This is a second follow-up to the discussion we had over the weekend concerning the admission by Angela Tuck, the Public Editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, that it was known that Bush led us to war based on lies, hence making the Downing Street memo [minutes of a Blair meeting] not newsworthy. Those discussions can be found at:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/5/14/102050/665
and
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/5/16/94834/1856
There may be some positive movement on this; see below the fold...
In further correspondence between Ms. Tuck and (yet another!) LTE writer, Teri DiCicco, it appears that the AJC editors are considering some type of article in the Sunday paper. Below is Teri's letter, followed by the response from the AJC's Tuck. I end with another pitch for correspondence from
you, dear reader, to the AJC at this critical moment.
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Teri's letter:
Dear Ms. Tuck,
First of all, let me state that I am very impressed by the fact that you respond to my e-mails. I may not always agree with you, but it is encouraging and notable that you do respond.
Regarding this memogate matter and the lack of sufficient coverage, what if you do a perspective piece centering on the Downing St. memos but using a time line going back to Paul O'Neill, Richard Clark, Bush's 2003 SOTU address, and the 237 lies listed by Rep. Henry Waxman? There are also studies by the Carnegie Endowment for Intern'l Peace and assessments by the Army War College that can be readily researched.
You could incorporate the principles proposed in the PNAC. Jay Bookman's credible neocon expertise would be invaluable. In fact, this would be a good time to resurrect his Sept. 2002 expose of the neocons and the Project for a New American Century.
This would be a way of avoiding the "newsworthy" issue and you could be credited with taking the initiative on this kind of in-depth, investigative coverage.
Thank you, once again for your consideration of my opinion.
Teri DiCicco
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This is the response from Ms. Tuck of the AJC:
A Sunday @issue piece is something that we have discussed. I'm conferring with our national/international editors about what we do next. Thanks for your good suggestion.
Angela Tuck
AJC public editor
404-526-5819
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My pitch to you for help in encouraging the AJC board to more fully air these issues:
Before I continue, let me note that this is due to Joe Parko, Kelli Potts, and Teri DiCicco, who have worked hard to develop a dialog with our local paper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and to you Kossers who wrote or called the AJC. I'm just the messenger.
I cannot put it any better than Teri did. The lack of coverage of the Downing Street Minutes* is now newsworthy. Teri did a great job of framing the core of a longer piece for the AJC. The "@Issue" that Tuck mentions is a section of the Sunday AJC that covers politics. Think Frank Rich in the Sunday NY Times. It's still not straight news reporting, but it does elevate the profile of the issue and could be a very good thing.
As I wrote previously, I think that this discussion should be nurtured openly and in an intellectually honest way. I encourage you to write letters, call, or send email to the AJC editors that explain your view of these issues. I encourage you to be as positive as possible.
Here is some contact information for the AJC if you are inclined to correspond with them:
National Editor of the AJC, Barb Senftleber: bsenftleber@ajc.com
Publisher - John Mellott, 404-526-5892, jmellott@ajc.com
Editor - Julia Wallace, 404-526-7679, jdwallace@ajc.com
Managing Editor, News - Hank Klibanoff, 404-526-5416, hklibanoff@ajc.com
Public Editor - Angela Tuck, 404-526-5819, fax 404-526-5611, insideajc@ajc.com
Editorial Page Editor - Cynthia Tucker, 404-526-5432, cynthia@ajc.com
ajc.com Editorial Director - Hyde Post, 404-526-5341, hpost@ajc.com
News Editor, day - Carolyn Warmbold, cwarmbold@ajc.com
News Editor, evening - Phil Gast, pgast@ajc.com
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*(I'm told that "memo" is not the correct term and that these terms have different weight; memo is informal, minutes are more formal and official)