http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2545A June 7 White House press conference with George W. Bush and Tony Blair offered the first public response from Bush to the memo, and with that came an upswing in U.S. media attention. But some in the media took it as a chance to lash out at the activists who have been bringing attention to the story all along. On June 8, Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank referred to Downing Street Memo activists—some of whom were offering a cash reward for the first journalist to ask Bush about the memo—as “wing nuts.”
. . .
Los Angeles Times editorial page editor Michael Kinsley opted for sarcasm over serious discussion, deriding activists in a June 12 column for sending him emails “demanding that I cease my personal cover-up of something called the Downing Street Memo.” Kinsley kidded that the fuss was a good sign for the Left: “Developing a paranoid theory and promoting it to the very edge of national respectability takes ideological self-confidence.”
What does Kinsley mean by paranoid? Criticizing the Times for not giving the story much attention would be accurate: Prior to the Bush-Blair press conference, a Nexis search shows one story about the Downing Street minutes appeared in the paper nearly two weeks after the story broke (5/12/05), and that columnist Robert Scheer mentioned it a few days later (5/17/05).
. . .
ACTION:
Contact the Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler and ask him if it is appropriate to label media activists “wing nuts” in a news story. Also, ask Los Angeles Times editor Michael Kinsley to explain how Downing Street Memo activists are peddling a “paranoid theory” that he also suggests is correct.
CONTACT:
Washington Post
Ombudsman
Michael Getler
Phone: (202) 334-7582
@washpost.com
Los Angeles Times
Editorial & Opinion Editor
Michael Kinsley
@latimes.com
As always, please remember that your comments have more impact if you maintain a polite tone.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
