To the Editor,
You may wonder why your readership is at an all time low. You may also wonder why US news Media, per a recent survey, is at an all time low in credibility. Well here is one reason:
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Critics of the Iraq war and the Bush administration sent e-mails last week criticizing
the Union-Tribune for its lack of front-page coverage of what has become known as
the "Downing Street memo." The document is based on a meeting July 23, 2002,
between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top security advisers.
As the May 14 story in the Union-Tribune by Washington Post writer Walter Pincus
pointed out, "the summer before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the head of British
foreign intelligence reported to Prime Minister Tony Blair that President Bush
wanted to topple Saddam Hussein by military action and warned that U.S.
intelligence was 'being fixed around the policy.' "
A story Thursday on Page A-11 said news about the memo has created a media
storm in Britain but hasn't received the same intensity of coverage in the United
States. As of Friday, when another article appeared inside the A-section, the story
had not received front-page coverage in the Union-Tribune although it has in the
San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune. In fact, the story Thursday in the
Union-Tribune came from the Chicago Tribune. On Tuesday, the Union-Tribune
carried an opinion article by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.
This is the type of story that the Union-Tribune must depend on news services to
report. So far, it appears the coverage in the United States by traditional media has
been slow and muted.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050523/news_m... ---------------------------
Now the Times of London is not precisely a bad paper, or for that matter so called liberal either. Hell they published the minutes AFTER checking their credibility, a couple times over, you can bet. They are not a yellow journalist sheet. Now the San Diego Union Tribune is a right wing yellow journalist rag that is only fit for my bird's cage. The three birds love the photos, they use them for the only thing that they are fit for... I hear the paper is also good to wrap fish in.
Now you people may not realize this, but this city is increasingly LIBERAL... and Air America is a major source of news these days... not you, but Air America, the Guardian, the Times of London, the BBC... are noticing a pattern here?
Now I may also point to you a time when the US Press had a little more courage and realized what being part of the Fourth Estate was all about... the hot summer of 1973 to be exact... you may be correct if you assume that most people did not care about Watergate in the early days either, but we have had many stories over the last six years that RISE to the level of High Crimes and Misdemeanors, if you care to read the US Constitution instead of metaphorically burning it. YOU are supposed to be that balance and keep an eye on government, but your corporate chiefs have decided to muzzle and to silence you in everything ranging from our very corrupt City Hall all the way to the White House and all stops in between. Too bad, too sad, you are being replaced... now back to REAL news outlets (you are not one of them), and the blogs.
Sincerely,
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