The Weekly News Journal Bias Tally, Jan. 10-17 2009

This week: The global warming debate finally runs its course, a huge amount of front-page real estate is devoted to football, we're bombarded with no fewer than 9 front-page human-interest pieces on Obama, Biden and inauguration preparations, and after enjoying nearly a full week of professional editorial cartoons drawns by cartoonists who can actually draw, we go down in flames with yet another wretched cartoon by Jack Jurden that leaves us scratching our heads.

Biases of the Week

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This week's tally: Liberal Bias: 10 Conservative Bias: 23 Do What?*: 2 Read further for the day-by-day breakdown. Letter = Letter to the Editor Saturday, January 10 2009

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Liberal Bias: 1

• Columnist: Jimmy Carter. Diplomacy could have prevented the war in Gaza. Liberal buzzwords used: psychological damage, acute malnutrition, humanitarian, comprehensive peace

Conservative Bias: 4

• Letter: Veterans' rights are being whittled away by Congress. Conservative buzzwords used: proud servicemen and servicewomen, uncaring do-nothing Congress, undeserving people and companies, pork projects.
• Letter: Gun control doesn't work. Conservative buzzwords used: street-smart thugs, lawful owners, drug dealers, pimps.
• Cartoon: Ordinary citizens aren't allowed into DC until after Obama's "coronation."
• Columnist: Charles Krauthammer. Diplomacy doesn't work, Israel needs to obliterate Hamas Conservative buzzwords used: farce, terrorists, French, radical Islamist movements

Do What?: 1

• Letter: Glaciers are not melting because of global warming, they're melting because radioactive fallout is inhibiting rain, which is actually a good thing for Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Sunday, January 11 2009

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Liberal Bias: 2

• Letter: Bush is destroying our system of checks and balances. Liberal buzzwords used: pros and cons, debate, balance
• Letter: Republicans are focusing on the Blagojovich scandal because they lost. Liberal buzzwords used: alleged corruption, Republican bitterness

Conservative Bias: 2

• Letter: Global warming is a myth because sea ice isn't melting. Conservative buzzwords used: editor bias, alarmism, supposed threat
• Columnist: David Broder. Obama got outsmarted by Blagojovitch. Conservative buzzwords used: Bill Clinton, gays, Harry Reid, race card, Congressional Black Caucus

Do What?: 2

• Letter: Social problems don't cause violence, drug laws do.
• Letter: Why are all you people feeling sorry for Hamas when you should be feeling sorry for American Indians who didn't get anything for their land except trinkets and baubles?

Monday, January 12 2009

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Liberal Bias: 1

• Columnist: Rekha Basu. Hooters restaurants degrade women. Liberal buzzwords used: sexism, domestic assaults, victim, sexual harrassment, rights Ummm... duh.

Conservative Bias: 2

• Cartoon: Obama is filling his Cabinet with TV celebrities.
• Letter: Congress and Obama are going to pass a law that takes away states' rights to regulate abortion even if it helps women, so check out what Catholic bishops have to say about the Freedom of Choice Act Conservative buzzwords used: radical, right to life, extreme legislation

Do What?: 1

• Letter: Politicians' pensions should be based on how popular they are with their constituents. Oh, and they shouldn't be allowed to be lobbyists.

Tuesday, January 13 2009

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Liberal Bias: 2

• Letter: Obama's inauguration represents fulfillment of America's destiny. Liberal buzzwords used: hope, change, equal, Dr. Martin Luther King, truth, love
• Letter: I grew up with Jack Markell and knew his father, and he's a good guy And Muffy says his backhand is absolutely deadly, but he's always good for a round back at the clubhouse

Conservative Bias: 4

• Letter: All Democrats are corrupt Conservative buzzwords used: Nancy Pelosi, drain the swamp, snakes from Chicago, "Promised One," filthy system, crooked balloting, Barney Frank, bailouts, Democrat cronies, pay for play
• Letter: Taxpayers shouldn't pay pay for state employees to have pet insurance Fact check: The state does not pay for pet insurance for state workers. State employees who elect to purchase pet insurance get a 10% group discount.
• Letter: Good riddance to Minner

