I rarely buy the
Dallas Morning News, because I find it difficult as a matter of principle to fork out my hard-earned quarters for what is pretending to be a Newspaper Containing Unbiased, Informative Journalistic Product but is actually A Corporate Media Arm for the Administration. But on Friday morning, I found myself out to breakfast with nothing to read, and that just won't do, as I am nothing if not addicted to reading while I eat (on the occasions when I eat alone, for those of you who were thinking of asking me out on a date).
So, I purchased a copy of the Dallas Morning News, knowing darn well what I was getting into. In perusing that morning's paper, I found the answer to the question with which I have tortured myself ever since canvassing last fall and meeting folks who had not yet made up their minds about whether to vote for Bush and Kerry. What is that question, you ask?
The question, and its answer, are below the fold . . .
It was, "How could someone not yet have an opinion about this issue--the Presidency of the United States? If they read the paper or watch the news, surely they think either that the Bush Administration is doing a good job that they want to see for another 4 years, or that it is doing such a bad job that they want to round up 20 uncles to all vote against him together!"
Most folks are reading their local paper, not the New York Times or the Washington Post. Nonetheless, one would hope that a "local paper" like the Dallas Morning News or Houston Chronicle, for instance, would be of high quality, given the size of the markets in which they are published. What I just realized is that, unless the average reader of the Dallas Morning News-type paper is diligent enough to dig into the far reaches of the paper, the front few pages are not providing him/her with the information needed to make informed decisions about the state of our nation.
For a snapshot example of this, let's take a look at the editors' decisions concerning Friday's Dallas Morning News, shall we? Buried deep inside the front section were the following very important stories:
"Indictment portrays Padilla as minor figure in conspiracy," the story about how the Administration has "held [Juan Padilla] without charges at a navy brig since 2002 after being labeled an enemy combatant," only to now charge him on minor conspiracy charges linked to plans "to support radical Islamic fighters" everywhere but the U.S. (
page 7A).
"Dismissed FEMA chief starts consulting firm," a story about Michael Brown, the worst disaster-responder ever, now charging money to advise people on how to respond to disasters (page 2A--sorry, the DMN appears to have removed this link from their site already).
"Lawmakers who helped tribes took donations," a story about the ever-widening Abramoff scandal. This one explains that "more than a dozen members of Congress intervened to help Indian tribes win federal school construction money while accepting political donations from the tribes, their lobbyist Jack Abramoff or his firm." (page 10A--sorry, the DMN appears to have removed this link from their site already)
Well, of course, there is a limited amount of front page space in any paper. Surely the really important stories took up that space, right? What important stories, you ask, did the Dallas Morning News choose to include on their front page? These stories:
"Video downloads aren't like peas in an iPod yet," a story about the "highly competitive" market for MP3 player downloads, in which each download is available only through different competing markets. (
Above the fold--top story)
"Down to the wire," a story about the Cowboys/Broncos football game, which takes up more space than any other story on the front page, including the story titled, "Suicide car blast kills 30 in Iraq." (Above and below the fold--sorry, the DMN appears to have removed this link from their site already)
I acknowledge that this one-day look at the paper is a very limited experiment. But I challenge any reader of the DMN to show me that this was an atypical day that that the most important stories make the front page more often than not.
For entertainment value, would you like to know what was the icing on the cake of this installment of the Dallas Morning News? It was the day's featured letter to the editor (printed in a box, with an illustration), from a John Kevin McMillan in Austin, Texas. Mr. McMillan wrote about a story regarding the only finalist for the University of Texas' presidency, a man who is currently the dean of the law school. The article he writes about referenced, among other things, the dean's affinity for the television series "The Simpsons." Here is Mr. McMillan's take (sorry, the DMN appears to have removed this link from their site already):
For a law school dean to admit that he greatly admires that show is tantamount to confessing that he does not truly believe in law and order.
The Simpsons is one of the most anti-American and decadently destructive television shows I have ever seen. It is heartless, dizzying, schizophrenic and headache inducing. It revels in anarchy, chaos, flippancy, entropy, fraud, incompetence, lawlessness, juvenile delinquency, heartlessness and crass consumerism, accompanied by rampant materialism.
The characters' reckless misadventures suggest that Americans are mischief-prone sensation-seekers hellbent on pursuing whims in the guise of having a "lifestyle." Deeper religious or moral values and a level-headed consistency of conduct are beyond them.
As a UT alumnus, I am dismayed to see the UT System Board of Regents is considering no alternatives to William Powers, Jr.
When I read the second quoted paragraph above, I thought Mr. McMillan had segued into a complaint about the Bush Administration. But I'm guessing that this guy voted for Bush, as he seems more concerned about the content of a television show (is UT not teaching its students the difference between "reality" and "entertainment"?) than he is about the incompetency of a much more important group of folks than the Simpsons. Again, total speculation, not something a good journalist would ever do.
As web sites like Daily Kos demonstrate, many, many of our fellow Americans are well-informed concerning current events. But next time you encounter individuals who are not aware of simple facts, such as the fact that weapons of mass destruction have yet to be found in Iraq, thousands of deaths after our invasion for the status purpose of there being weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, it is my opinion that you need look no further than papers like the Dallas Morning News to figure out how they could not know.