Skinner's NYT LTTE

[matt819]

I don't know where this should be posted, but DUers should see this.

Skinner's letter to the NYT appears in Monday's paper: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/10/opinion/l10blog.html

[Goldeneye]

1. Go skinner!

[ally_sc]

2. go skinner...eom

[Bouncy Ball]

3. It's a great letter

and if anyone wants to read it without having to register, go to bugmenot.com and enter the NYT URL above and it will give you a username and password to read it.

KUDOS, SKINNER!!! THEY PRINTED IT!

(Hey is this going to be in the print version, or just on line? Better be BOTH!)

[alittlelark]

4. Very nice to see us defended by Skinner...

... I prefer the issues surrounding herding cats to those surrounding preaching to sheeple.

[Warpy]

5. The Grey Lady has been a tart for some time

It's about time somebody called her on it.

[Ilsa]

6. Go get 'em tiger! Great LTTE! n/t

[catzies]

7. Hope this is posted in GD too, and maybe even the Lounge.

Everybody should read it.

WTG Skinner :yourock: and thanks for all you do for all of us

[Liberty Belle]

8. Hurray! I didn't think they'd print it.

Skinner's letter definitely casts a positive light on DU and a negative one on the Times.

I can't find the original version Skinner had posted before, but it seems like this is shorter. What did they cut out?

[Skinner]

22. This is a totally different letter.

I have not posted this on DU before.

[buddysmellgood]

45. I believe they cut out the examples of outlandish right-wing posts

that are commonly posted on free repuklic. Stuff about not wanting to give a dime to tsunami victims. Things like that.

[hang a left]

70. No.

In the original post Skinner stated that he was not going to publish the LTTE here. He addressed DU with his thoughts in a letter form. Would like to have seen the article posted here sent to NYT. Perhaps they wouldn't have printed it though.

[patdem]

9. Short, sweet, succinct and to the point...no bones left unpicked!

What a GREAT LETTER! I think it should be posted all over the place..in every Forum all over! Thanks. I was looking forward to tomorrow..had no idea I could read it today..which is really tomorrow on the east coast! :hug:

[marcologico]

11. great punchline too

But they probably think he's kidding!

:toast:

[Skittles]

10. Skinner ROCKS!

I'm glad the New York Times is printing this - perhaps their editor will think twice about printing articles that "cherry-pick" web sites. :thumbsup:

[In Truth We Trust]

12. The NYT has been bought ala Armstrong Williams. Good LTTE Skinner

[Tace]

13. Skinner Makes Some Great Points -- With A Measured Tone

I'm wondering how many other sites have 25k posts per day.

[AntiFascist]

77. Probably not the New York Times forum

:7

[The Zanti Regent]

14. Slap those PRESSTITUTES, Skinner!

I'm proud of you.

[Petrushka]

15. Bravo! (eom)

[Jack Rabbit]

16. Well said

I see a number of posts here daily that make me wince and some of them are not even worth a response. Why try to defend them?

DU is not monolithic. We have many, many good posters here -- and the occasional post that goes off the deep end. It is certainly unfair to draw one wahcky post and attempt to make it representative of DU as a whole; it is a lapse of The New York Times' editorial judgment to do so.

[AZCat]

17. Good - I'd been checking for this

I didn't know if the NYT would print it. I am glad they did - perhaps they haven't sunk as far as Fox News yet.

Congrats, Skinner.

[devilgrrl]

18. You tell 'em dude!

:bounce::toast::bounce:

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

19. Excellent!

Thanks for the link, matt819.

Skinner - did they edit your letter? If so can you post the full text? Thanks!

[Skinner]

23. They made very minor edits.

They took out one sentence, and removed a little unnecessary verbiage. It is essentially the same as what I sent them.

[katinmn]

56. Excellent letter!!

I'm surprised they ran it, but glad they did so.

It's a big slap on the wrist to the reporter. Perhaps they'll be more careful in the future.
:dem:

[ailsagirl]

74. Good job, Skinner!! I am so glad they printed it

And a bit surprised-- I guess I have to give them credit for letting the other side speak.

[bunkerbuster1]

20. Perfect.

I'd love to see a wingnut boil down that much legitimate anger and astonishment into so few words.

