single one of the candidates. We have 49 million uninsured and underinsured Americans out here [who] do not have prescription medication coverage. It's taken a private sector initiative, the biggest in the history of this county, to address the needs of those who are forgotten, [and should be] the responsibility of our federal government."

To see my video of Williams, go to www.startribune.com/video.

Get out your Wellies KARE11's Allen Costantini isn't backing off his view that WCCO-TV anchor Don Shelby's "tantrum" over meteorologist Paul Douglas' appearance on a competing station was anything but tongue-in-cheek. As you may have heard, Douglas was on KARE11, where he formerly worked, last week, answering questions about his firing from budget-cutting CBS and WCCO-TV.

That night, the first of the May sweeps, after doing an I-Team report on why waterless urinals are not allowed in Minnesota, Shelby did his "In the Know" segment about Douglas being featured "on a competing channel on the same night that I presented a story that took us six months to put together."

Shelby also noted that Douglas, who is also Star Tribune's meteorologist, had no control over what night KARE ran its interview. "For the love of Pete, Pauly, the next time that they ask you to increase their audience, check the schedule and make sure you aren't going up against me and the best work I've done in a decade," Shelby said on air.

In his blog personae as the KAREmudgeon, Costantini wrote that Shelby's commentary was like watching "his dignity self-destruct. THEY FIRED Paul Douglas. He did not deserve Don's little foot-stamping fit of pique." Costantini wrote that Shelby might have meant "his little tantrum to be facetious" but it sounded serious and that Don owed Paul an apology.

"Don did send me an e-mail which obviously did not care much for the blog, insisting that it was a joke and Paul knew it was a joke and that I didn't get the joke," Costantini told me.

Shelby told me every viewer who contacted him got the joke but Costantini. To make sure I did, Shelby stayed on the phone while I called up the video online. "Watch the facial expressions, listen to the tone of voice; tell me that's not a joke," Shelby said. "Did he mention that ... I told Paul what I was doing and that Laurie [Douglas' wife] and he were watching and fell off the couch laughing?"

And then Shelby went all journalistic on the KARE report. "He [Costantini] probably didn't tell you that I asked him why" KARE11's report on Douglas omitted "the unceremonious threatened lawsuit against KARE as they tried to stand in the way of Paul's ability to work."

Oh, good one, Shelby! And a piece of juicy gossip, broken in this space back then. After Douglas' failed time in Chicago, he returned to the Twin Cities before his KARE non-compete for this market had expired. KARE had, by then, moved on.

Shelby told me WCCO didn't want to be run over in the ratings by KARE11's Douglas feature. The waterless urinals story "was purposely placed on that night and heavily promoted. You don't just lay down," said Shelby.

Uh, I had to tell Shelby that I didn't think the urinals story, important but not riveting, was exactly a great ratings antidote to KARE's heavily promoted Douglas interview.

"You thought maybe we ought to go out and get Paul Magers," said Shelby. "Don't think that that wasn't thought about."

A segment on Magers, now with the CBS station in L.A., would have given KARE a run for its money, as it won this ratings round.

C.J. is at 612.332.TIPS or cj@startribune.com.