Look at this response I got from the Daily News of Philadelphia!

[calimary]

Folks and friends, I just got this email from Will Bunch of the Daily News of Philadelphia, an online publication apparently. Perhaps you saw the original article - it was posted in many places from here to Truthout. It was called "Why Don't We Have Answwers to These 9/11 Questions?" It was an excellent article, and I wrote him to say so. I thought you'd like to see the response, to be encouraged. Evidence that more folks in the media are starting to wake up.

Here's what he wrote:

Usually I respond to pretty much all of my emails personally. But that's not going to be possible after this article, so I apologize for basically a "form". So far I've received somewhere on the order of 200 emails (I stopped counting at 115). That's about 5X more than I've received for any other story (and about 200X more than for just an average one!). The ratio has been on the order of 10-1 positive. I'm going to be discussing the story tomorrow on Philadelphia's top-rated TV station (an ABC affiliate).

I can't tell you how much your words of support have meant to me, and I promise not to let go of this or related topics. I believe this will help convince my editors how deeply average Americans care about these issues. I'm including links to several past stories I've written on 9/11 and Iraq, so you'll see this isn't a "one-off." Thanks again!

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/4084323.htm

http://www.cooperativeresearch.net/timeline/2001/philadelphiadailynews111501.html

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/5025024.htm

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/5260846.htm

-- Will

[e-mail]

[sonias]

1. Great news calimary

And thanks for taking the time to write to Bunch. Reporters and writers always like feedback especially if it's positive. Good for Bunch keeping on top of these issues.

Sonia

[never cry wolf]

3. Ditto, thanks calimary!! .....n/t

[G_j]

9. add another

I just wrote him also. thanks!

[goobergunch]

2. Tomorrow on WPVI...

did he say when?

[calimary]

4. No, he didn't. That was the extent of the email response.

But I wrote him back again and further congratulated him and exhorted him to do more. AND I told him that I was a retired reporter who was working when the media thought it should be a watchdog instead of a lapdog, and that the powderpuff treatment they've given bush and company is just absolutely disgraceful.

What I liked was his reported response - TEN to one in favor. And he's interpreting that ratio correctly - that there are far more of us out here hungry for the truth than have been responsibly served by the media.

BY THE WAY, dahlinks -

It's a GREAT idea to write back to these reporters when they write something lucid. Rest assured they sure hear it from the rethugs about how horrid it is, when they actually tell the truth. There's SUCH a machine in place to discourage truth-telling, especially where it involves the bushies. All we can do is push back the other way. And when we start pushing back with more and more force and momentum, ours becomes the more persuasive and powerful thrust.

Please note, in many of these cases, the reporter's email address is included near their byline or at the bottom of their pieces, especially if they're an op/ed type. They're easy to respond to. I have done this a lot and I frequently get responses - remarkably many of them personal. Although if you write to Paul Krugman or Bob Herbert at the NYTimes, you usually get a form response. Someday, I hope that changes.

The more they know we're out there, and that we give a damn, the more they'll realize we're a force A) to be reckoned with and B) a readership to be catered to.

[RedSock]

6. he wrote me back too.

He answered my email too. I thought his name sounded familiar and it turns out I reviewed a book he wrote about 10 years ago called "Jukebox America" -- searching for the best jukebox in the country -- for a music magazine called Request.

He says: "Small world. Yeah that's me, holding onto the low 700,000s on Amazon. I can't tell you how much I loved "An Interesting Day" -- I really do think maybe it's the best thing written about 9/11."

(blush)

Now off to check his other links ....

[MuseRider]

5. Good for

both of you. Wake up world, it is time to open your eyes.

[Cha]

7. All right! calimary! Way to be an acitvist!

Thank Goodness People are Finally Waking Up and smelling the Fish!

[Melsky]

8. Great!

Thanks for reminding me how important it is to send encouraging email and letters to writers of stories like this. You know they must get tons of irate emails from freepers!

I try to send out at least 10 emails a week to people who write important and truthful stories. I have not done it for a couple of weeks, but I am getting back on it now.

Positive reinforcement works.

[Myra]

11. "Positive reinforcement works."

Plus, part of the BushCo strategy for US/World
domination is to make outraged people feel isolated
and out of step.
(Ref: Edward Luttwak. "Coup d'Etat: A Practical Handbook,")

So outreach via any method of communication is
critical. The enemy knows it so we better know it.

[calimary]

12. It is VITALLY important that we make ourselves heard!

Every letter you write is another brick in the wall.

I attended a speech by Robert Scheer, LA Times columnist (packed, by the way, standing-room-only), and a couple of questioners asked him whether we're just shouting down a black hole. Scheer is also married to an op/ed editor for, I think, the San Francisco Chronicle. Anyway, his response was that - yes, editors actually do sit around and look carefully at all the letters they get and consider the overall impact of them, and the good, thoughtful ones actually do get used.

I have noticed that letters to the editor in the LA Times tend to run about four to one, or five to one against the bushies. It's been like that for quite a long time.

I suspect that, with the polls sliding as they are, and the news from Iraq NOT improving, and the news on the economy NOT improving and the news on the unemployment front NOT improving (and now, what with cheney going on Meet the Press and saying we're gonna need MORE Than 87 billion - while the 87 billion itself did NOT exactly go over well with the public) AND word dribbling out about the much-anticipated David Kay report on finding all those WMDs in Iraq (now likely to be delayed, if not outright SHELVED), there will be MORE adverse reader/listener/viewer response to the bushies, and more of it will be taken seriously.

Which, in turn, will motivate reporters to start responding to that, since they can, at least, tell which way the wind is blowing. Which will generate more positive feedback for such stories and more negative reaction to the bushies. Which, in turn, will encourage MORE reporters to start asking more questions and probing further.

You get the idea...

[proud patriot]

10. Americans DO care about this

:loveya:

[peace4all]

13. you are right

people do care. I hear it every day.

btw, great "we can do it" poster, I love it!

[proud patriot]

14. Thanks , here's where it comes from

http://www.protest.bmgbiz.net/

[grasswire]

15. can you post...

.....a link to his story on the 16 questions? I missed it and would like to write him. Thanks.

[RedSock]

16. he's on the ball

grasswire:
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/local/6742902.htm


Also one of his other stories mentions PNAC:
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/5025024.htm

[calimary]

17. I think I found it! Try this:

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/local/6742902.htm

These are just SOME of the questions. I think you'll find it most illuminating, and gratifying that somebody in the press is actually starting to ask these things.

EVEN MORE SIGNIFICANT: Note number 13. It actually dares to use the word "lie" referring to an action by bush. Not "stretch the truth." Not "prevaricate." Not "misrepresent." Not "misspeak." Not dancing around it.

There were 20 questions. These are just my personal favorites.

1. What did National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice tell President Bush about al Qaeda threats against the United States in a still-secret briefing on Aug. 6, 2001?

2. Why did Attorney General John Ashcroft and some Pentagon officials cancel commercial-airline trips before Sept. 11?

3. Who made a small fortune "shorting" airline and insurance stocks before Sept. 11?

6. Why did the NORAD air defense network fail to intercept the four hijacked jets?

7. Why did President Bush continue reading a story to Florida grade-schoolers for nearly a half-hour during the worst attack on America in its history?

13. Why did the Bush administration lie about dangerously high levels of toxins and hazardous particles after the WTC collapse?

19. What is in the 28 blacked-out pages of the congressional Sept. 11 report?