Letters to the Editor
sysprog
Published Letters: 1586 Editor's Choice: 2
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The Better Side Of Edsall
[Read the article: All you need to know about the Beltway journalist mind]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]from his book, “Building Red America”
On November, 13, 1969, Vice President Agnew fired what many on the right view as the first real salvo in what has become a sustained, and highly successful, drive to constrain the establishment media and to discredit its legitimacy.
“The purpose of my remarks tonight is to focus your attention on this little group of men who not only enjoy a right of instant rebuttal to every Presidential address, but more importantly, wield a free hand in selecting, presenting, and interpreting the great issues of our nation….One Federal Communications Commissioner considers the power of the networks to equal that of local, state, and federal governments combined. Certainly, it represents a concentration of power over American public opinion unknown in history. What do Americans know of the men who wield this power? ….We do know that, to a man, these commentators and producers live and work in the geographical and intellectual confines of Washington, D.C. or New York City….The American people would rightly not tolerate this kind of concentration of power in government....The views of this fraternity do not represent the views of America.”
The liberalism of the media is not only or even primarily the economic liberalism of Roosevelt’s New Deal -- redistributive and pro-union. Instead, it is the newer social liberalism, firmly supportive of racial equality, of the women’s and other liberation movements, of sexual autonomy, of abortion, and of reproductive and sexual privacy rights. The media’s liberalism is that of a well-educated, professionally oriented elite -- which makes the press susceptible to the same attacks that conservative populists have used against the Democratic Party, capitalizing on the fear of family breakdown, amorality, racial change, immigration, foreign enemies, ‘the homosexual agenda,’ an urban and inner-suburban underclass, and the coarsening of the popular culture. By the end of the 1970s, Republicans and conservatives fully recognized that they had in hand a powerful weapon – accusations of ideological and partisan bias – to weaken the influence and authority of the mainstream media.- - Vice President Agnew
- - “Building Red America” by Tom Edsall
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Paul Rosenberg's right, I was too kind, but I still say
[Read the article: All you need to know about the Beltway journalist mind]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]that he's a concern troll.
He advises liberals to be wimpy and/or unprincipled, so as to placate the rabid right.
He professes (and, who knows, perhaps partly believes) that certain goals are "laudable" but he disdains anybody who does anything to advance those goals.
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The War Against Facts
[Read the article: All you need to know about the Beltway journalist mind]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The Texas GOP platform says, "We oppose any attempt by the United States Census Bureau to obtain any statistical data beyond the number of citizens residing in the dwelling."
This is in order to prevent newspaper stories like: http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/16760690.htm
Thu, Feb. 22, 2007
U.S. economy leaving record numbers in severe poverty
A McClatchy Newspapers analysis of 2005 census figures . . . found that the number of severely poor Americans grew by 26 percent from 2000 to 2005. That's 56 percent faster than the overall poverty population grew in the same period. McClatchy's review also found statistically significant increases in the percentage of the population in severe poverty in 65 of 215 large U.S. counties, and similar increases in 28 states. The review also suggested that the rise in severely poor residents isn't confined to large urban counties but extends to suburban and rural areas.The plight of the severely poor is a distressing sidebar to an unusual economic expansion. Worker productivity has increased dramatically since the brief recession of 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged behind. At the same time, the share of national income going to corporate profits has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries. That helps explain why the median household income of working-age families, adjusted for inflation, has fallen for five straight years.
These and other factors have helped push 43 percent of the nation's 37 million poor people into deep poverty - the highest rate since at least 1975.
And the Texas GOP members in the White House are doing their part: http://nytimes.com/2007/05/10/opinion/10thu2.html
May 10, 2007
Among other needs, the Census Bureau told the White House that it would require $18 million in the 2008 budget to begin its partnership program, which is central to the bureau’s strategy for ensuring that all Americans participate in the census. But in its budget proposal, the White House allocated nothing for the program — zero.
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Noted civility expert says Broder is "a great political writer" and Democratic Senators are a bunch of girls having a hissy fit
[Read the article: Answers for Joe Klein]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]http://townhall.com/columnists/KathleenParker/2007/05/04/banal_outrage
Banal Outrage
By Kathleen ParkerFriday, May 4, 2007
. . . Broder set off a firestorm recently when he called Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid an “embarrassment” for declaring the Iraq War “lost.”
. . . In a letter to The Washington Post that had the unmistakable whiff of a powder room manifesto, otherwise known as a hissy fit . . .
. . . It is perhaps admirable, and certainly reassuring to Reid, that his fellow senators came to his defense. But this kind of overreaction to a columnist is rare, if not unprecedented, and betrays a disturbing hostility to legitimate criticism.
. . . Broder is a great political writer . . .
. . . fairness is missing from this debate. Also is respect . . .
. . . The absence of fairness and respectful dissension -- and the decline of civility wrought by our nation's unhinged narcissism -- now there's something worthy of outrage.
- - Kathleen Parker is a syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group.