[Vision2020] Feeling the need to be patronized?
Saundra Lund
v2020 at ssl.fastmail.fm
Sun Oct 31 12:18:26 PDT 2010
I've appreciated reading everyone's comments, and I'm glad this topic came
up here on the Viz! As a new Daily News re-subscriber (I originally
subscribed in 1988), I'm grateful for the opportunity to add my comments.
First, I want to thank the Daily News editorial staff for reminding me that
the GOP's Bill Goesling was also a no show for his scheduled KRFP. I
noticed it at the time, but Pollyanna that I am, I was willing to accept his
excuse at face value. Mind you, I didn't think it boded well that someone
who thought himself responsible enough to serve as county commissioner
lacked basic organizational skills to keep his scheduling straight.
In my mind, Goesling's no show was in a different category than the
subsequent lily livered no shows of wannabes Bouma & Young. After reading
Rozen's editorial, however, I'm grateful to have my recollection refreshed
in advance of Election Day, and with plenty of time to remind others that
for whatever reason (likely poor turnout by moderate GOP primary voters),
the GOP wound up with a slate of candidates who lack the backbone to face -
even remotely over the air waves -- constituents they hope to represent.
Honestly, only those completely blinded by partisanship would knowingly vote
for those who think it appropriate to run & hide from their potential
constituents unless the alternative was someone like a convicted felon,
don't you think? I mean, we sometimes see those antics from our elected
officials after they're in office, but to see such reprehensible behavior
from local candidates before the election? No. The Latah County GOP has
clearly failed the community this go-round by propping up candidates that
don't deserve to be elected officials, and I thank the Daily News editorial
for helping us to connect those dots, however belatedly.
Second, my take on Rozen's editorial was a little different than most: I
read it as a somewhat classic -- albeit lame -- attempt to gloss over
missing the real story, which is that 3/5s of the GOP candidates chickened
out of their previously scheduled KRFP time with their Democrat opponents.
In other markets with competent print journalism, news media rightly covers
candidate debates. Here? Not so much, or we'd have read about the GOP's
pattern of no-shows/last minute cancellations in a NEWS story rather than in
an editorial. It's NEWS when 3/5s of the scheduled GOP candidates back out
of their commitments to answer questions from voters, and I viewed Rozen's
pathetic dig at KRFP & its listeners really a nothing more than a shameful
mean-spirited smoke & mirrors ploy.
Further, if we had competent print journalism in our community newspaper, an
on-the-ball editor likely would have directed reporters, it seems to me, to
tie this pattern by local Republican Tea Party candidates into the national
pattern of Tea Party candidates shunning not only their potential
constituents, but also running away - in some cases, literally - from
journalists attempting to get answers to perfectly legitimate questions.
That yellow-bellied "campaign strategy" is NEWS when it happens nationally,
and it's NEWS when it happens locally. Voters deserve to know if those
wanting our votes are really only interested in preaching to the choir or do
they have what it takes to represent a diverse constituency. With Bouma and
Young - and perhaps with Goesling - it's obviously the former.
Third, if the shoe had been on the other foot - had Democrats bailed at the
last minute on scheduled forums or debates sponsored by New St. Andrews or
the GMA or some venue where the candidates perceived that the audience might
ask hard-hitting questions or thought the audience might be too small to
bother with - I suspect we'd see a double-standard at work, as we've
historically seen with the Daily News in recent years. Dems no-showing
would have been a NEWS story. Had an editorial been written, the tone would
have rightly taken the no-showers to task rather than shooting the
messengers. It's even likely those offended would have been offered a guest
editorial PDQ to run immediately and definitely before the election.
Fourth, the Daily News' Rozen wrote:
"They give us voters some very clear choices. It is quite obvious in Bouma's
race against Dan Schmidt and in Young's race against Ringo who is the
conservative and who is the liberal."
Ouch! Coming from a family with deep conservative roots, it's insulting
that the Daily News apparently can't tell the difference between genuine
conservatism and the reactionary theocracy-leaning extremism of Bouma &
Young. If you want to use quick & dirty labels, please take care to use
them correctly, which wasn't done in this editorial. There is a clear
difference between Schmidt & Bouma, and Ringo & Young, but it's not one that
can accurately be characterized as a different between liberal &
conservative.
Fifth, Rozen also wrote:
"Let's face it, by this week many, if not most, of us have already voted or,
at least, pretty well made up our mind on who gets our black oval."
While the second half of that sentence isn't completely inaccurate, the
first half is, which shows little understanding of the Latah County
electorate. While I don't think many -- other than those wingnuts who
imagine virtually non-existent voter fraud in Idaho under every pebble --
object to having choices about where, when, and how to vote, Latah County
residents who vote do so overwhelmingly (somewhere in the 80-91+/- % range)
in person and on Election Day. While that local reality seems to have
escaped Rozen & his editorial team, this is why candidate forums are
scheduled throughout the silly season and not just weeks in advance. The
scheduling, it seems to me, is particularly crucial in markets like this
when journalists do such an anemic reporting job, generally speaking, and
routinely miss important local stories.
Further, current knowledge indicates that early voters tend to be the most
partisan and also older as a whole. Thus, bailing out on candidate forums
closer to the election is a real disservice not only to those who worked to
make them happen, but also to younger and more moderate voters wanting to
vote with the most recent knowledge possible, and thus, to our communities
as a whole. It's too bad Rozen's editorial completely overlooked this
significant disservice to more moderate and to younger voters by the
majority of the local GOP candidates by missing the forest for the trees.
Finally, for anyone who managed to read all the way through this, you've
earned a gold star and my gratitude for your tolerance of my
long-windedness!
Saundra Lund
Moscow, ID
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.
~ Edmund Burke
***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2010 through life plus
70 years, Saundra Lund. Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside
the Vision 2020 forum without the express written permission of the
author.*****
-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Sue Hovey
Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2010 9:38 AM
To: Joe Campbell; Rosemary
Cc: Moscow Vision 2020; alford at dnews.com; mcbride at lmtribune.com;
lrozen at dnews.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Feeling the need to be patronized?
As one of the "chattering class to the left of center," it's quite a
stretch the editor would interpret our concerns over the Republican no-shows
as, "the end of democracy in Latah County." I don't believe that, and
certainly it was never even implied--that's the editor's take. Mr.
Rozen's spin over our conversation is silly on the one hand and patronizing
on the other. There was a concern, one we thought the paper might want to
address, the conversation was friendly, and I thought the editor was going
to mull it over and respond or not. That was fine. The point was made. The
resulting editorial leads me to believe that somewhere along the line Mr.
Rozen matriculated from the Spiro Agnew, "natttering nabobs of negativism,"
school of journalism.
Sue Hovey
-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Campbell
Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2010 8:25 AM
To: Rosemary
Cc: Moscow Vision 2020 ; alford at dnews.com ; mcbride at lmtribune.com ;
lrozen at dnews.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Feeling the need to be patronized?
I'm with you Rose. I heard the DN had changed its tune and decided to renew
my subscription -- a month ago and they still have not delivered a paper!
What's worse than a news paper that serves a single party?
One that insults folks from the other party! A summary of Mr. Rozen's
argument: "Progressives don't need to be able to ask questions of
politicians who might serve them because the public has already made up its
mind!" What if the progressive candidates stood up NSA? That would be
uncalled for! Said to live in a town where folks running for state office
feel OK about insulting you and the local paper supports them and that
snotty, elitist attitude.
Please cancel my subscription, DN -- the one that you failed to renew in
time for the election.
On Sat, Oct 30, 2010 at 6:25 AM, Rosemary <
<mailto:donaldrose at cpcinternet.com> donaldrose at cpcinternet.com>
wrote:
> I had great hopes that under a new editor the Daily News would move
> beyond their sycophantic affection for make believe colleges, bearded
> men, and right-wing political loonies. I was within millimeters of
> re-subscribing, Luckily I decided to wait until the election season
> was over before offering financial support to a news organization
> that has been so disappointing in recent years. After reading the
> editorial in the DN this morning I'm glad I waited. Jackassery is
> alive and well on Jackson Street.
> And, I'm not willing to pay for the privilege of being patronized by
> the new kid on the block.
>
> Rose Huskey
>
>
>
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