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• Tuesday, September 9, 2008 02:11 PM

  Count Me Out

  I have been a Salon subscriber from the beginning, and reading Salon since before there were subscriptions. I read it because I considered it thoughtful and challenging journalism. At last -- in the midst of the conservative resurgence and the rise of Fox News -- a news source that told it like it was!!

  I don't know if Salon has changed, or if I have, but lately I don't see Salon contributing to public life, only to the screaming exchange of nastiness that substitutes for thoughtful opinion. Has Salon become more outrageous and shrill? Or is it just that I no longer agree with its positions that I find it ridiculous and shrill? Did I only think Salon was a good source of information when it reinforced by pre-held beliefs (prejudices)? Was it o.k. to unfairly attack people when I didn't like them, and does it only become wrong when I support them (Hilary Clinton), or when those attacks are so blatantly sexist . . .

  This has been the subject of some soul-searching for me, because I think it might be the latter, and I am somewhat ashamed that I was so quick to allow my preconceived ideas to substitute for thought. It makes me no different from the "mindless" right who watch Fox because it gives them the comfort of certainly, without being challenged.

  I have been debating whether to renew my subscription, so I suppose that I should thank Mr Kamiya for helping me decide. It doesn't matter if Salon has changed or if I have, I need a source of news that I can trust, and opinionated essays that help clarify the issues through reasoned argument.

  I no longer trust Salon, and I rarely find any of the opinions thoughtful, merely designed to preach to the converted. It does nothing to contribute to my understanding of the issues, because its arguments are predictable, and it does NOTHING to help us understand another position because the assumption is almost universal that the ONLY reason someone would disagree is that they are ignorant, evil, deluded, and (apparently) primarily motivated by uncontrollable psycho-sexual libidinal impulses. In other words, Salon contributes no more to public life and discourse than Fox News, in fact is makes EXACTLY the same contribution as Fox News.

  I don't care if the crap comes from the left or the right, I don't want my money to support it. Count me out.

  —Lisa Stenmark Read Lisa Stenmark's other letters
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