[BlueEyedSon]

21. I hope the bastards print it!

[MadisonProgressive]

24. Good letter!! They'll probably print it on page G-12, but that's

out of our control.

[gristy]

26. It's on the editorial page, where they put all their LTTE

Very good, Skinner.

[BlueEyedSon]

30. Yes, just got my NYT, it's on page A18 col 5 just below the fold.

Thx Skinner.

[lady lib]

25. Nicely done! n/t

[soleft]

27. Skinner kicks butt

:thumbsup:

[WritersBlock]

28. Lovely zinger in that last paragraph.

Excellent letter!

[trogdor]

29. I believe the proper response in a situation like this would be...

...booya. /spock

[Maestro]

31. Concise and to the point!

:yourock:

[underpants]

32. They cut it down from the original

but they do that with editorials. Every paper does.

[Skinner]

38. Actually, they didn't cut it down.

They made a few minor edits, but overall it is almost exactly what I sent to them.

[flvegan]

33. Nice work, Skinner. Very well stated.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

34. Congratulations Skinner!

Getting a LTTE in the Times is HUGE!!! :yourock: Look for increased traffic today! :toast:

[progressoid]

35. yay for Skinner

[Plaid Adder]

36. That is a most excellent letter to the editor.

Had it been me, it would have been 10 times that long with a lot more profanity, but you got the job done and you ended with a fantastic zinger. Go you!

The Plaid Adder

[Skinner]

39. Thanks.

I kinda had to be concise. Their guidelines suggest a 150-word maximum. The version I submitted to them had 212 words.

[Bouncy Ball]

44. Heh heh, me too.

Conciseness is NOT one of my strong suits.

[Straight Shooter]

37. Excellent. You defend DU well and avoid sounding plaintively defensive

A primo example of a good letter to the editor, stating your position and deconstructing the opposition without becoming confrontational. 25,000 posts per day. Amazing. Do I think 5 percent are from disruptors? You bet I do!

:thumbsup:

[Midlodemocrat]

40. Great letter. Boy, am I so very proud to be a member of DU!

[molly]

41. You go Skinner!

:yourock:

[bloom]

42. very well said.

:yourock:

[StephanieMarie]

43. Excellent response. Brief and to the point. n/t

[Bouncy Ball]

46. I'm very proud of this. Proud to be a DUer.

[El Fuego]

47. AWESOME!!!!

To have it actually published in the NYT is a huge achievement.

[Cyrano]

48. One other thing that DUers can do to help.

The NYT has an ombudsman and we can all write to him:

Daniel Okrent
The New York Times
229 W 43rd Street
New York, NY, 10036

Sorry, I don't have an email address for him.

He's printed about once a month in the Sunday "Week in Review" section.

It's good that they printed Skinner's letter. Now let's do our part to reenforce the message.

[steve2470]

75. it's [e-mail] nt

[amazona]

49. nice job NT

.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[One_of_8]

50. Excellent letter

What a very dignified and intelligent response to a poorly crafted article.

[da_chimperor]

51. Way to stick it to the MSM skinner!

Great response to the NYT.

[yardwork]

52. Excellent! I'm glad they published it. Thanks for posting it here.

[Nothing Without Hope]

53. Excellent letter - calm, reasonable, clear, reproving - BUT

even though it's good that they printed it, fewer people will read this letter or even know there was a rebuttal than will now have an idea that there is "proof" that DU, by extension all progressive blogs, by extension all progressives, by extension....you get it.

The kind of people who are going to continue to point to the NYT article as "proof" that anyone who opposes the * admin is a wacko conspiracy theorist are NOT the kind that read and consider the LLTEs.

That's why what the Times did was so reprehensible. I would like to know the motives behind that original article. Was it just shoddy "journalism"? Can't believe that, it's just too timely (right around the time of the Jan 6 Stand) and too carefully tuned to the image, carefully cultivated by the * cartel and their apologists, that all dissentors are fools and that there is NO believable evidence that the cartel ever did anything wrong, let along stealing an election. No, this was quite deliberate, IMO.

Besides, the internet-based exchange of news is a threat to the traditional major media like the NYT, so anything that undermines the apparent reliability or respectability of this newly emerging major medium is "good news" for them. It's all just business for them, after all.

