Nothing pleases the NeoProgressive more than a well-crafted LTE, which is an artform that I hope finds revival on the Internet if only because it's an important component in the new progressive movement. Nothing is more populist and firebrand than a single letter writer taking to task an entire news organization and it's often faceless Editorial Board.
This has happened, in spades, to the Denver Post, which has been rounded criticized by its readership for its endorsement of George W. Bush. The Post, which has been (to hear it reported) highly critical of Bush through his adminstration, again offered a litany of Bush's shortcomings, only to endorse him for a return trip to the White House. Presumably this was publisher intervention, or perhaps simply a general corporatization of the viewpoint of the newspaper, which bought and merged organizations with the more conservative Rocky Mountain News in recent years.
But the readers won't let them off that easy.
Here's my favorite:
The Post's endorsement of George W. Bush is one of the best condemnations of his administration that I've seen. It's a grand litany of failures, all of which you acknowledge. Re- reading the article carefully, I found one positive word about Bush: "decisiveness."
Decisiveness? This man decided to invade Iraq, cut taxes, loosen environmental laws, suppress stem-cell research, etc., long before he became president, and never changed his mind nor admitted any mistake in face of manifest evidence, and never will. And in face of this stubbornness, you offer suggestions that he should do all things differently in his second term, expecting, I suppose, that he will, and therefore you endorse him.
Incomprehensible.
Ed Schreiber, Denver
You and me both, Ed.
- NeoProg
http://www.theprogressiveguys.com/