Prompted by a couple of recent diaries, as you'lI see, I put together the following letter and sent it to the attached media mailing list.
(more)
THE LETTER:
SHOCKER! CNN FINALLY GETS IT RIGHT ON ACORN!
This has to be the most embarassing story about the MSM of the entire year. Media Matters exposed it very well, singling out CNN:
"CNN reports leave out relevant facts on ACORN voter registration allegations" (54 consecutive times!)
Those pesky facts, per Media Matters:
- that the statutes of most of those states require third parties registering prospective voters to submit all registration forms they receive; and
- that actual instances of illegal votes being cast as a result of registration fraud are extremely rare.
Wow. Context. The whole thing happened in a context. Who would've guessed?
Has your news organization caught up?
If you connect the dots with the McCain campaign, RNC, FBI and DOJ, you could catch up with the blogosphere in no time and be an MSM "maverick"!!!
Also, try TalkingPointsMemo for real investigative journalism (no AP).
VOTER ROLL PURGES
Well, The Guardian and...(gasp!)...CBS! finally hooked this one, and impressed many who had given the MSM up for dead:
"13 Million Voters Purged -- and Counting"
Still 16 pre-election news cycles to prove your news organization isn't DEAD!!!
AYERS
Really, people, is all this so inscrutable that no professional journalist (excluding Olbermann, Maddow and Cafferty, of course) can actually grok AND explain it? Is it so tough to figure out what the facts are and what they aren't? Are there really that many of you so gullible or undiscriminating that you actually believe Obama "pals around with terrorists", now or ever? Get an intellectually honest and defensible fix on this story and stick with it. Don't let the bloviator Republican strategists, pundits and surrogates roll over you with innuendo and unsubstantiated claims. Enough.
ROBOCALLS
The McCain robocalls are so far over the line of what should be acceptable in a 21st century Democracy. Even many Republicans are appalled. The silence on this story is so pregnant it's giving birth to a new wave of rumors that THE "fourth estate" is, in fact, the "fifth column."
KEATING 5
You want a relationship to examine? A substantive, long-lasting relationship that involved free joint family vacations, collusion to de-fraud the American people, and the largest, most costly bank failure in history (to that point in time)? How about Charles Keating, folks? This relationship is even relevant to current events. This is the 800 pound elephant in the room. Who has the guts to identify it?
AIP
Ditto for the Palins and their substantive relationship to the secessionist Alaska Independence Party (AIP). Don't the American people deserve to know this about a candidate for VP of the world's superpower, especially when she makes a daily point of questioning Obama's patriotism?
JOE THE PLUMBER (for Lou Dobbs in particular)
Joe the Plumber, not the media, brought this on himself. If he didn't want the attention, he didn't have to approach Obama and misrepresent himself in every possible way imaginable. His name, his party affiliation, his occupation, his salary, his chance of earning $250,000, his purported risk of higher taxes (as if he really worries about paying them). He and then John McCain, who attempted to USE Joe for political gain, together brought the world down on Joe the Plumber.
IN SUMMARY
How many of these stories will your organization ignore, under-report or misrepresent due to journalistic laziness or cowardice between now and election day?
Millions of intelligent people are watching you for the sole purpose of seeing what you do and don't report, and how that affects this, perhaps the most important election of a generation.
SENT TO:
viewerservices@msnbc.com,
letters@msnbc.com,
hardball@msnbc.com,
race08@msnbc.com,
countdown@msnbc.com,
kolbermann@msnbc.com,
editor@AllPolitics.com,
nightly@nbc.com,
Today@NBC.com,
mcarlson3@bloomberg.net,
editor@AllPolitics.com,
atc@npr.org,
comments@foxnews.com,
hardball@msnbc.com,
mtp@msnbc.com,
public.information@cnn.com,
chuck.todd@nbcuni.com,
steve.capus@nbc.com,
newstips@arizonarepublic.com,
insideajc@ajc.com,
publiceditor@baltsun.com,
publiceditor@tribune.com,
tips@tribune.com,
bmarrison@dispatch.com,
newsroom@denverpost.com,
rbrubaker@dmreg.com,
reader@guardian.co.uk,
outlook@chron.com,
newsroom@idahostatesman.com,
foreigneditor@independent.co.uk,
feedback@lasvegassun.com,
web@mcclatchydc.com,
readers@pioneerpress.com,
jsmetro@journalsentinel.com,
Dateline@NBCUNI.com,
executive-editor@nytimes.com,
managing-editor@nytimes.com,
newstips@nytimes.com,
public@nytimes.com,
rmccormick@dailypress.com,
Letters@newsweek.com,
WebEditors@newsweek.com,
online@owh.com,
mike.reilly@owh.com,
pjnews@projo.com,
talktous@rockymountainnews.com,
readermail@salon.com,
bthacker@express-news.net,
cthomason@express-news.net,
sosdnews@uniontrib.com,
readerrep@sfchronicle.com,
letters@mercurynews.com,
readerrep@seattlepi.com,
nyoffice@slate.com,
dcoffice@slate.com,
dcoffice@slate.com,
gbulfin@sun-sentinel.com,
letters@time.com,
ombudsman@washpost.com,
feedback@wsj.com,
a.murray@wsj.com,
a.latour@wsj.com,
d.pettit@wsj.com,
k.delaney@dowjones.com,
darren.mcdermott@wsj.com,
news@wsjournal.com,
accuracy@usatoday.com
_____________________
Gave me something to do while I watched the Sox and Rays.
Game 7 tomorrow.
;^)