Wednesday, January 14 2009

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Liberal Bias: 3

• Letter: Earlier letter saying anyone who likes the Bidens is stupid and shouldn't be allowed to vote was nasty. Liberal buzzwords used: democracy, rights, battered women, working men and women
• Columnist: Eugene Robinson. George Bush needs to be investigated when he leaves office
• Columnist: Tim Rutten. 401(k) plans have been a failure tht let American workers down.

Conservative Bias: 3

• Letter: I hate the UAW because they crossed our picket lines
• Letter: Israel should obliterate Gaza Conservative buzzwords used: Zionism, mindless Islamic murderers, Hezbollah
• Columnist: Paul Greenberg. Liberals are trying to suppress conservative speech in politics, on the air, on the internet, and on college campuses. Conservative buzzwords used: gag rule, rig the system, competition, centralized government, arbiters of thought, indoctrination

Thursday, January 15 2009

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Liberal Bias: 2

• Letter: Teenagers aren't helped by adults who stereotype Liberal buzzwords used: focus on the behaviour, hope, change
• Editorial: Obama's nominee for Treasury Secretary has tax problems because the tax code is too convoluted even for him to understand So God help the rest of us poor schmucks.

Conservative Bias: 3

• Letter: Voters need to stop electing the same (liberal) politicians and their relatives Conservative buzzwords used: insanity, Beau Biden, Caroline Kennedy
• Editorial: Margaret Spellings. Bush's Secy. of Education justifies No Child Left Behind.
• Columnist: Ruben Navarrette. Bill Richardson, a Hispanic, would have made a great Commerce Secy. if Obama hadn't dumped him because he was being investigated for improprieties as Gov. of New Mexico. Oh, and Obama is incompetent, because his vetting team tapped Bill Richardson when he was being investigated for improprieties as Gov. of New Mexico.

Do What?: 1

• Letter: If I were king of Delaware, I'd make sports betting legal, I'd let poor people use the Cleveland Ave. housing complex in Newark instead of selling it, I wouldn't let illegal immigrants work here, and I'd make employees of out-of-state corporations pay Delaware taxes. So there. King me.

Friday, January 16 2009

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Liberal Bias: 1

• Columnist: Tim Rutten. Los Angeles mayor has a right to speak out on foreign affairs

Conservative Bias: 4

• Cartoon: Fireman Obama pours money into financial institutions while Main Street goes begging.
• Letter: Obama will be like FDR, who prolonged the Depression and packed the Supreme Court with liberals Conservative buzzwords used: Democrat-controlled Congress, increasing taxes, liberal justices, brave Americans, liberal media
• Letter: The state put small business owners out of business with higher workmen's comp rates while reducing rates for large corporations.
• Columnist: George Will. Liberal California Attorney General Jerry Brown is undermining the people of California by trying to overturn Proposition 8. Conservative buzzwords used: same-sex marriages, sexual lifestyles, universal definition of marriage, judicial fiat, abortion, judicial highhandedness
• Columnist: David Broder. Love letter to Bush's outgoing Health and Human Services Secy., Mike Leavitt

Do What?: 1

• News Journal editors: Letter was titled "Celebrated smoking ban harmed small businesses," when the letter wasn't about the smoking ban, it was higher workmens' comp rates harming small businesses.

Saturday, January 17 2009

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Liberal Bias: 1

• Letter: George Bush is a war criminal Liberal buzzwords used: neo-con, axis of evil, torture, detainees, propoganda network, atrocities, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Genghis Khan, Tojo Wow -- not just a knee-jerk liberal, but a raving lunatic liberal. Wipe the spittle up off the floor before you go, please.

