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To: Jo Nuvark
People trust the internet more because information on the internet can be challenged, unlike that in print media. Probably the worst newspaper I've ever seen was the old Austin-American Statesman prior to the internet.

So many of their columnists were brain-dead, it was unreal. The funniest of them was their music critic, Ed Ward. Ward ran a series of articles about one of the old disco clubs, and talked about how terrible their music selections were. The club invited him to DJ one night. The crowd hated his music selection so badly, they started throwing things at him.

They ran another article about the "poor homeless." They followed a guy around for a day to chronicle how rough his life was, and how difficult it was for him to find a job. In this sympathetic portrayal, he spent part of the morning getting stoned, spent part of the afternoon drinking, and wandered into one place looking for a job. I sent them a "letter to the editor," asking how many jobs the Statesman had for people who spent all day getting stoned and drinking. No response.

A couple of their other "feature writers" did articles complaining about how downtown businesses were so cruel to the poor. They complained about the downtown grocery stores getting upset over the theft of shopping carts, and the removal of benches from in front of businesses. I knew many of the business owners, and they told me they were tired of getting to work and spending a half hour every morning sweeping broken beer bottles out from in front of their stores, and trying to wash the urine smell away. They also said they were tired of losing business because the transients scared away customers and panhandled relentlessly.

The Statesman building had a secured parking lot with security cameras and rentacops to run people off. The Statesman was incredibly two-faced. They wanted all the other businesses to shoulder the brunt of having thugs and addicts standing in front of their businesses, but they kept them out of their parking lot.

22 posted on 07/03/2009 12:42:02 PM PDT by Richard Kimball (We're all criminals. They just haven't figured out what some of us have done yet.)
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To: Richard Kimball
They ran another article about the "poor homeless." They followed a guy around for a day to chronicle how rough his life was, and how difficult it was for him to find a job. In this sympathetic portrayal, he spent part of the morning getting stoned, spent part of the afternoon drinking, and wandered into one place looking for a job. I sent them a "letter to the editor," asking how many jobs the Statesman had for people who spent all day getting stoned and drinking. No response.

LOL Great story - thanks for sharing.

25 posted on 07/03/2009 12:43:34 PM PDT by GOPJ (Raped five year olds can have voice at Washington Post -if we can raise the money to buy access.)
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To: Richard Kimball
I don't understand why some responsible editor doesn't teach the cubs to follow the story where it goes - rather than pushing nonexistent “facts” into an existing - but wrong - framework.
31 posted on 07/03/2009 1:58:11 PM PDT by GOPJ (Raped five year olds can get press at the Washington Post -if we can raise the money to buy access.)
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