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• Wednesday, August 27, 2008 03:24 AM

  PUMA

  PUMA ("People United Means Action" or "Party Unity My Ass") is a political action committee in the United States that is protesting the Democratic Party leadership and the presumptive nomination of Sen. Barack Obama as the Democratic candidate for President in the 2008 presidential election.[1] PUMA began as an effort of supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton who believe that Clinton should be the Democratic nominee.[2][3] According to PUMA, "We are protesting the 2008 Presidential election because we refuse to support a nominee who was selected by the leadership rather than elected by the voters." [4]

  That is the first paragraph of one of the Wikipedia article that comes up in response to a search for "PUMA".

  There was a time when journalists explained basic things like this. It was a part of the job at the small-town newspapers I worked at, and thoughtful magazine articles usually explain basic terms like this. Not on the Web though, where you can just blow it off and let readers fend for themselves and rely on Google or Wikipedia. Problem with that is, it undermines your credibility and sends them off to another site. Maybe Web "magazines" ought to require that journalists have previous experience as, you know, reporters.

  Now I'll go back and read the story.

  —SilasDogood Read SilasDogood's other letters
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