WP editors scold Dem readers for debate letters, emails to Post

[DeepModem Mom]

Are we to believe that the Washington Post has never been the recipient of email and letter-writing campaigns from the Republican Right? And has there been such an editorial scolding directed at those partisans? Did Post editors object to a "spin war" before Democrats joined the battle?

To Our Readers (and Writers)
Saturday, October 2, 2004; Page A20

....The reader in Yonkers was just one of many hundreds of people who took advice, and often text, from partisan Web sites in sending us debate-related letters. Democratic National Committee Chairman Terence R. McAuliffe, for example, sent e-mails to supporters saying, "Immediately after the debate, go online and write a letter to the editor of your local paper. If you feel John Kerry commanded the debate and had a clear plan for fixing the mess in Iraq, put it in your letter. If you feel George Bush dodged tough questions on Iraq and didn't level with voters, put it in your letter." In 2000, "Republicans stole the post-debate spin," Mr. McAuliffe said, and an avalanche of letters would help prevent a recurrence. He then thoughtfully provided a sample letter, ready to be copied and pasted, as well as easy ways to find The Post's and other newspapers' e-mail addresses.

Not many readers responded so enthusiastically to Mr. McAuliffe as to give us their reviews before the debate took place (as the Yonkers reader did), but many began weighing in during and after the debate; certain phrases began cropping up again and again.

Now, we love to hear from readers, and we admire the sincerity and passion of anyone who wants to get involved in the political process. But our goal is to present a sampling of genuine reader opinion, not to become one more battlefield in the spin wars raging all around. And we especially like to hear from readers who can think and write for themselves.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1791-2004Oct1.html

[fishface]

1. I wouldn't out it past fatboy Rove to have co-ordinated

an effort to send them dozens if not hundreds of those e-mails BEFORE the debate to make Democrats look bad.That assclown would do it in a heartbeat if he thought it would help his retarded monkeyboy.

[ClintonTyree]

2. Hypocrisy...................

in it's purest form. I'd write to them but I refuse to register on their miserable site.

[usrbs]

3. try www.BugMeNot.com

A way to avoid registration.

[City Lights]

11. No need to register to send them a nasty:

[e-mail]

I feel so much better after letting them have it. :-)

[Demoiselle]

32. I just sent them this:

Re: Your absurd complaint about "plagiarizing" Democrats post-debate.

What a great, rank, fetid, steaming load of utter codswallop.
Apparently the great WAPO has turned into everybody’s least favorite, purse lipped and prissy English teacher. Democrats COPYING phrases from political websites to express their feelings? Horrors! Of course, if the Republicans do it (and do they ever!) you call it, with admiration in your quavering little voices, “Staying relentlessly on message.”
Silly, silly, silly.

(My Name)
Philadelphia, PA
PS: When you grade this, please know that I wrote it entirely myself. I’m rather fond of the string of adjectives at the beginning, although I’m sure Strunk and White would call them overkill.

[Bronco69]

4. Wow! It's hard to believe they would actually say those things.

Some people just don't have the ability to put their thoughts into words that they would send to a newspaper. How many times have you read a post here at DU and said to yourself, "I couldn't have said it any better?" I see nothing wrong with cutting and pasting a letter to a newspaper. If the sender didn't feel that way, s/he wouldn't have sent it. The thing to check for would be getting the same letter from the same person 100 times.

[TomClash]

5. Somebody has to make sure they do their job . . .

. . . since they admit they didn't do it in the run-up to the Iraq war.

They're the ones who are "Lost in Yonkers, we're just giving them directions."

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Good one! They get on their high horses and slam us?

[kodi]

7. yet nary a report on GOP astroturfing nation-wide. how precious

.

[NoPasaran]

8. Screw 'em!

Hard to believe that the Whoreshington Post was once the paper that brought down a corrupt evil President.

[Cha]

20. That should go in an e-mail to the washed-

out post scolders!

[lpbk2713]

9. I saw it right there in black and white .............

"But our goal is to present a sampling of genuine reader opinion, not to become one more battlefield in the spin wars raging all around."

Does this mean they will cease to exist if they no longer carry the RNC spin?

[BeFree]

10. Just another version of

"Watch what you say"

Just another version of "How dare you question Authority"

It's nothing more than the use of scare tactics being smeared on the pages of the entrails of what was once the free press.

[jerryvov]

13. Here's a copy of my letter to the editor at the WP...

Editor, Washington Post:

If the media would do its job, get off its collective butt and do what it takes to hold this president's feet to the fire for his failed policies, perhaps the voting public would not feel such a deep sense of frustration about the media-sustained attacks on John Kerry. The Republican propaganda machine under Karl Rove has captured control of the media to such an extent that many voters feel the pure hopelessness of struggling to bring the truth into full view only to have the issues co-opted by an administration that cloaks its activities behind secrecy and manipulation.

When the Nixon administration attempted to lie its way into power back in the seventies, the Washington Post was in the forefront of efforts to get at the truth. Back then the paper supported Woodward and Bernstein when Nixon's thugs went into full attack mode. Where is that courage and sense of strong principle today? Instead of chiding Democrats for their efforts to uncloak this administration's lies and petty deceits, how about you folks in the media doing your jobs?

