Here is my rant to the Dallas Morning News

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

Hi,

Let me state the bottomline right up front, so you can
read my rant below if and when you do have the time
:-)
(This missive is in response to numerous phone calls I
have received from folks at DMN asking us to come back
to the fold.)

I will resubscribe to DMN if some much needed changes
are made to your news coverage and slant. War times
demand nothing less of both the media and the
citizenry. Even without a catastrophic war of
choice, the media's job is to hold those who holds the
reins of the country accountable for their actions;
not become an extension of their already vast set of
tentacles.

In one sentence, here is the change I would like to
see: hold the Republicans accountable -- not because
they are, but because they do control everything in
the country and how the nation survives this Iraq
crisis (precipitated by gross media negligence, I
might add) is dependent on how well we (the media and
the citizenry) can get them to change that which is
going wrong.

<...Personal info deleted for DU...>

Here is the background/rant:

I have probably subscribed to the DMN for almost all
of the 12 some years I have lived in Plano. I
cancelled it some time ago, because I could not take
the one-sided cheerleading for Mr. Bush in the run up
to the war and subsequently, the election.

It was not merely the one-sidedness that bothered me:
the DMN seemed to have degenerated to the same of
level of feigned stupidity as cable TV in holding
people out of power (aka Democrats and Independents
and any non-administration cheerleaders in general,
such as every non-FAUX news reporter/anchor/host) to
ridiculous standards of perfection (as witnessed by
the vicious, mean-spirited assaults on Max Cleland:
when was the last time he controlled anything? why is
the most powerful man on the planet not subject to the
same standards?), while letting those controlling
every lever of Government (aka Republicans) literally
get away with murder (Iraq war, anthrax attacks on
Democratic leaders in Congress, mysterious plane
crashes of Democratic senators days before elections,
shameless shameless shameless morphing of Democratic
leaders into terrorists, deliberate, cheap and
reckless endangerment of national security assets in
outing a CIA agent etc).

If and when you begin to rectify this process (and let
me know about it!) I will resubscribe to your paper --
I did enjoy, and do sorely miss, the daily crosswords!!

[sonias]

1. Excellent rant!

I could send this same rant to our local rag the Austin American Statesman. Same problem, I would just have to change DMN to AAS. I haven't resubscribed either, f*ck them.
:mad:

Sonia

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

2. Feel free to send it to them.

I actually heard back from one of them (I sent it to a bunch of top bananas at the paper).

Funny little response :-)

======
<...>I do run our newsroom. On that score, I'm pleased to
say
that we still have the crosswords -- and we are doing what we can to
hold
everyone in government, including Mr. Bush, accountable.

One quick question for you, if you don't mind: The big debate now in
Washington seems to be between the "we may have gotten in by mistake,
but we
can't leave now" crowd and the "We definitely got in by mistake, and we
should leave as soon as possible" crowd. The first group thinks a
speedy
departure will leave Iraq enfeebled and divided, and the second thinks
staying there produces even worse results. Do you have any expertise in
the
region, and do you have any thoughts on that questions?
======

[liveoaktx]

3. A guy came by my house the other day about the Star-Telegram

I told him that I quit taking the paper when the S-T endorsed Bush for president... because of his record FOR GOVERNOR. I said if they couldn't find anything in the past four years to recommend him that they had to dip back to when he was gov, there was something wrong.

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

4. Unfortunately,

I used to be fairly uninvolved those days -- I always kept in touch with national politics, but never anything below that level...