Letters to the Editor
shackindawoods
Published Letters: 96 Editor's Choice: 9
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Mediocre journalism
[Read the article: Don't have a cow, woman!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The first thing that came to my mind seeing the article's headline was, "How scientific is it to do a study on something as generic as 'red meat?'"
Then, "Shouldn't the journalist immediately recognize this obvious flaw and point it out in the article?" Journalists love to break the latest "study." But why is there rarely and real questioning of the validity, obvious shortcomings, and at least who paid for these studies?
As the previous letter writer pointed out, meat is highly adulterated. Animal feed is derived from hundreds of materials as long as it has any caloric value, chemical nutrient additives, hormones, antibiotics, etc., little of which is part of animals'natural diets. The ground that any real food comes from is highly chemicalized and is quite literally dead. The animals are severely stressed their whole lives by crowded and confined conditions. So how can any study of "red meat" be even remotely scientific?
Journalists are educated people who analyze information all day long. I expect them to do more than simply re-package a news release, to be more than mere stenographers. The fact that it is a "Harvard" study should not deter critical thinking. University professors these days need industry and government funding to survive, and Harvard medical school professors are just as eager to set aside their principles and take the money as everyone else is in our society.
It is journalists' responsibility to balance such news by at least suggesting a few questions to prompt readers' critical thinking processes.
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Bush's Ford?
[Read the article: The Bush plan gets some love -- and you can guess from whom]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Lieberman may become Bush's Ford.
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Thank you Salon
[Read the article: Goodbye to the Fix, for now]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm sure The Fix was insightful and well-written, but it gave me the same sort of feeling I get when I see those celeb mags in the grocery store, a kind of revulsion. The presense of that stuff on Salon seemed intrusive. I don't have a TV and don't watch mainstream movies for good reasons, and I didn't appreciate having to see that stuff clutter the Salon front page. I know I'm a snob so no one need waste their time telling me so.
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What side of the bed did you wake up on this morning, Catherine?
[Read the article: Stirring up the waters]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]OPPS! Wait, that's sexual harrassment.
I typically enjoy and agree with Broadsheet missives, but wow, this one makes incredible assumptions based on a few comments with little context provided.
And that "blowing kisses" comment is sexual harrassment?
I hope I'm right in that this is an unusually hysterical piece and not a case of me finally smelling the coffee! I will be reading Broadsheet with a touch more cynicism I'm afraid.
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Little Green Footballs (???)
[Read the article: Attacks on civilians, torture and lawless detentions]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've perused the letters here hoping to find that someone else mystified by this had already sought an answer here. So OK, what the (heck) are Little Green Footballs?
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Final episode? I don't get it.
[Read the article: "The Sopranos" prediction pool]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Please. Someone explain. I'm not a TV watcher. For MONTHS Salon has been devoting space to a supposed Sopranos "final" episode. WHY IS THIS??? Is there more than one final episode? What gives?
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This is the conservative media deliberately censoring sympathetic depictions of Islam
[Read the article: Silencing "Opus"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am surprised at the responses here so far from Salon readers, who it seems have let the message(s) in the Opus strip fly over their heads. The strip is a positive message about Muslim culture and beliefs that I believe any American Muslim would appreciate other Americans seeing. Breathed really showed his brilliance on this one.
Perhaps what is behind the censorship is actually an attempt by the conservative media to keep any positive or sympathetic depictions of Islam out of public view.
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Thanks for the beatnik poem link
[Read the article: How secure are you? ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've replayed that clip three times. I love it!
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Breathed cartoons were not mocking
[Read the article: Jamie Kirchick's fantasies of the grave Muslim threat]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Excellent excellent post! Again Glenn has said so clearly what has needed to be said.
The Breathed cartoons, however, were about walking in someone else's shoes for awhile. It is like how someone will for a time adopt the Native American culture, or African American, or Cowboy culture and wear a cowboy hat all the time. Sure, it's humiliating for the person taking on the persona, and embarrassing to the rest of us, but it is not mocking. Quite the opposite. It is the sincerest form of respect.
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Ease up, Glenn
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Glenn, I look forward to your writing every day and you are a courageous journalist, but I feel for your fans who get slammed by you when they make gentle criticisms. Your responses seem out of proportion. Worse, I feel embarrassment for you for being so reactionary.
For instance, I've been following malamiyya's comments with particular interest this morning, but was disappointed by how you misread the ethos and actually, though unintentionally I'm sure, recapitulated by example malamiyya's original point on Ahmadinejad's speech.
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To Glenn's groupies:
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]After a morning like this one, I bet he'd appreciate one or more of you taking him out for a drink or three. Sounds like he could use some fun.
And Jim: Don't let sysprog's little quibble bait you into responding, if you can even find anything to respond to.
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Why no Salon homepage link for this essay?
[Read the article: The U.S. military's role in preventing the bombing of Iran]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is an extremely important essay by Glenn. Salon ought to have a headline link to it on its home page.
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Re: why are the liberals stuck in level three? what is the cause?
[Read the article: The false Beltway script never changes]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's simple. The corporatists ("republicans") own the media. They have nearly absolute power to control thought.
Mass media is the perfect vehicle for conveying the more simplistic level 3 mores ("values"), especially to a nation whose ability for critical thought has been eroded by decades of vapid TV and commercial advertisement. We've been "softened up" quite remarkably, and the right wing noise machine flourishes in that environment.
Glenn, the alternative media, and the bloggers on the left are the only counter to this and the only hope for Democracy.