LOL! I might add that, compared to Bill Clinton, John Kerry is pretty honest.
Here is the final exchange that I had with Dallas Morning News reporter Michelle Mittelstadt regarding the different reporting standards for conservatives and liberals (thanks to Freepers for some of the research that I cited in the e-mail!). She was very kind and responsive and I have nothing bad to say about her -- I consider her one of the the "good guys" at the Morning News. However, in the typical Dallas Morning News group-think mentality, she justified not printing some story about John Kerry (I forget what it was now) because the Morning News had to do more research. She pointed out that a big part of journalists' jobs was "sifting fact from fiction" and gave an example about how a colleague of hers ended up being the subject of a story that was later proven false.
In my reply e-mail to her below I referred her to this Dallas Morning News story that she had co-authored a few days earlier about Bush's supposed National Guard troubles. Checking out posts on FR and Googling for 5 minutes convinced me that the Dallas Morning News had done NO research to verify the credibility of their source.
The Morning News should have issued a huge apology for doing such shoddy research on the story that I cited but, to my knowledge, none was ever made. Michelle Mittelstadt usually has higher standards (I blame her co-author, Wayne Slater, for 95% of the story's problems) but it's "reporting" like this that has turned people away from newspapers.
By the way, Ms. Mittelstadt replied that she would forward my research to others (presumably Wayne Slater). I'm sure that she did but they conveniently never replied back. When I see Wayne Slater's name at the top of a story, I automatically presume that it's fiction -- other Freepers have said that they do the same thing..
The Dallas Morning News' circulation has dropped by 3.9% over the past year (despite a growing population in the area and very heavy marketing) and I can guarantee you that the paper will be having meetings this week about how they can increase sales by having bigger full-color "human interest" pictures of cute kittens, women, children, and minorities on the front page to appeal to a broader section of the population. That's all very nice but they just can't seem to recognize that bad, biased reporting is the real reason for the circulation drop. It's like the alcoholic who blames his troubles on everything but his drinking.
[Dear Ms. Mittelstadt]
Thanks - I won't bug you any more after this e-mail but I would argue that "sifting fact from fiction" is exactly what was NOT done with the recent article that used Bill Burkett as a source. Burkett has changed his story from this one during the 2000 campaign. In 2000, Burkett denied that the Bush team had "doctored" Bush's military records; now he's claiming that in 97 he heard orders over a speakerphone from Joe Allbaugh to destroy damaging records. Check out the link that I provided.
Why did Burkett change his story so radically since 2000 and how can he now remember with such clarity an event that he apparently couldn't remember 4 years ago? I'm no journalist but I believe that this source has a severe credibility problem.
Further, Burkett has long been a vocal Bush opponent and has other credibility issues, such as this court case where he sued his superior officers for denying him military medical care. His case was dismissed by the trial court and was thrown out again when he appealed. He was featured in a story for Pacifica Radio, which is somewhere to the ideological left of Joe Stalin, that they titled Former Texas Army National Guard Lt. Col. Bill Burkett on Bush the Chicken hawk. He's not a disinterested party when it comes to Bush.
My point is this: there seems to be an awful lot of care to make sure that the Kerry story has substance while there was evidently quite a bit less care taken in the story (front-page, if I remember correctly) that used Burkett as the main source. All I want is for the press to apply the same standard to both conservative and liberal candidates.
Just to let you know, I do vote for fiscally and socially conservative candidates but I have no connection to anyone's campaign or to any special interest group - feel free to research me if you wish to confirm that I'm a nobody. I write software and occasionally write articles for trade journals for a living but keeping up with politics is just a hobby for me.
Best regards,
-Michael XXXXXXXXX
I like how thorough and polite you are throughout the whole exchange. If you could make an impact on at least once media type it would be worth the effort.