Posted on 03/09/2014 9:52:17 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
“Milton Wolf, running against Pat Roberts in Kansas, is a moron.
Yes I want the true RINO types to pay with a primary challenge, but Wolf is wasting valuable time and money that Conservatives should spend elsewhere.”
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Thanks, I think I’ll make a campaign contribution to Wolf come payday. I find appearances by folks popping up to defend GOPe candidates & take shots at Tea Party challengers motivating.
Oh Look!!! a liberal rag that hates the tea party......how unusual.....sarc/on
Milton Wolf, running against Pat Roberts in Kansas, is a moron.
Yes I want the true RINO types to pay with a primary challenge, but Wolf is wasting valuable time and money that Conservatives should spend elsewhere.
The morons are those conservatives supporting “conservative” careerist beltway pig Pat Roberts and his 65% Heritage rating. The man doesn’t have a conservative bone in his body and will happily Hatch us as soon as he is reelected.
Many of the original tea partiers were never GOP to begin with.
So they can’t return.
Your take is pretty much founded on the notion that killing human babies is not worth putting even extremely minor effort into opposing.
It is not based on that notion plus something else.
You can’t get there any other way.
To you, defending unborn children is “stupid and childish.”
It should never get in the way of you getting what you want.
Having taken it down to its components, your stated position fails to convince.
It is Zito, so if you are going to denigrate a conservative writer from a conservative paper, at least spell her name correctly.
You haven't got a clue who she is and yet have the gall to call her opinion garbage.
It is your brain that is being held hostage, and ain't nobody gonna pay for that worthless piece of trash.
This is a liberal wish, not a fact. What if I would say data shows liberals have increased their gun ownership by 500% since Obama became President?
Most of those rhino’s are not in there to help YOU, they are there to help themselves. They have one major interest, lining their pockets. Remind you I did say “Most” as there are a few good ones.
How many FReepers actually refer to themselves as “Republican?” I don’t. It’s just too embarrassing. If the subject comes up, call myself a Tea Party Activist.
Calm down.
First, the Trib IS a conservative paper, one of the best in the country. And Ms Zito is a consistent conservative; I've been a fan of her writing for years.
What we see here is the too common reaction on FR lately of shooting the messenger and ignoring what they say as bias. Let's save our ammo for the true enemies of the republic and stop shooting ourselves.
The TeaParty is beset on all sides by people w/ a vested interest in seeing it fail and, this being a capitalist nation, any movement is going to draw a fair share of hucksters and carnival barkers trying to cash in. Human nature, etc.
We need thicker skin; we need patience. The goal we've set, that is nothing less than the restoration of the republic, faces long odds and will not be won overnight.
Finally, we'll only win when we run quality candidates. Just because someone has the "right" ideas doesn't mean they're going to roll the field. However, getting rid of rinos is as equally important as winning elections.
mcconnell is dead to me.
LOL! Dwight Weidman isn't JUST a 'Franklin County Republican'....he's Chairman of Franklin County, PA's Republican Party. LinkedIn Profile
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So as much as they try to make it look like a Republican man-on-the-street's opinion.....it AIN'T!
I was surprised to see her write this article. Seems counter to most of her work.
WRITER’S ‘PERSON’ IS IRRELEVANT
I don’t care who he or she is or how you spell the name of the writer; the writer’s ‘person’ is irrelevant.
PRINTED MATTER IS NOT A REPORT BUT A BIASED OPINION
The opinion is at issue and that’s all it is, just a biased opinion. The opinion takes ‘selected’ already described events (accurately described or not) and ignores other events. An inference is built around the filtered aource events to claim the demise of a large conservative movement advocating a return to constitutional roots.
NON-UTILITY TO CONSUMER
There is nothing new in the opinion, nothing original, nothing useful to those that follow political statistics, nothing of utility to a political scientist. It was editorial commentary and not a report.
For example, quote “They just wearied of those trying to make a buck with a website, a campaign or a book reflecting an inflexible, often ***extreme ideology*** that shares little with the tea party’s original purpose.
and
“... said Dwight Weidman, a Franklin County Republican. “Most of the folks who came out for the tea party when it began have dissociated themselves from these ***extreme elements***.””
Who are these extremists? What is the “extreme ideology” they espouse? What do they say about someone calling them extreme? Why is this information withheld? Space? Deadlines? Not good enough for conservative standards. A writer to be a true and useful reporter can start a series of reports and build on each. Narrow the focus.
DEFINE TERMS AND PROVIDE LISTS
A description of what is considered ‘extreme’ is in order along with a list or at least a substantial partial list of those who are considered extreme and who feign allegiance or association to Tea Party principles.
WHAT NOT TO DO
What is done in the PTR instead is to take many disparate and unexplained ‘thoughts’ that are not supported as facts or are facts taken out of context and are used to weave a thesis of TEA PARTY DEMISE. This reflects poorly on the editor.
NARROW THE FOCUS
What is the thesis? Here’s one from the ‘opinion’ of Zita, Zito, Zoti, Zozo or Zizi (and her ugly little dog too):
Thesis: Tea Party conservatives suffer credibility as they are infiltrated or saddled by extremist ideologues who call or advertise themselves as Tea Party players.
Refine it more and delete ‘suffer credibility’ and assert more simply a revised thsis:
Thesis Revised: Tea Party conservatives are infiltrated or saddled by extremist ideologues who call or advertise themselves as Tea Party players.
