Letters to the Editor
Chicago Todd
Published Letters: 42 Editor's Choice: 1
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The Press
[Read the article: National journalists believe you should trust them]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Portion of a letter to NPR addressing the trust issue: You may think this is a simple omission, but more and more, the media dumb-downs its presentation of news by not putting into context things which are relevant to the story. By not using context, you get a one sided picture, and this has been going on for a long time. It is not something that I would expect from NPR, but more and more I see incompetent reporting from NPR to the point that I fact check every story that you and the others in the media present. I can not tell you how frustrating it is, and perhaps you are blissfully unaware of the seething anger that so many feel when we get this Pravda like reporting.
I remember being in the 6th grade and having a “ Soviet Union ” day where we participated in a Soviet style school setting. I remember discussing how the government controls the media and I could not fathom at the time how frustrating it must be to know that the truth is out there but being deliberately kept from the masses. I know now. While the media is not that extreme, it is pretty darn close for a society that is supposed to be open with information. We now have power houses that control the media and think that we will be better served by having a pretty face present the news. I don’t want a pretty face, nor do I want reporting that takes it talking points from political operatives. I want the damn facts that are not tainted by lawmakers that lie and mislead.
It is a sad state of affairs that our 4th Estate has fallen so mightily in its lofty goals – and a public institution devoted to presenting the news unvarnished, has become a mouth piece for an administration that will probably go down in history as one of the most corrupt and incompetent – if only you would report it competently to the masses.
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Attorney Finrings vs the Pelosi visiting Syria
[Read the article: A light bulb goes off on the Washington Post editorial page]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Which of these has really done more harm to our country? I think we all know the answer to that question -- at least those amongst us that know how to read and understand what we are reading. But the press has been non-stop Pelosi which is a non-issue that has become the issue du jour. The attorney scandal has been going on quietly for quite some time – there are now reports of other political appointments having been quietly slipped through the process prior to the firings that are mentioned at talkingpointsmemo.com.
Is not the attorney firings more news worthy and would it not generate the kind of firestorm that increases everyone's ratings from TV to print? The conduct of this administration in general from the very beginning is enough to sell newspapers out everyday if only the reporters knew what they hell they were doing – or cared.
So why does the MSM follow a path that a majority of Americans do not care or have indicated it is a non-issue to them? So Fred Hiatt finally sees the light -- but I do not anticipate it lasting more than that one editorial, because they seem absolutely blind to the potential of reporting the colossal failures of this administration.
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Edwards vs. McCain
[Read the article: Anatomy of Beltway conventional wisdom]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What would happen in the media if on Salon.com your headline read: "Is McCain 15 cards short of a Full Deck". Then you go on to report about the possibility that senility may be affecting his decision about taking an "unaccompanied" stroll through a Baghdad market. You would be excoriated in the press as angry, insulting bloggers. But most certainly, AP and CNN would not pick it up for the headlines – unless some buffoon, say like Brit Hume said that very thing about Murtha.
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Weak Democrats, Corrupt Republicans
[Read the article: The strong and tough Democrats]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What I don't get is that they pass this law knowing full well about the FBI abuses, DOJ abuses, and others that have occurred with the current laws. Do the Democrats not think they are going to stretch this one (as bad as it is) beyond what the law says and it become even more abusive to our privacy.
And then I read this: "The controversy over President Bush's warrantless surveillance program took another surprise turn last week when a team of FBI agents, armed with a classified search warrant, raided the suburban Washington home of a former Justice Department lawyer. The lawyer, Thomas M. Tamm, previously worked in Justice's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR)—the supersecret unit that oversees surveillance of terrorist and espionage targets. The agents seized Tamm's desktop computer, two of his children's laptops and a cache of personal files. Tamm and his lawyer, Paul Kemp, declined any comment."
They took his children's laptops!!! I understand that someone may have used the laptops to disseminate information but is this not a government truly out of control with the Democrats looking the other way.