[RAT Patrol]

Please write these Democrat captives and complain!!!!! They play with a loaded deck. Tell them to hire a balanced staff so they can evaluate issues FAIRLY!!!

[MainFrame65]

The paper actually published almost all of this letter a couple of months ago.

To the editor, Commercial Appeal

Contrary to the opinion of Susan Adler Thorp, designating everyone with a political opinion to the right of Lamar Alexander as "the Taliban wing" is inaccurate, unfair, and insulting. If Ms Thorp troubled herself to consider what is happening in the world, she would understand that the Taliban she likens us to is a bigoted, murderous bunch of thugs who are true enemies of our Country. She might not like us - and to tell the truth, I really don't solicit her approval - but that transcends polite discourse. An insult of that nature demands a response, and deserves an apology.

Your newspaper has shamelessly engaged in this sort of name calling and personal insult for a long time now, and you have extended this stealth opinionizing beyond the editorial pages. You did the same thing in response to opposition to your cheer leading for an income tax, by continually characterizing the clear majority opinion as an unruly mob of horn honkers, as though we had no voice, no mind, and no right to such a contrary opinion. The only alternative opinions you allow yourselves to contend with is a limited portion of the letters space.

I still believe in newspapers as an important voice of the people, although my faith has been shaken as your editorial positions lost their balance and focused exclusively leftward. Worse, your news coverage has echoed this drift. I have learned that important ideas and opinions need to be tested in the fire of debate, and not merely among those of like persuasion. Your viewpoint has become as monochromatic as your newsprint. You need to introduce real debate, with vigor and heat, within your editorial board. You think that you understand opposing views, but that is only your imagination. For all the diversity of opinion you display, you might as well drop all your brains in a bucket on the way out and just pick up the one on top when you come back to work.

You have been crossing the line between disagreement and disrespect too frequently lately, and I believe it is time for you to return to a contest of opinions instead of epithets. You already have the advantage of owning the forum. My only weapons are the strength and clarity of my arguments, and then only when you allow them to appear.

[MarkL]

Is the KC (Red) Star still in business? I haven't read a copy of that rag since before the Brady Bill was passed.

And since I don't have a bird or puppy, I haven't had any reason to buy the paper.

Mark

[ozzymandus]

The editor of the paper I now take, the Hays Daily News, opined that the election of sebelius was a "mandate" for higher taxes. This brilliant deduction was made after 2 proposed local tax increases were voted down by 2-to-1 margins. Apparently voting not to raise taxes isn't a "mandate" for anything.

[AdA$tra]

Then we review the answers supplied, investigate voting records and resumes, interview candidates by phone or in person, talk to people knowledgeable about the races, check previously published news articles for background, then we endose the most liberal, socialist candidate we can find.

Sorry, I added the non-italicized stuff.

[flushed with pride]

A little over twenty years ago I knew a young moderately conservative man who was an excellent artist, college educated, experienced, etc. He applied for the editorial cartoonist's position at the Star which was open at the time. He soon found out that the 'conservatives need not apply' policy was in effect at the Star, where experience and superior skills always get trumped by politics. They wound up giving the position to Lee Judge, a thoroughly incompetent juvenile whose politics were/are hard left. His drawings are for the most part unintelligible, and reveal his lack of both talent and grasp of the issues. Even though left-winger-Publisher Brisbane didn't hire Judge, they have been bosom buddies dating back to the days when Brisbane was a just a section B columnist. In other words, don't look for Judge to lose his job anytime soon.

The Star traditionally has been a house organ for the Democrat party (pro-union, pro-abort, pro-gun control, etc.) with few exceptions over the years. That's why their subscription/circulation continues to fall like a rock into a bottom-less abyss.

[GOPJ]

I'll edit this piece for space: Freedom of the press belongs to those who own the press and their chosen friends. If you don't like it, get your own press.

Note to conservatives: They're right. Get your own press. FOX is making a bundle and publishers who put out conservative books are making a bundle. As someone once said, " This group looks like the United Nations, and has all the real diversity of a San Francisco coffee house." Compete with them. They don't want a conservative in the house? Fine. Start a paper that respect all the cities readers, not just the liberal elite readers. Stun them with honest diversity. Make a bundle.

[shilohsvictory]

Explains why Fox News is so popular today. "Fair and Balanced" may have been rendered trite after repeating it so many times, but you'd think others in the media (all forms) would get the point.