Conservative Bias: 4

• Letter: Obama can't be compared to Martin Luther King because he's pro-choice. Conservative buzzwords used: the blacks, the unborn Favorite quote: "I hope our new president equates the greatness of Martin Luther King when it comes to justice and equality of the unborn."
• Columnist: Chuck Raasch. Obama's is already being fiscally irresponsible by throwing a bunch of parties on Inauguration Day. Fact Check: Raasch says Obama is paying for the festivities by raising money from "ordinary Americans." He doesn't mention that the inauguration balls going on throughout DC are private, invitation-only events, and that the vast majority of them are unofficial.
• Columnist: Charles Krauthammer. George Bush is a martyr whose policies have been so perfect and wise that Obama is planning to continue them. Grasshopper, follow in the clown shoes of the Master.

Do What?: 2

• Letter: I'm old and I lived in the same house for 63 years with my 90-year-old husband until he died last year, and I read about Roosevelt in school but because my husband was really old, he remembered Roosevelt and the Depression, and I learned something when I read an article in your newspaper about Obama. Oh, and Lincoln, Kennedy and Roosevelt were great and Obama will be too. I'm afraid if she ever reads anything else ever again, her head may explode from having too much knowledge stuffed in there.
• Jack Jurden Cartoon: Unidentified cartoon man says"We'll miss you Ruth Ann" into what looks like the wrong end of a megaphone, which is inexplicably mounted on a tripod and pointed toward a woman with a bun -- has he ever seen Ruth Ann? -- dragging luggage labeled "Ex-Gov." Good-bye I get. Ruth Ann I get. Luggage I get. But what the hell is going on with that backwards megaphone thing?

News Journal Round-Up, Jan 4-9

Now that I'm no longer on vacation, as I was over the holidays when I started this blog, it's a little too difficult to stay on top of this thing on a daily basis, so I'm probably going to continue as a weekly. I've also decided that I'm only going to look at articles with a decidedly conservative or liberal bias, so I won't be bothering with researching the authors of the fluff pieces or those on a single hobbyhorse, i.e. former Israeli prime ministers or Arab college professors writing about the war in Gaza, where the bias is obvious and not necessarily pushing a liberal or conservative viewpoint. I've also decided not to limit myself to the syndicated op-ed pieces, as was my original intention; I will also provide commentary on local editorials and letters to the editor that show an obvious liberal or conservative bent. This Week's Comic Relief: The Battle Over Global Warming Continues A letter to the editor on December 21 from a guy who teaches in the UD computer department, citing the usual conservative "experts" from the gas, coal and mining industries who say global warming is a myth, has provided us with a whole series of letters on the subject, and hundreds of posts at delawareonline.com. I wrote the following, which was published on 12/27, in response to the original letter:

Charles Boncelet’s letter “Global warming reports exaggerated,” (Dec. 21) presented impressive-sounding statements, but his facts and figures are based on information produced by the usual global warming conspiracy “experts,” most with ties to the oil, gas and mining industries. His claim that “global temperatures peaked in 1998 and have declined since about 2003” is found on Web sites run by organizations whose mantra is that of unfettered trade and deregulation, such as Fox News and the Heartland Institute, or on right-wing blogs.The theory can be traced to a single paper written by Vincent Gray, a retired New Zealand coal chemist, whose main hobby is calling for the abolition of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.Gray touts himself as an “expert reviewer for the IPCC.” He asked to review their reports; he was not invited to be a member of the panel and has no training or experience in climatology.

The contention that rising levels of atmospheric CO2 stimulates plant growth and is good for the environment is promoted primarily by Ray Evans, who spent most of the 80s and 90s as executive officer of Australia’s Western Mining Corporation.He’s is also secretary of an Australian global warming skeptics group composed of 90-some retired scientists from the mining, manufacturing and construction industries.

The global warming argument has resulted in some hilarious letters and online comments from Flat-Earth-type conservatives, including several of the infamous "ice cubes in a glass" variety. The sheer volume citing the same flawed experiment has me wondering whether Rush Limbaugh teaches a course on "Refuting Real Science Using Simple Items From Your Home or Garage." Most of the liberal writers pointed out that the problem is not with melting sea ice, it's the melting glaciers from Antarctica and Greenland that's the problem. Like, duh. My favorite letter in the debate this week, though, was one from Fred Patrick of Milton, who offers this sage observation:

"Water+frozen= Ice. Just as Ice +thawed = water. So if you fill an empty glass with ice cubes and they melt, surprise – you get water."

Huh? I'm not sure which side of the debate he was on, but it continued the whole global warming thread, so of course the News Journal printed it without question. Possibly without even reading it. Proving once again that they're more interested in stirring up controversy than in actually presenting facts. On to the weeks biases! Biases of the Week This week's tally: Liberal Bias: 10 Conservative Bias: 14 Do What? Bias*: 2 Read further for the day-by-day breakdown. Letter = Letter to the Editor.

Monday Liberal Bias: 3

• Harry Themal's column: a love letter to Jack Markell.
• DeWayne Wickham's syndicated column: a love letter to Roland Burris, Illinois-governor-under-indictment Rod Blagojovich's Senate appointment.
• Delaware Voice column by Al Matlack, President of the Natural History Society of Delaware: what Toll Bros. could do to build greener housing developments.

Conservative Bias: 0

Do What? Bias: 1

• Letter: Fred Patrick's incomprehensible "melting ice=water" on global warming.

Tuesday Liberal Bias: 2

• Another Letter on global warming, this time refuting the ice-in-a-glass experiment.
• A Letter saying the Bible has been rewritten many times, in response to a Bible-thumper's letter stating the Bible is inviolable truth.

Conservative Bias: 1

• Letter suggesting that when the Powerball Lottery totals $50 million or more, there should be more than just one winner. This one's weird: The News Journal titled this letter "A socialistic solution to improve economic woes." Bias is on the part of the NJ alone. And points to the NJ for trying to stir something up and falling flat on their arse, as this letter generated no response either in the LttE or online.

Wednesday Liberal Bias: 3

• NJ Editorial: love letter to Jack Markell for keeping Carol Ann Wicks as Transportation Secy.
• Letter: Pastor Rick Warren is a bigot who hates gays.
• Letter: God bless the UAW, from a former auto worker. (Liberal at least on this issue!)

Conservative Bias: 5

• NJ Editorial: griping about the stimulus package and Medicare, saying the money will probably be wasted.
• Letter: Companies that make cars in Mexico should receive no aid.
• Letter: Send Bernie Madoff to the Big House.
• Letter: Republican fantasy about Joe Biden being Obama's press secretary, with a lot of invective about Reid, Pelosi and others. This one gets points for being Uber-Conservative.
• Letter: Changes need to be made at the VA, with lots of buzzwords about fighting terrorism, paying the ultimate price, and protecting our freedom.

Thursday Liberal Bias: 0 Conservative Bias: 4

• Letter: Minner's administration was miserable, good riddance.
• Letter: Obama, Biden, Minner, Hillary Clinton and Caroline Kennedy are proof that the electorate is getting ripped off with Senate appointments
• Paul Greenberg's syndicated column: handwringing over what to do about Gaza, criticising the UN for not acting until Israel took action
• George Will's syndicated column: GMAC has no business sponsoring a bowl game while taking a handout from the Treasury

Friday Liberal Bias: 2

• Letter: Another response to earlier Bible-thumper's letter, stating that God and the Bible are fiction
• Letter: Another global warming letter, again pointing out that land-based ice is the problem.

Conservative Bias: 4

• NJ Editorial from John Sweeney: Senators spend too much time on TV catering to national constituencies while ignoring the locals
• Letter: Rahm Emanuel shouldn't be chief of staff because he holds dual American-Israeli citizenship and has served in the Israeli army. FACTCHECK: This claim is false. Emanuel could take dual citizenship if he wanted to, as can all Jews. He served as a citizen volunteer during the 1991 Gulf War repairing Israeli tanks for a few weeks. He has never served in the Israeli military.