Kerry is an easy target because he is accessible. Why is the media not pounding away at the contrived, choreographed, manipulation of information that Bush and his underlings grudgingly offer to the voting public? Why, as an example, did it take Michael Moore's film, Fahrenheit 9/11, to, for the first time, reveal to the voting public the intensity and scope of protest against George W. Bush's theft of the 2000 election during his inaugural parade?

John Kerry is doing what should be the media's work by calling the president on his failed policies, both foreign and domestic. The Washington Post should stop whining about too many emails to the editor and do a better job of cutting through the layers of lies, deceit and propaganda this administration has dished out from the beginning. You people have become sheep, neutered and domesticated by Rove and his ilk. Grow a spine and do your job.

Jerry Vovcsko
Eaast Bridgewater, Ma

[skygazer]

14. Great letter

And right on the money. We no longer have "journalists" in this country, people who search for the truth, ask tough questions, publish thought provoking pieces, uncover corruption and deceit. What we have now are simply "reporters", people who repeat, word for word, what they're told, without bothering to check on its accuracy or question its veracity. The age of the crusading journalist, the Lewis Hines, the Woodward and Bernstein, seems to be over. And we are chastised for trying to do their job for them.

[Arugula Latte]

15. Great letter!

You have a way with words. :thumbsup:

[Roy]

17. They can't say that was cut and paste from Terry McCauliff.....

I just watched him mangle a clarification of Kerry's global test remark, without making it clear how it was being misconstrued by these idiots.

[xxqqqzme]

18. great letter!

we should ALL copy 'n paste it 2 the WP.

It's ok for them to endlessly repeat saurove's 'talking points 4 the day' but, god forbid, people should do the same. KMA WP!

[Cha]

22. You rock, Jerry!

:yourock: And spoke for me!

[DeepModem Mom]

25. Jerry, you said it all -- amazingly well!

[phylny]

31. My letter was much less eloquent:

Boo Hoo!

I was a long-time subscriber when I lived in Northern Virginia. We've moved and no longer subscribe, but I hear that on page A20 of the Saturday edition, the editors are taking people to task for writing to the Post after the debate. If the Post has a way for people to get in touch with it via e-mail to send a letter to the editor, then deal with what you get, or stop taking remarks via e-mail.

[Vickers]

12. Wow, did they get their whining lessons from Georgie's debate demeanor?

What a bunch of wussies.

[Cha]

23. Must have..it's catching ..

Yuch!

[ReadTomPaine]

16. Journalists as corporate lawyers

In another thread recently posted here at DU, someone discussed comments made by Chris Matthews at a speaking engagement in St. Louis. Chris made the claim that old school journalism was dead and all serious players in the field are careerists, happy to spread whatever stories or spin management requires of them. The big goal of the profession is to make it to national prominence. He seemed happy with this.

The problem with this approach is its diametric opposition to the actual goals of the journalistic profession. They have, in effect, become corporate lawyers, advocating management's view in the most aggressive fashion permitted by law, and then some. They protect themselves via a hideous twisting of the expanded free speech considerations originally provided to the press to help keep the country free of exactly this sort of institutional rot. Simply put, our country is designed to have a press which is skeptical of the government. When it isn't, the country doesn't function properly. Given enough time, like anything running poorly, it will break down.

Here's the link, it's an interesting read.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x953785#955337

RTP

[Cha]

24. Thank you!

[DeepModem Mom]

26. What Chris describes is deadly to democracy --

see my sig line about the Founding Fathers and Constitutional protection.

[wishlist]

19. Certain phrases kept cropping up- like "stumbling bumbling doofus"?

I said Bush was a stumbling, bumbling, doofus during and after the debate in private, only to get a laugh when Don Imus' assistant (the younger one without glasses) used this exact same phrase Friday morning! No one before the debate though could have predicted the outcome.

In my emails I tried to be diplomatic, mostly just praising Kerry for being concise and clear and consistent. I am sure many other people used the exact same terms to describe Kerry's performance but it doesn't mean everyone was just copying each other.

[progressivebydesign]

21. The WP dipshits missed the most basic point!!!!!

You'd think these people would have basic reasoning skills. Okay... I'll spell it out for them:

If the Democrats simply made the addresses available to those that wanted to write, and encouraged us.. if we felt moved to write, then HOW is THAT differentiating us from "readers.. (with) sincerity and passion.."????? We REALLY felt that way! The Democrats did not tell us how to feel. We are not suddenly non-existent because we used pre-organized links to the papers. They are trying to minimize our opinions, and it's total bullshit. We did NOT make up names and send multiple letters to each media source. WE ARE VOTERS AND READERS and we have opinions!!!! How could they not get that?

They are too stupid to be in journalism. They absolutely don't get it.

[slojim240]

27. So, they don't like "freedom of expression" after all.

My country is falling into the hands of fascist morons and there seems to be little we can do about it.

[SemperEadem]

28. the WaPost is just pissed off because folks who use the internet

for blogging or reading for themselves are far better journalists than those reporters working for their newspaper. It's just jealous hating...

They need to look to that crown wearing mooney-tunes self-styled king/emperor who owns their asses.

[Doctor_J]

29. good thing repugs never do things like that

:puke:

[crickets]

30. This is basically saying,

Shut up! We don't want to hear from you. :eyes: What a public service on the part of the WP.