Media coverage of the race outside of Minnesota largely focused around Ellison's status as the possible first Muslim member of the United States Congress. This focus was criticised both by Ellison's campaign and by "Columbia Journalism Review", which found that the media was shoehorning Ellison's religion into articles where it was not relevant, and that the media was not giving anything other than a surface-level depiction of Islam, noting that only the "St. Petersburg Times" had stated whether Ellison was a Shia or Sunni in their coverage. In contrast, "Columbia Journalism Review" praised the "Star Tribune"s coverage of the race, finding that it was more substantial than the coverage in newspapers based outside of Minnesota. Fine strongly criticised the media's coverage of the race, stating that they had not covered Ellison's controversies enough and that they were not discussing the political positions of the candidates.