  From The Jewish Journal: Emanuel got his first glimpse of politics as a candidate, and faced an immediate test. A nasty primary battle included a rare public case of anti-Semitism, when the president of the Polish American Congress, Ed Moskal, who was supporting candidate Nancy Kaszak, claimed that Emanuel was an Israeli citizen and served in the Israeli army. Moskal also called Emanuel a "millionaire carpetbagger who knows nothing" about "our heritage." Emanuel had served a noncombat stint as a volunteer in the Israeli army during the Gulf War, but he never held Israeli citizenship. Emanuel responded coolly, supporters said, bringing a coalition of Chicago clergy together to denounce the incident. "One of the proudest moments of my life was seeing people of my district from all backgrounds demonstrate our common values by coming together in response to this obvious attempt to divide them," Emanuel said.

• Letter: Another global warming letter -- since the ice-in-a-glass argument has been roundly debunked six ways from Sunday, this writer is left with whining about liberals who want to suppress conservatives' right to free speech. This one's a hoot!
• Letter: Bidens make the writer sick, and anyone who votes for them is stupid.

Do What? Bias: 1

• Letter: in addition to the 2 global warming letters that I already mentioned, today we were treated to another incomprehensible ice-in-the-glass letter, stating you need to let the ice melt and mark the glass both before and after it melts.

Deconstructing the Op-Ed Writers: Columns on 1/4/09

Senate is losing some real talent by DAVID BRODER BIAS: CONSERVATIVE Broder is sometimes described as a centrist, and is able to acknowledge the achievements of "the other side."

• Writes a twice-weekly op-ed column for the Washington Post
• Pulitzer Prize winner for political commentaryGenerally critical of Bill and and Hillary Clinton. Broder speaking to Sally Quinn about Bill Clinton: "He came in here and he trashed the place, and it's not his place."
• Generally supportive of George Bush. From Broder's February 2007 column: "But just as Clinton did in the winter of 1995, Bush now shows signs of renewed energy and is regaining the initiative on several fronts. More important, he is demonstrating political smarts that even his critics have to acknowledge."
• Generally supportive of Karl Rove. Broder on the Valerie Plame case: "[Newsweek] and other publications owe Karl Rove an apology. And all of journalism needs to relearn the lesson: Can the conspiracy theories and stick to the facts."

Unintended consequences of well-meaning laws by GEORGE WILL BIAS: CONSERVATIVE

See previous George Will entry

GOP must really stand for something by RICHARD A. VIGUERIE BIAS: CONSERVATIVE

• Pioneered the use of direct mail funding campaigns for conservative causes
• Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com
• Founded Conservative Digest magazine in 1975
• Cofounder of American Freedom Agenda , a conservative coalition dedicated restoring traditional Republican "small government" values

On the economy: Worst is coming by NOURIEL ROUBINI BIAS: Liberal. There is disagreement about whether Roubini is a liberal or a libertarian

• Professor of economics at the Stern School of Business, New York University
• Held several advisory positions at Treasury during Clinton administration
• Chairman of RGE Monitor, an economic analysis consulting firm

Delaware Voice: Why we need same-gender marriages by DOUG MARSHALL-STEELE BIAS: LIBERAL

• Doug and partner Corey Marshall-Steele are local gay-rights activists
• Frequently contributes articles and letters on GLBT issues to newspapers throughout the state
• Website: Towardequality.org

Deconstructing the Op-Ed Writers: Columns on 1/3/09

Israel won't find peace in Gaza through airstrikes by ROSA BROOKS BIAS: LIBERAL

• Op-ed columnist for the Los Angeles Times
• Law professor at the Georgetown University Law Center
• Director of Georgetown Law School's Human Rights Center
• Has worked for Human Rights Watch and Open Society Institute
• Has served as a board member of Amnesty International USA
• served as a foreign policy advisor to the Kerry-Edwards campaign

