Tuesday, December 13, 2005

If The Washington Post Had A Decent Political Editor




It occurs to me that Plamegate should have been told a long time ago, the pieces are there, but John Harris would rather sound sufficiently conservative than ask the questions and follow up questions and tell the stories from beginning to end as the facts come out rather than determining the narrative and telling the parts that fit into that narrative regardless of relevance or truth.

Am I really supposed to believe that John Harris is worried about credibility when his paper devotes a serious chunk of real estate to a writer who doesn't think that he needs to disclose his own financial interests in the stories he writes or who has admitted to intervening in a democratic exercise to assure the outcome would meet his own desires.

John Harris does his readers and his country a great disservice with this manipulation of the information that we must have to be competitive, competent and relevant on the world stage and to be free and strong at home.

The Washington post should hang it's head in shame that they have been obstructing the necessary flow of information to their public; they have been hiding behind the reputation of the newspaper built upon the reliability of the woman whose life's work they are trying to dismantle.

The stories that need to be told so that all Americans can understand well enough to agree or disagree based on the solid foundation of WHO, WHAT, WHY, WHERE,WHEN, and HOW. We deserve to know what goes on in our name we deserve to know if our leaders have taken our well being seriously. We demand to know the parameters of our society, what is our economic outlook-honestly, not the glam edition.

The Washington Post should hang their heads in shame that the dots have been connected by people who juggled jobs, families and economic hardships to bring the stories to light while they sat around with their well paid jobs brainstorming ways to make the Democrats' role in this fiasco look worse than that of the "personal responsibility" Ruling Party.

Take a thorough look at some of the work that wasn't done by top newspapers and media companies with financial gains to be made in the weapons and information industries. Name any series in The Washington Post that has been so carefully documented and tied down from information that has fallen by the wayside.

Treasongate


Twelve electrifying stories woven together tight enough to conduct electricity free for the taking. I think that a responsible guardian of the First Ammendment rights that have made your profession and your very way of life possible would fact check this story nine ways to Sunday and release it to the millions of people who have a stake in the continuation of the American dreams of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Certainly, an Editor has more pressing duties than sitting around dreaming up ways to muddy the waters, to create unnecessary controversy just because he's powerful and he can. Certainly, any editor who took pride in their work would be looking at some of the important stories of our time like this one or this one, and fact-checking them to see what he was missing.

It is possible that an Editor of on of the foremost newspapers in America might ask why this post opened with a picture of the arctic meltdown happening on the only home we have. My friend Suntripper wants to know why that picture wasn't on the front page of every newspaper, the leading story on the nightly news.

If you have some spare time, you should tell her why.
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