By little things, media shows its true colors
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Jerome C. Burchard
Published: September 16, 2008
Now is the time for all good men — and newspapers — to come to the aid of their party. So it seems. It’s the little things, things like burying an item about President Bush’s Saturday radio address at the
very bottom inside corner of page A4 — under the obituaries and funeral notices. On the flip side, we are treated to a front-page story and photo of a giddy gathering mesmerized while watching the
Barack Obama show.
On a personal note, in early August, I e-mailed a response to an angry, intemperate letter — one of two — soiling President Bush, Sen. McCain and all things Republican in general, while at the same
time making the pitch for unity and bi-partisanship. I asked some cogent questions regarding the implications of the Obama vow to “finish the job” in Afghanistan. Unless it was tucked away in either the
classified section or the sports section, I didn’t see it and assume that it was not published. Apparently, you do not feel that such questioning is relative or important.
The Democrats and their emperor have no clothes… and they are a politically spineless lot! Any question or criticism of their promise of a golden tomorrow results in an immediate and automatic default
to the, by now, tired and defeatist Democratic litany or mantra, i.e., Bush and McCain are the same, tax breaks for the rich, untold millions without health insurance, our allies and the world at large
detest us, etc.
Some years ago, I wrote a letter to the editor of the Washington Post asking him if he truly believed that his readers could cast an objective and informed vote on the basis of the coverage and information
printed in his paper. That letter too was not published, but I did receive an angry, hand-written note from the publisher. I think the same question can be asked of the Manassas Journal Messenger.
If the Democratic campaign past is prologue to what Democratic administration future would lead us to, the well-being of our nation would be put in a precarious condition to say the least. The world as it
exists today is unforgiving of amateurism, naive or risky miscalculations and impractical or misplaced romantic idealism.
JEROME C. BURCHARD
Gainesville
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( gwenandgary ) on September 22, 2008 at 4:36 pm
jVA: I find your comments about the author of this letter demeaning and even a bit mean-spirited.
Whether Mr. Burchard is a “good writer” in your opinion is entirely beside the point. He has a command of the pen that allows his thoughts to be understood, whether the result meets your standards for writing or not. That is, I believe, the true mark of successful communication.
Close your style guide and open your mind. Letters don’t have to be as hard to understand as you make some of them out to be.
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Posted by ( raywilliams ) on September 22, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Funny, whenever I listen to Rush or watch Sean Hannity, I get the same sinking feeling our media is biased.
But I draw attention to the writer’s words “the world as it exists today is unforgiving amateurism”. This is a true statement, and reflects directly on the Bush Administration that has lead this country for the past 8 years, supported 90% of the time by John McCain.
And the writer feels we need to reward this “amateurism” with four more years of the Bush/McCain policies? Was this letter written prior to the financial meltdown? Certainly not before we went from a Clinton budget surplus to a Bush record deficit.
No more amateur hour or Miss Americas parading as the answer. We need Democratic leadership to put this country back on the right path.
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Posted by ( jVA ) on September 22, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Its just a ridiculous argument. There’s a letter in this paper pretty much every week from Vic Poilluci or Cletis Neal expressing some conservative view.
The paper has a lefty opinion guy - Jacobson - and a righty, Charles Reichley.
If you want to get published in the Washington Post, you’re probably competing against thousands of other letters. Write something compelling and maybe you’ll get lucky and have it printed.
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Posted by ( QuestionAuthority ) on September 22, 2008 at 12:44 pm
It cracks me up when these right-wing zealots start bawling like branded calves whenever they switch over from Fox News and notice the mainstream media isn’t reporting the day’s Republican talking points with sufficient earnestness and passion.
And all this gushing sensitivity from the party of preemptive war, torture, unabashed disregard for the law, illegal spying on domestic citizens, etc. is WAY out of character. It’s like watching Rambo sulk because someone made fun of his haircut. Yech!
But enough of that - there’s important work to be done, so let’s turn those frowns upside down, take off your “America hats” and put on your “Republican hats” and all help those lobbyists running McCain’s campaign to figure out what life-long, passionately-held beliefs McCain needs to profess next week to make up for lost ground in the polls last week (last week they sent him out to say that the economy was strong, which kinda didn’t work so well).
Of course it’s probably the media’s fault for reporting what he said instead of what he meant to say. Crazy media.
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Posted by ( willow703 ) on September 22, 2008 at 12:01 pm
The point is that there is space to fill, pr perhaps it’s, “We’ve got to print a letter about something, the readers might get suspicious.“ You’ll note this letter is dated 16 September, the letter before it is dated 15 September & today’s date is 22 September.
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Posted by ( Sammy B ) on September 22, 2008 at 8:50 am
Mr. Burchard exaggerates a bit, but he is mostly right about Democratic-leaning media. However, do not try to pretend that Republican-leaning media outlets are any less guilty of the same things.
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Posted by ( jVA ) on September 22, 2008 at 8:41 am
Maybe you’re just not a very good writer.
I mean seriously: what is the point of this lengthy letter which the lefty, ultrabiased Potomac News just published on your behalf? To complain that Democrats are a “spineless lot”?
Gee, thanks for contributing to the political discussion.
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