Good job, Skinner. You did us proud.

[marions ghost]

54. excellent letter

forceful yet restrained. Restores some credibility perhaps. This illustrates well how to call the media on such blatant distortion as this article. Also important to go after the more subtle forms of bias too. If you're seeing it, feeling it, then let them know about it--in a polite but pointed way.

[Name removed]

55. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[SeveneightyWhoa]

57. Pretty cool!

Good job with the letter. Kind of makes them look like the fools that they are..

It's good of them to have printed it.

[MADem]

60. The Armstrong Williams thing

...has probably reawakened their dormant sense of shame, and that is why they printed it. There must be one sane person still on staff that BushCo hasn't been able to buy, threaten, or silence in some other fashion!

[hoi polloi]

58. delete

delete

[donheld]

59. Absolutely right on

Skinner you spelled it out wonderfully.

[sleepyhead]

61. Good job!

The Times should also publish a correction on their corrections page or an article in the ombudsman's column - but I don't think that's likely to happen any time soon. Thanks for defending our honor, Skinner!

[Garage Queen]

62. You rock, Skinner!

:yourock: :headbang: :yourock: :headbang: :yourock: :headbang: :yourock:

[talk hard]

63. Well done.

It was rather surprising that the NY Times would make such a gross generalization about such an obscure reference and particularly to take it out of context. But, heh, maybe they're just jumping on the bandwagon of trashing Democrats.

Kudos to you for setting them straight.

[shireen]

64. nice work, Skinner!

New York Times ... is this the same newspaper that hired and nurtured plagarist/liar Jayson Blair, and Iraq warmonger Judith Miller?!

:P


Thanks for doing their fact-checking for them, Skinner! Geez ....

[blondeatlast]

65. You are fairly new here. We're quite accustomed to fact-checking for them!

Less accustomed to any acknowledgemnet, however.

Welcome to DU, Shireen, and aone for our dear Skinner as well!

:toast:
:toast:

[Phoebe_in_Sydney]

66. Yay Skinner. Well done n/t

[MrScorpio]

67. Skinner is the man

Bring a little common sense to the Newspaper of Record

[theresistance]

68. Great letter

And at least NYT printed it.

[hang a left]

69. Is that David Allen of

Plan 9 Publishing. Am I trippin?

[Skinner]

81. No, that's a different David Allen.

It's a pretty common name.

[fiddlestix]

71. I had a NYC moment this morning...

I had a Choice...at 42nd Street subway station...Express or Local? Express or Local? Running late, jumped on the A train, got a seat (!), doors close, A train rumbles out of station...and STOPS! Local train after local train fly by, HA-HA, LOSER, PICKED THE WRONG TRAIN AGAIN! Sigh. Opened up my NY Times, scanned the front page, flipped to the inside back page, oh so carefully folding long pages, keeping within My Space & not wanting to irritate the ones on either side of me (who knows how long this train is going to be stuck here, you know?) & the local trains are flying by & now I'm REALLY running late...and that "Monday Morning, A Train Not Moving" feeling was dragging me down...

And then I read this Letter to the Editor, defending a forum that I stumbled upon a week after The Election, a site that I joined while searching for Answers to Life's Unanswerable Questions....and I smiled (without making eye contact, of course).

Thank you.

[Pharaoh]

72. WOO HOO!

You go skinner!

:hippie: :hippie: :hippie:

"RESISTANCE IS FUTILE"

[President Kerry]

73. Skinner you just rock..

damn it, you nail it time and time again. thanks. Could you ever imagine back in '01 this site would become what it is now? My heartfelt thanks, man. This site has become my refuge.

[steve2470]

76. Great letter Skinner, if any of the RW'ers bothered to read it and

have a brain, they may actually come here to read and be EDUCATED.

[AllyCat]

78. Casts doubt on the "liberal" media meme

Nice job defending DU and telling it like it is Skinner!

[WatchWhatISay]

79. A perfect response

It was succint, rational (vs. emotional),and should cause a thinking person to re-examine his errant conculsions.

[NurseLefty]

80. For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow...

for he's a jolly good feeehhhhehhhhlooooooww.... which nobody can deny.
Thank you, Skinner! For all you do, this one's for you!
:toast: