Letters to the Editor
schencka
Published Letters: 33 Editor's Choice: 2
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Corporate mergers are not for your benefit
[Read the article: Those Delta blues]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Living a couple miles from MSP, the Northwest/Delta merger is big news.
When Minnesotans and the airline pilots union look for "guarantees" that jobs will be kept, I scoff. It's annoying, in fact. The whole point of the merger is to get rid of jobs to create more profit for the executives, who are the primary shareholders of companies.
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"The Internets"
[Read the article: Evernote: Software to help you remember everything, forever]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The comments saying Evernote is obsessive and excessive miss the point; just as Manjoo points out, it's "a search engine for your life."
In 1997, I read a completely forgettable opinion article by Cal Thomas in the Omaha World-Herald. Now, I vaguely remember it and want to reread it, not for obsessive reasons, but to remember my 1997 reaction, and how that shows who I was then.
How convenient -- it's on the internet. I don't see how Evernote differs significantly.
And regarding the legal issue, being able to prove one wrote something online or logged into an e-mail account on a certain ISP address would be a strong alibi.
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All about money...
[Read the article: Media's refusal to address the NYT's "military analyst" story continues]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1) If the money's big enough, people will lie.
2) If it's bigger, people will kill.
3) If it's bigger still, people will start wars guaranteed to kill innocent civilians.
TV news media stands at step 1, with even their lower-tier "journalists" making million-dollar salaries. What's the big deal with hypocrisy if the money's flowing?
"Liberal" media or not, Bush, McCain and the Republicans create policies that strongly favor people making TV news media-level money.
Real-life anecdote: an aunt and uncle of mine were liberal-progressive med students. After landing six-figure plus jobs, they had a change of heart. And why not? A Republican in office meant they kept $20,000 or more per year, which they could use however they wanted.
Why would a guy like CNN's John Klein be any different?
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Suggestion: Writing they cannot refuse...
[Read the article: Writing is in my blood, but how do I know if I'm any good?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One must imagine that there are places to publish where decent writing cannot be refused. Write unpaid: a story for a small local newspaper on a community meeting, a blurb in a local arts & culture newsweekly, and of course, get a blog idea and watch your "hit" counter. The "Stuff White People Like" blog writers just got a book deal; we all know of "Juno" writer Diablo Cody. I write letters to the editor -- albeit forgettable, as all letters to the editor are, but my name's in Lexis-Nexis at least.
Publish for free to create a writing practice, do the work, and whether this can be your living should work itself out. LW, you've already got a start -- Cary Tennis published you in Salon.com.
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MSM: Sultans of Smarm
[Read the article: Brian Williams' "response" to the military analyst story]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There's been many posts here, but I want to offer something for the record that substantiates Brian Williams' rightward bent and smarminess.
Reading a June 2007 article on what cars celebrities drive in Esquire (http://www.esquire.com/features/road-trip-07/whyidrive0607) I read about how much Williams loves his Ford Mustang:
For now, until we're all forced by the government to drive a Prius, I love my car.
This stuck with me, and he's done nothing more than irritate me since.
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McCain's Narrative: Don't Give an Inch
[Read the article: McCain embraces Bush's radical views of executive power]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For Arizonans, the "tragically lost" and "principled" McCain of 2000 has always been a fact-free myth. His "selling out" is nothing new, and his "moderation" also a myth.
Granting the premise that McCain has changed from his "good old self" and has become a hardened, steely warmonger plays into the narrative that's always kept him popular in national politics -- that his "moderation" appeals to independents. This has been the chatter from the national media since 2000 about McCain, all the while his policies have been militaristic Hard Right, except for immigration, campaign finance reform, and how he avoids espousing fundamentalist Christian theology (but still maintains a Likud-style approach to Israel, which is good enough for the eschatologists).
Clearly, McCain is running as a strongman, hoping the all-white, all-moneyed, and nearly-all-Christian GOP can pull out one more election before overwhelming demographic changes erase the sentimentality for the faux-halcyon days of the 1950s Baby Boom era.
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Truthiness & Wishful Thinking
[Read the article: "Actual journalists" as government spokespeople]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Pick up a TIME magazine from the late 1960s, and it's easy to figure out that for a sizable amount of "journalists," their work has always been no more than transcribing the common wisdom of those in power at the time. In those old articles, progress is being made in Vietnam, our military is invincible, and US motives are pure.
Joe Kline and friends follow in this journalistic tradition; to them, research is for obsessive "investigative journalists." Being a plain journalist just means a comfy career in the chattering class, safe in New York or DC -- the perfect vantage points to discover what Real Americans think.
All Kline has to do is think in his head that the U.S. was "abiding by the spirit of the Geneva Conventions" and he makes it so. That's not writing; that's typing.
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Message and Money
[Read the article: How will Barack Obama get to 270?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It does sound unlikely that Obama could carry Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Florida. That sounds bad, of course, but consider McCain's: A) inability to campaign well; B) inability to raise money; C) inarticulateness in debates; D) the "real Republicans'" ambivalence about him; E) his immigration stance. Lately, it looks like he's even trying to distance himself from Bush positions on Iraq ("Out by 2013!" McCain said -- who believes that?) and global warming.
The most important factor is McCain's age -- not that him being old means he's too old to be President, but that he's too old to raise the money and create the campaign energy necessary to get elected. George W. Bush could campaign. Bob Dole had no chance -- he was running against Bill Clinton.
The old Reagan rule applies: looking on paper, the analysts of the day said, "He can't win." But others said, "People just like this guy."
If Obama can outspend McCain and control the national debate with the unyielding "Hope" and "Yes We Can" message that created the base for him to defeat Hillary Clinton, then he should win. Think about it -- Hillary is a stronger candidate and campaigner than McCain.