This is a short, but not very sweet diary. It concerns the use of one of the oldest daily newspapers in the country and its owner's penchant for changing a bastion of respectible journalism into his own private religious/republican forum.
I write in protest of Brian Tierney giving his Episcopal Academy alum and torture advocate buddy John Yoo carte blanche to further his cover-up activities and allowing him to defend his torture legalisms in the Currents section of this morning's Sunday Inquirer.
The Philadelphia Inquirer has a long and respected history of objective journalism. However, ever since Tierney's Philadelphia Media Holdings took control of the Inquirer and its sister paper the Daily News, Philadelphia has been inundated with an editorial barage from the right, namely Rick Santorum, Charles Krauthammer and John Yoo. Today's editorial comes from John Yoo in his defense of his illegal legalisms about the CIA.
Mr. Yoo's column is titled "History Shows Targeting the CIA is Perilous Move". What he's really writing is everything he does and writes is righteous and legal, and anyone who thinks otherwise "decimate the intelligence agencies" or as he ends the column "Prosecuting the CIA risks another surprise attack or major intelligence failure". It seems to me he is using the common republican, neo-con weapon, FEAR!!!!!
I stopped reading and purchasing the Inquirer when it became clear, Tierney was turning the paper into his own Catholic/conservative forum from which he can proselytize to the Philadelphia area readership. My wife still buys the paper at my chagrin, but when she was reading the Currents section and I noticed the column while she was reading, I told her to look at the column. She did, then handed it to me, then she gathered up the rest of the Sunday paper before she even read the front page section and threw the entire paper into the recycle bin. She then acknowledged my correctness for the first time in the 51 years we've been together. She said, "you're right, no more Inquirer". Actually, I think I have to thank Tierney for giving Yoo the space for the column. Hell has frozen over, my wife finally agrees with me.