Just why is Israel bombing in the Gaza? by EPHRAIM SNEH BIAS: ISRAELI CENTER-LEFT? (This is Labor's position. Not sure how Sneh's new party translates on the U.S. liberal/conservative scale -- party was just formed this year and is standing in its first elections)

• Former member of Israel's Knesset
• Former head of Israeli Labor Party in the Knesset
• Former Israeli Assistant Defence Minister
• Left Labor and established Yisrael Hazaka (Strong Israel) party in May '08
• Yisrael Hazaka platform includes: Giving equal status to all streams of Judaism Not allowing enemy countries to have nuclear weapons Restoring and rebuilding the Israeli welfare state Strengthening security forces and taking a harder line with criminals

Repeating Roosevelt's 'experiments' will lead to chilling uncertainty by AMITY SHLAES BIAS: CONSERVATIVE

• Senior Fellow for Economic History at Council on Foreign Relations , a non-partisan think tank
• Bloomberg News columnist
• Former member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal
• Sample Bloomberg columns: ‘Recession’ Might as Well Be a Reason to Rejoice Obama Will Take Us Backward By Channeling Keynes Obama-Pelosi-Reid Is Picture Markets Won't Like Ronald Reagan Returns in Form of Joe the Plumber

News Journal Stirs the Pot By Printing Lies

OK, so I have to respond to this idiotic letter in today's paper:

The media are worshipping Obama before he takes office, even saying he is the greatest president since Lincoln. The media will beatify him on Jan. 20, and canonize him after the 100 days. Why not let the man perform before deifying him? I note that his closest advisers -- Jarrett, Axelrod, and Emanuel -- were all trained in the Kelly/Daley/Daley Chicago machine that trained Blagojevich.

- Christian S. Rondestvedt, Wilmington

I posted this on the N-J's site in response:

If you Google the phrase "greatest president since Lincoln," all you come up with is a bunch of sites laying that title on Bush and Reagan, a few that give it to FDR, and some comments on personal blogs and Letters to the Editor at other papers. If you narrow the search to look only for news articles, you come up with exactly 2 articles: a liberal blog that assigns the title to FDR... AND THIS LETTER that we're all commenting on here!!!

To say that "The media are ... saying [Obama] is the greatest president since Lincoln" is not an opinion, it's a lie. Say that you hate Obama, say that you think he's corrupt because he's from Chicago. Fine, I won't argue with your right to hold that opinion. But DON'T LIE to come up with support for your argument!

Shame on the News Journal for stirring the pot with garbage like this. It just gives legitimacy to yet another lie that right-wingers can parrot to each other as a fact -- and it must be true, because they read it in the paper.

Deconstructing the Op-Ed Writers: Columns on 1/1/09

Sorry this is out of order -- I'm catching up on the N-J's most recent editorials. When that's done, I'll be doing these as they appear each day (I hope!) So, here's what the News Journal published on New Year's Day, 2009:

Health will only get more costly for all by GEORGE WILL BIAS: CONSERVATIVE

• Washington Post op-ed columnist
• Former Washington editor of the National Review, a leading conservative journal of ideas and political commentary
• Will has been critical of the Bush presidency and the McCain/Palin campaign
• Washington Post bio
• George Will on The Colbert Report:

When do satirical song lyrics cross the line? by RUBEN NAVARRETTE, JR. BIAS: CONSERVATIVE

• Syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writer's Group
• Sample Navarette columns: Sarah Palin understands small-town America Dems Flip Flop on Iraq Respect Obama's choice of Rick Warren For Palin, a tie is a win McCain has his priorities straight
• Navarette bio

The real-life perils of Hollywood's romantic comedies by Gregory Rodriguez BIAS: N/A - Lifestyles piece

• Director of the California Fellows Program at New America Foundation
• Writes for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and The Economist
• Another piece that should have appeared in the entertainment section than on the opinion page.

