Letters to the Editor
ironocrat
Published Letters: 245 Editor's Choice: 4
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Mostly indifferent...
[Read the article: Anonymous no more]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Removing the Anonymous option is fine, though I (perhaps hard-headedly) still view it as an argument of semantics.
I would request that you not give in to the request of some users and require the use of real names. If someone wants to post their identity online for cred in an argument on Salon, that's their decision... but that doesn't change the fact that it's foolish.
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Yo
[Read the article: Anonymous no more]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Can we get some stars for A Billion Angry Bees' posts?
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Why would Obama choose Bloomberg?
[Read the article: Bloomberg says he won't run for president]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Bloomberg seems like a terrible choice, and personally I'd never vote for a Democratic ticket with that pompous boob's name on it.
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March 6
[Read the article: Apple finally sets iPhone SDK release date]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I read this yesterday:
http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/02/iphone-sdk-arri.html
So, not quite February, but well, that's the news.
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Incidentally
[Read the article: Apple finally sets iPhone SDK release date]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When I posted the above I swear the headline was "Where is the iPhone SDK?"
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Albany Kid
[Read the article: Are Barack Obama and John McCain hypocrites?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]John McCain was born to American citizens on a US air base. What's there to write about?
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Oh yes
[Read the article: "Semi-Pro"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Broad comedies for the mass market are a new development in Hollywood.
Did my rolling of my eyes come through in that sentence?
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Juliebird
[Read the article: "The Other Boleyn Girl"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]To be fair, Natalie Portman is a fine actress. The blame for that Star Wars mess can and should be heaped upon George Lucas for his mockery of the term "director".
I wouldn't consider myself a Natalie Portman fan, but several talented actors have stumbled through the Star Wars franchise under Lucas's direction, and all suffered effectively the same fate.
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Wow, relax
[Read the article: "Semi-Pro"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There has always been and will always be mass market entertainment. If you don't like it, that's fine, but Will Ferrell making a fart joke in a movie should hardly be a personal affront to your being.
(I can't believe I'm about to draw this tired comparison, but here goes) William Shakespeare was viewed as overly broad and common in his time.
I'm not implying that Will Ferrell will be studied in high school classes in the year 2500, simply pointing out that a lot of people should check their inner knee-jerk contrarian when the urge to throw a fit about the latest Hollywood blockbuster arises.
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Glenn, haven't you heard?
[Read the article: George Bush told the truth yesterday]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We're post-partisan now.
We've transcended politics.
Disagreement is inherently partisan and thus nasty and SO over. Bipartisanship, man.
The party lines are no longer linear, but projected onto a non-Euclidean space.
Such argument between two points of view shall be resolved through discussion and negotiation. Both sides deserve a say.
We all agree now. This is the Antepartisan Age, and we're on the Transcendental Express.
Embrace it.
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How is it "like Idiocracy"?
[Read the article: "Semi-Pro"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A professional author of film reviews wrote a review (as is her wont) on a recently released film. Said review was posted to an online news magazine trading mostly in textual journalism and read by some amount of the magazine's readers, both regular and stopping by. Some readers felt sufficiently moved as to express their opinions on said review and/or film by writing in to the magazine by use of a public forum.
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marylanddem
[Read the article: Clinton, Obama campaigns cry election tampering]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Old style, dirty shilling - Obama campaign style.
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Oh Salon letters threads...
[Read the article: Quote of the day]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...how I love thee.
"Hey this blogger is full of crap!
*posts a lot of shit demeaning anyone who doesn't vote for Obama/Clinton*"
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Fascinating...
[Read the article: Michigan, Florida governors want delegates seated]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...that some of the most ardent Obama supporters in these threads are ready to toss the politics of hope and forgiveness in favor of "pull yourself up by your bootstraps"/"I've got mine now you go get yours" reasoning if their candidate's chances at the nomination are somewhat weakened.
In a way the Florida primary was the only really fair primary there is... but seating Michigan's delegates without some sort of revote would be unacceptable.
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But don't media outlets do this all the time?
[Read the article: "Women are stupid!" The discussion continues]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]From print to radio to the Internet, media outlets love to present controversial pieces regardless of their intellectual merit.
Controversy means page views, and blatherers in comments sections and blogs mean more controversy and more page views.
Sure, there's probably an argument to be made about journalistic ethics, but I wouldn't expect that argument to be very effective from the site that publishes Camille Paglia so that 500 mostly hateful comments will be made over the course of a week.
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Exactly
[Read the article: "Women are stupid!" The discussion continues]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Especially on the internet, page views are universally good. Why would a media outlet care about its perception if it can consistently reel in suckers to look at its ads?
Perhaps in the past I would have expected better of the WaPo, but not lately. It's not a good thing, but everyone does it.
On a side note, I think Slate is one of the worst sites about this (at least among those I frequent). Talk about pointlessly contrarian. "Hillary: Is she the devil?" "Was Vietnam Really So Bad?" "Why Puppies Suck and We Hate Them"
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"Prove" that an entire gender is "smart" or "dumb"
[Read the article: "Women are stupid!" The discussion continues]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why yes, let me just pull out my chemistry kit. This should be an easy experiment to design...
(not that it's worth arguing)
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Expect to see the Obama campaign's response this week...
[Read the article: Was Obama's skin darkened for Clinton ad?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...a video of Hillary watching Sex and the City, eating ice cream straight from the container, and not being able to drive a manual transmission.
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Amazing...
[Read the article: Homeowners learn a home equity lesson]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...to see the typical supply-siders direct the blame almost entirely towards the demand side of the problem.
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siempre
[Read the article: Florida's House Dems oppose second primary]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"The Democratic big media need to get off the Clinton/Democrat wagon"
Tongue-in-cheek... hopefully?
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dbb2114
[Read the article: Florida's House Dems oppose second primary]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I dunno, I'd say the Supreme Court had more to do with it than Florida.
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Hulu's fantastic...
[Read the article: Hulu, NBC and Fox's TV-show site, is now open to all]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks for Farhad for mentioning it back in October, as that motivated me to sign up for the beta.
As far as Netflix though... they won't be getting my subscription fees any more until they can actually send me The Wire. "Long wait"? Forget it.
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Acronyms
[Read the article: Introducing 5 Things!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Perhaps I don't waste enough time on the web, but the acronyms - which I assume denote the origin of the story - generally don't make any sense.
Not a bad feature, but there's no need to make it so cute.