PROVIDE UTILITY
Now make a list of the extremists and useful facts that can be confirm their extremism. Take a stab at defining extremism. Keep the focus on something that can be used, something that is of utility to to the reader.
Then Zito becomes an asset to readers and subscriptions rates will show an uptick to the PTR or whatever Zito writes for.
My sister is an exceptional reporter for the Wall St. Journal and frequently she writes on the front page. I say exceptional because she can string words together like a champ, She’s been that way since she was in third grade. She’s efficient and meets her deadlines BUT her critical contexts and filtering land most of her reports into the bottom of the birdcage.
I rag on her to no end because I won’t buy printed or electronically transmitted media unless it is of utility to me. And she calls me to complain that management is trying to think of ways to survive the decline in readers and viewers. So I tell her go back to the roots of value based reporting. Cease the banter traffic of ‘opinions’ and get me something of value. Personalize the reporter to my ends. Have them poll input for new projects and come back to me with something useful.
So I give her ideas and she tells me they are good. She does some research and finds others are developing or discussing similar changes. But her editors are trying to hit all the chatter frequencies to appeal to the widest possible readership. The message becomes diffused and useless.
Her husband also a reporter and just a few years ago a White House Press Corp member decided to exit journalism and learn how to make micro brewed beer based on a book I gave him three years ago for Christmas. Now and he and his brother have turned the whole house into a friggin brewery. So I told her “there you go, there’s what’s calling ya”; create something of value to people. People will always need good beer.
The NY Times once upon a time had real valuable reports that were of high utility. They cannot afford it anymore and besides their editors are a cluster of self-promoted homosexuals who steer budgets to focus on their own ends (no pun intended). Objectivity is gone like Crimea; the work product has deteriorated to young gay faces from Ivy League mills sitting at cubicles or if they are lucky or promiscuous enough to a windowed office with secretaries and gofers.
Someone saying they are a ‘conservative’ and they write for the esteemed conservative ‘Daily Bloviation’ is not enough for me to promote it. I have to see facts, facts in their broadest context, with source references, with utility to my conservative pursuits.
I don’t want to see ‘opinions’. As most of us have heard opinions are like *ssholes, everybody’s got one. I want cold hard reporting of information I can trust, that saves me time in research.
And if a reporter can’t create a valuable comprehensive report to meet a deadline, they should narrow the focus and start a series of reports, each one building on others. I’ll read that, maybe even buy it.
Ms Zito's effort was aimed at the general public and was meant to convey, if I may surmise, the headwinds faced by the Tea Party. To expect the level of analysis you describe in a daily paper is akin to walking into Walmart and demanding an ermine stole.
The point of my post was that we supporters of the Tea Party need to be cognizant of these obstacles and, if possible, make adjustments to counter their influence and not discount its validity because we don't like what the reporter/pundit is saying.
That is all.
> “Surely someone of your vast erudition can recognize that specific media is targeted at specific markets. The Tribune-Review is a local daily newspaper and therefore its targeted audience may not benefit in the detailed analysis that you require.”
I said the focus should be narrowed. Look at the post #74 again and don’t patronize me. Plenty of quality news sources start a series of reporting to answer a question for the public in a comprehensive fashion. It’s not a new thing. It’s called narrowing the focus for a particular piece.
What this writer did is clump a few filtered quips of events together and extrapolate falsely to a grand DEMISE OF TEA PARTY rendering her work product equivalent in value to garbage.
If that’s the best the PTR can do, it’s no wonder why they are ‘local’ and will likely stay that way. I won’t bother to look to them for any newsworthy analysis.
Carry on with your cheerleading.
Both the Trib & WSJ are successful daily publications and that doesn't happen by accident; especially these days. Your well thought out advice notwithstanding.
Perhaps they have a business plan. Perhaps they understand their target audience better than you do? Farfetched, but maybe.
Perhaps Ms Zito's criticisms should be taken in a constructive fashion, lord knows she's not the only one who has made similar points.
In any case, my war isn't w/ you rather its against the enemies of the republic and any effort you can contribute towards the same are to be honored.
The WSJ is not keeping up in marketing. They are declining and are not meeting the numbers they need. Their only solace is that others such as the NY Times are doing much worse.
These old newspapers do not provide the in-depth reporting that was once performed. Journalism as a profession is on the ropes. I wouldn’t advise my child or anyone’s to enter that field.
I responded to your comment that ‘local’ newspapers do not have the time or resources to provide the level of detail required by people such as me. That’s false. They need only break it up into smaller pieces and narrow the focus for each piece and print it in smaller reporting pieces over many days or weeks. It’s done this way frequently by news media that aim to report comprehensively.
As for your reference to enemies of the republic, the opinion of Zito is seen as a direct attack on the Tea Party. The only people who attack Tea Party conservatives are those who on the left or who have control of the republican party. These are enemies. Zito has just joined them.
She should have written her opinion to confine its scope to bad characters posing as Tea Party proponents but she provided no information as to who these people are and instead falsely generalized to include the entire movement.
If you truly are concerned with defending the republic against enemies, then you should align yourself with similar people most of who will be aligned with Tea Party groups.
Just as we admonished Sowell for his multiple scathing attacks on Ted Cruz, we can look down into the farm leagues, take an unknown like Zito and wake her up to the fact we are not going to put up with shoddy reporting. (No Oxford comma required.)
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