Deconstructing the Op-Ed Writers: Columns on 1/2/09

The following columns appeared in today's N-J; the first two article links are to outside sites because the N-J hasn't posted them in their online edition.

The Triumph of Consensus by PAUL GREENBERG BIAS: CONSERVATIVE

• Greenberg describes himself as "an ideologically unreliable conservative."
• Coined the nickname "Slick Willie" for Bill Clinton
• Biography: Paul Greenberg

Obama must be Organizer in Chief by Eli Pariser BIAS: LIBERAL

• Pariser is president of MoveOn.org, a liberal PAC
• Pariser's bio

Businesses beware of Employee Free (Forced) Choice Act by Edward J. Capodanno BIAS: CONSERVATIVE

• Capodanno is president of the DE chapter of Associated Builders And Contractors (ABC), a pro-business, anti-union PAC
• Capodanno is Executive Director of The Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractors Association of Delaware, a building trades organization
• Current issues ABC is currently involved in: Working against the Davis-Bacon Act, which outlaws wage exploitation in public construction contracts; Working against the Employee Free Choice Act, which aims to make it easier for employees to unionize; Working on Immigration Reform to reduce government oversight of "guest workers" hired by the construction industry; Working to banish trained union organizers and agents from member businesses to prevent so-called "salting abuse"; Working against Section 511 Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act, designed to make it more difficult for contractors to avoid paying income taxes

Deconstructing the Op-Ed Writers: Columns on 12-28-08

Just started this blog, so I'll try to cover some recent News Journal editorial columns.

Sunday, 12/28:

We must think and act boldly by JON CORZINE. BIAS: LIBERAL

• Governor of New Jersey, Democrat
• Jon Corzine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Americans are getting an inferiority complex by PATRICIA BEAUCHAMP. BIAS:N/A

• Los Angeles writer appears to write humorous lifestyle pieces.
• Only other reference is this article: Let’s Put the ‘Reality’ Back in Reality TV .
• Only available stories are apolitical, common name makes it difficult to find out more.
• Anybody else feel that this should have been in the Life section instead of in the editorial pages? Sheesh.

It doesn't add up by CAROLINE BAUM. BIAS: CONSERVATIVE

• Bloomberg News columnist.
• Title of this piece on Bloomberg News: Obama’s Job-Creation Program Flunks Basic Math: Caroline Baum ... )
• Other articles by Caroline Baum
• Quote from Caroline Baum on the mortgage crisis: Why should responsible homeowners have to foot the bill for the irresponsible behavior of others in a capitalist system? (No, the folks buying homes they couldn't afford weren't all hoodwinked by mortgage lenders.) The answer: A higher power has decided that the anticipated future cost -- the risky behavior it encourages tomorrow by rewarding it today -- is less than the more easily measured current cost.
• Baum being interviewed on Fox News:

Where the News Journal Went Wrong

It used to be a sort-of decent paper. It really did. Not a LOT of national news, but some. And pretty good coverage of local news, although it tended to focus overmuch on New Castle County. I'm active in the Dover arts community, and one of my main pleasures was reading reviews about our productions from the N-J's arts critics, particularly the ones written by Rick Mulrooney, who, if not always complimentary, at least called 'em like he saw 'em. That was a very valuable service for local arts organizations. But then a few years ago, we noticed that reviews of Sussex County shows were becoming sporadic. Eventually they disappeared. Then the same thing happened with Kent County shows -- the critics just stopped coming and reviews dried up and disappeared, with a corresponding drop in audiences and revenue. We didn't know it then, but it was a harbinger of not-so-nice changes to come at a paper that had once been a reliable Delaware institution. The changes were small at first, but they began to add up. By January of 2007, they had become so noticeable that I finally sat down and composed a letter to the editors to convey my unhappiness with what was happening to my daily paper. It was returned to me by an anonymous editor with the following comment:

Your letter is more than twice the length of our published guideline for publication. It needs to be about 200 words. To avoid severe editing, please resubmit it following the guidelines. Thank you.

