Prince, U Were 2 Cool 4 Minnesota

Now that Prince has died, the local media is going overboard on a let’s-go-crazy lovefest of his life and music. Only problem is, when he was alive there were no lovefests in his own home state. Too many broadcast and print journalists just weren’t feeling the love for Prince Rogers Nelson then. So this current coverage — or should I say media avalanche? — of respect and admiration for his musical genius is more about getting money and notoriety for local media outlets, not about paying tribute to the legend himself.

That’s what it’s really come down to: full-blown hypocrisy disguised as Minnesota Nice.

Nothing gets TV reporters and anchors on the map like breaking news coverage of a popular celebrity’s death. Even the reporters writing about Prince’s demise in our local newspapers could (and probably will) get their stories and bylines picked up by other newspapers and media affiliates ALL. OVER. THE. WORLD. Nice luck if you can get it, and you can get it if the interest and celebrity are strong enough in other markets.

So the same ones who were dismissing Prince as a has-been/loser/outsider a few days ago are now reporting about his life and death in poetic detail, in pseudo-mourning style.

No, I’m not talking about the REAL fans, friends, and family who genuinely cared for this man and respected his talents. No, I’m not talking about the dedicated lovers of music who admired and appreciated his artistry. Or the producers and music critics who initially supported him. I’m talking about the local journalists who are effusively gushing about someone they now have named Minnesota’s Favorite Son. (!!!)

As if everyone in this State will simply forget how badly the media here treated him when he first came on the music scene.

Remember how it was back then? I sure do.

For the most part, the TV anchors and reporters — on WCCO, KSTP, KMSP, and KARE — didn’t take Prince seriously at all. Not as an artist or musician or rock star. No one on air — or in meetings with news directors — knew what to make of him. So at first they ignored him. Then they made him a joke (Quick, cue the giggles and eye rolls during the news at 6 and 10).

Then when he got so big that they couldn’t ignore him, they started mentioning him — almost reluctantly — during newscasts. As if these seasoned news anchors and reporters didn’t know what to make of this little upstart from the Northside.

And, yeah, they never let anyone here forget how tiny he was, either. Remember when he changed his name to a symbol? That’s when the print media really went all bitchy and gossipy on him. That’s when the writers and editors at The Minneapolis Star Tribune, City Pages, even The Reader before it folded, began calling him Symbolina. (Symbol + Thumbelina, get it?)

The most disparaging quotes about him started appearing, too. Usually some reporters would pose a question to an older person (most likely a parent) who had no interest or background in current musical trends. So they already knew this person being interviewed wasn’t a fan. They just thought it would be funny. The responses all ended up sounding so similar you’d swear it was scripted beforehand:
What do you think about Prince?
“Oh, my kids love him, but he’s no bigger than a minute.”
(Cue even more chuckles and giggles.)

Whether it was broadcast journalism or newspaper reporting, both camps seemed to foster this image of Prince as a little upstart/outsider who was just a passing fad — just a flash in the pan. To them, he would always be that troublemaker from North Minneapolis who got kicked out of the Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield because he kept setting off the fire alarms. They never saw him as the rock avatar that he really was.

Thank God the kids around here were hip enough to like his new sounds. They got Prince, they got his music. So did other music lovers everywhere around the world.

To Prince Rogers Nelson, I can only say this: You were soo much more than the uncool ones thought you were. Shame on them for giving you crap. Shame on the local media, too, for coming up with this fake lovefest now, just so they could get money and notoriety for reporting about you, now that you’re gone. It’s sad. But I know that you’re above that all now because you sent a rainbow over Paisley Park yesterday, after the sky turned purple.

You rose above adversity, poverty, and pain with your music. And now, you’re way beyond the hypocrisy. Those doves might be crying here, but they’re singing with you now.