Letter I sent to the Columbus Dispatch

[mwb970]

I have written to you twice before about the Dispatch's non-coverage of the "Jeff Gannon" White House scandal, but here I am yet again.

This story has real legs! It's been all over the Internet for more than a week now. Each day brings new revelations, new connections to explore. It should be a great news story. Everyone is talking about it - I spoke about it with four different people yesterday alone as I went about my business. And yet, in the Dispatch, nothing has happened. The news blackout imposed by the one newspaper we are allowed to have in Columbus is complete.

I am picturing some benighted soul who gets all of his news from the Columbus Dispatch. Such a person would walk into one of the numerous water-cooler chats about "Gannon" being conducted around town and would have no idea what everyone was talking about! Can you hear them now? "You say what? A gay male prostitute with a false name and phony credentials was waved into the Bush press briefings every day for two years so he could ask softball, pro-Bush questions, while offering himself as a "male escort" online at the very same time? No way! I read the Dispatch every day and I can tell you, no such thing is happening."

I always thought the function of the press was to report the news. The Dispatch's behavior in this matter makes it clear that your idea of the function of the press is to protect the Bush administration from embarrassment. This change is heartbreaking for true Americans, as we watch this wretched regime attack everything we love about America as a complicit press, including the Dispatch, stands to the side, its eyes tightly shut.

It's a disgrace. Thanks for nothing.

[Rainbowreflect]

1. Great letter!

I like the "water-cooler" picture you paint. Been there, done that. I love trying to explain an issue that DU has been talking about for weeks to someone who's only news in MSM & have not heard anything.

[G_j]

2. keep up the good work!

nice letter :toast:

[theHandpuppet]

3. Kicking...

Perhaps a few more of your fellow Buckeyes will join in the protest. I'm not surprised by the Dispatch -- what a shamelessly Republican rag, though probably not as unapologetically bad as the Cincinnati Enquirer. I will check to see if the Cincy paper has made any mention of the Gannon story. Their addy is www.enquirer.com

Are there any remaining Ohio papers will the least shreds of journalistic integrity? Anyone have a recommendation?

[theHandpuppet]

4. No mention in the Cincinnati Enquirer, either

I just searched and nary a word about the Gannon story. Can't say I'm surprised, but I can just imagine the coverage this story would have gotten had this happened during the Clinton administration -- they would have splashed it all over the front page.

[RuleofLaw]

5. No mentioning in the St. Petersburg Timers either (FL)

[theHandpuppet]

6. Maybe this thread could serve to shame, by name...

... those newspapers around the country which have forfeited any right to claim the least modicum of journalistic integrity!