Getting my letter printed hadn't really been my point, as you'll see below. Of course, I was too lazy to cut it down myself, and I kind of thought that was their job, anyway; I later wondered if returning my letter to me and asking me to rewrite it had just been a ploy to sweep what I had to say under the rug. So you never saw that letter, in which I laid out what I found out about why the News Journal was undergoing such drastic changes. That is, you never saw it until now. This is what I sent on January 22, 2007:

As a long-time News-Journal subscriber, over the years I’ve noted several discouraging changes in your approach to the news. One was the decline in the number of stories of national interest appearing in your paper. Another was the discontinuation of arts and entertainment reviews of downstate productions. In recent weeks, however, I’m noting an even more disturbing trend. Your front page is now devoting a major amount of space every day to what can only be termed “fluff pieces” – human interest, technology, and entertainment stories that rightfully should be relegated to other sections further back in the paper. These are frequently “localized” by showing how actual Delawareans use, view or participate in the subject of the article. In recent weeks, your readers have been subjected to such earth-shattering front page news as the daily schedule of the Sisofo family of Glasgow, funny street names in Sussex County, local moms tracking their kids with GPS, and what Delaware restaurateurs think of trans fats. Saturday, however, you hit rock-bottom – since when is a story about the big meany judges on “American Idol,” complete with a full-color picture of Simon Cowell, important enough to qualify as an item of front-page interest? To add insult to injury, the exact same article also appeared where it really belonged, in the Life section! I got curious enough to do a little research and discovered that on November 6th, your parent company, Gannett, mandated a sweeping overhaul of all of its papers’ newsrooms, transforming them into 24/7 “local information centers,” with a focus on web content rather than print. The purpose, of course, is to increase advertising income, which also explains the “keep it local” emphasis. And since we’re talking internet, the reorganization does away with the old-style “desks” – news, sports, etc. – and replaces them with seven areas more suited to interactive online content delivery: digital, public service, community conversation, local, custom content, data, and multimedia. There are to be no new hires at most papers to accommodate this, partly because Gannett expects its readers to contribute content for free, an approach referred to as “crowdsourcing." So I've got a great idea for a story – how about a front-page technology fluff piece on the changes at Gannett? You could easily localize it by telling your readers how the reorganization has changed the focus and content of their daily newspaper, and interviewing them about what they think of it. I’d also be interested in reading about how it’s affecting reporters and other News-Journal staff -- they live right here in our communities, so there’s another local angle for you. Oh, and while we're at it, I'd appreciate seeing an occasional review of a theater production that's staged outside of New Castle County. But only if you’re serious about publishing nothing but local news, of course.

Of course, they never did follow my suggestion, and never mentioned to their readers that their entire philosophy had changed or that they really weren't interested any more in running an actual newspaper. The paper has continued to go downhill since I wrote that, but it was another recent development that prompted me to start this blog. I've noticed that syndicated and wire service editorials are now being printed with little to no information about the authors or the organizations they represent. If I want to know whether a piece is biased or not, I have to research the author myself. The last straw came when the N-J published an opinion piece entitled "AIDS Money is Misspent While the Sick Die" and identified the authors, Floyd and Mary Beth Brown, only as authors and speakers. Turns out they're uber-conservatives -- Floyd is associated with several conservative PACS, is largely credited with starting the Clinton impeachment process, and created the infamous Willie Horton ad. Check out Floyd's bio. My, that sheds a little light on why he and his wife think too much money is being spent on AIDS, doesn't it? I decided that, as long as I'm going to research this info for myself anyway, I might as well share it with others, which is the primary reason for this blog. I can't promise regular updates, but I'll do my best to keep supplying info that the News Journal has decided we don't need to know.