Balance, please
Greg Markowitz, Cottonwood Falls
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
MR. KELLEY, PLEASE give us a break!
For the umpteenth time, your editorial page cartoon of Aug. 28 is once again portraying one of our political parties as being the only party to a national epidemic of political mud slinging and dirty tricks. I believe there is ample proof in recent months and years that both of our political parties are very good at doing both, and in a totally partisan manner.
All of the Emporia Gazette readers are fully aware of who you support in the upcoming presidential election. You and most of the self-appointed media elite in this great country have taken it upon themselves to make sure that the simple “masses” know how to vote in this critical election.
Your job as editorial page editor is to give those simple masses a balanced and accurate look at the key issues in this very critical decision. You simply are not doing so at this time. It is time for you to put aside your partisan views and provide your readers with all sides and perspectives of an extremely complex and difficult political choice. To do less would be cheating the readers of your newspaper who depend on you and your editorial page to provide them with the fair and accurate information needed for them not you or the media to make their choice in this presidential election.
Thank you.
Greg Markowitz
Cottonwood Falls
Bjnemp (anonymous) says...
Greg: I have been closely following Mr. Kelley's editorial comments for several years. I find that although he appears to be an unwavering and dedicated democrat, he doesn't favor just one political view. He actually presents issues from three different viewpoints: left-wing liberal, ultra left-wing liberal, and radical left-wing liberal. Call him biased if you wish, but... oh, wait: there is no other option!
September 23, 2008 at 2:45 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
emporialifer (anonymous) says...
BJ,
Thank you for the laugh.
September 23, 2008 at 3:38 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
open_eyes (anonymous) says...
Greg & Bjnepm - Right On!!! (Not to be confused with MoveOn, one of Kelley's main sources of info....)
September 23, 2008 at 8:33 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jayhawker (anonymous) says...
Excellent, Greg. I take issue with only one point, and that is that the editorial page is for opinion, not news. However, when the opinion giver becomes so one sidedly partisan, relying heavily on one party's talking points to frame his editorials, he loses credibility and becomes completely unpersuasive. Pat is a very talented writer. However, his talent is wasting. Since Ray Call retired (10 years ago, maybe?) and Pat took the reins, he has slowly morphed into moveon.org, Kansas division. It used to concern me when Pat would endorse a candidate that I opposed; now, his endorsements are totally predictable and irrelevant. I am so disappointed in him, not necessarily because he is in the tank with the left, but because he no longer independently thinks, he supports intellectually bankrupt positions (like only one party practices negative politics, while the other just doesn't have the stomach for it), all while refusing to acknowledge how one sided that he is, perhaps even to himself. I have long disagreed with Pat, but he used to make me think. Not any more, and that's sad.
September 23, 2008 at 10:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bdprotheroe (anonymous) says...
http://www.imvotingrepublican.com/
September 25, 2008 at 6:34 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jayhawker (anonymous) says...
bdprotheroe: The video was funny, thanks for posting it. Of course, Democrats don't have the stomach for such things, so I'm sure that they had nothing to do with its production. Whomever produced that brought a real knife to the fight, and since Democrats only bring rubber knives, there is no way that they had anything to do with it. You should send it directly to Pat Kelley. He's needing material for his next Editorial.
September 25, 2008 at 7:41 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )