PSoTD

First I heard that Don Knotts had passed. Now, Darren McGavin. It's hard for me to think of McGavin as anything other than Carl Kolchak from The Night Stalker, a monster show that my brothers and I loved to watch, even though the network it was on kept moving it around. Many will remember McGavin from The Christmas Story, and he was great in that, but I just can't shake his newspaperman performance in The Night Stalker.

Happy trails, Mr. McGavin and Mr. Knotts.

I think Russert's given up on "balance".

MEET THE PRESS WITH TIM RUSSERT WEEKEND LISTINGS 2/26/06

SEN. JOHN WARNER (R-VA) Chairman, Armed Services Committee

REP. PETER KING (R-NY) Chairman, Homeland Security Committee

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER Governor of California - R

Oh, and on interesting, too.

at least online. In blogtopia, nobody cares if you look like the definition of a nerd.

These kinds of rabblerousing letters to the editor just entertain me. And why is it that the people that write such letters seem to always have the most plain jane boring names?

The Foxhole kills families, and should be eliminated

By reading recent positive letters to the editor concerning The Foxhole, one would think it is a charitable club that bakes cookies for the elderly, crochets booties for newborns, and gives free marital counseling for ailing marriages.

After all, one citizen told us that it is a "clean club" that is helping single mothers and college students "better themselves", and that its owner, Mr. George, is a "great man." And another citizen referred to The Foxhole as merely a place of entertainment.

When can I get an appointment to take my husband and five children to visit this clean club for some entertainment and meet this great man, Mr. George? I am always looking for more positive role models for my children.

In all seriousness, might I remind you of what kind of place and people we are talking about here? Nude women being paid to dance in the laps of salivating perverts. If this is a clean club, what would the aforementioned citizen consider dirty?

I'll tell you what God considers dirty. Jesus said if you even look on a woman who is not your wife to lust after her in your heart, you are guilty of adultery. What goes on in The Foxhole is not benign entertainment; it is sexual sin and against God's law.

Mr. George is not a "great man" helping women to better themselves. He is profiting from and proliferating a sexual epidemic in our country that is destroying men, women, children and families.

And as for those who would chant, "If you don't like it, just don't go," I would say that we should not be content to be silent in the midst of immorality in our community. Sometimes we have to do more than abstain; we have to speak out.

May all God-fearing citizens of Zanesville join in prayer that our community will no longer tolerate bad businesses like The Foxhole, and furthermore, that those who frequent it will repent and serve Jesus.

Elizabeth Johnston
Zanesville

I wonder if newspapers, in the age of the Internet, think about the impact of publishing such letters to the editor. It has to temper the view of the community for anyone that reads this letter. Why would the Zanesville newspaper select such a letter? Is she representative of their population? Is this how smart people are in Zanesville? Are there a bunch of bible-toting moralists stamping out lust throughout their city?

You don't know if you don't live in Zanesville. But there's not much incentive to find out. Religious moralist judging is not a way to generate growth or tourism.

This really isn't about Zanesville, though. It's about newspapers, and the Letters to the Editor section. You can go around the country and you can see sloppy standards for letters. There is no standard for discourse, short of preventing lawsuits. Newspapers may publish more outrageous letters in an effort to generate a controversy, they may publish simplistic points in an effort to placate a vocal minority, but there is no visible activity by the newspaper to try to elevate the quality of debate. There was a time when some newspaper editors actually included a newspaper response to every letter published in the Letters to the Editor. We need to get back to that. The opinion page is important enough to require that people do more than just vent their feelings in a letter. Let's require some logic, too. That'll be helpful for both community discussions, and the image of those communities having those discussions.

Well, it's about that useful.

YEEAARRRGGGHHH...

ROBERT TANNER, AP National Writer

Tax cuts, new cash to health care programs, blueprints for new roads and schools — states have jumped into 2006 with ambitious plans to spend the money pouring into their coffers, a windfall that's just in time for governors and legislators as they start re-election campaigns.

The spending spree is the clearest proof yet that the gloomy days of cuts and budget-tightening that dominated the first half of the decade are over, even as some urge caution and others say states have yet to fully recover from the downturn.

I don't know who Robert Tanner is, but this kind of reporting is freaking irresponsible. Spending sprees are clear proof that tough times are over? LOOK AT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. Spending sprees can be debt-driving fantasies. The article even states - slightly - that there's disagreement about where states are in the recovery. But don't let that stop the article.

So, what was the impetus for this article? I find it hard to believe that a reporter was looking at state budgets across the country and said, hey, there's excess money in their coffers now, that's an excellent story....

Who is pushing this theme? Companies looking for government contract revenue? Or companies looking for tax relief? Hey.... it looks like it's companies, either way!

And can't they think of Rainy Day Funds, or General Savings, or Lockboxes, for state funds?

She spends her weekly piece tagging Dana Milbank for wearing hunting gear while on Olbermann's Countdown last week in a discussion about Cheney's shooting of Whittington.

Milbank is a Post employee, and so some consideration of his actions is fair game for her piece. But a whole column? For this? It wasn't even in the Washington Post... Why not a blurb? Other ombudsman do that - a couple paragraphs about this, a couple of paragraphs about that - when one issue is clearly not enough to discuss for the week.

I'm no Dana Milbank fan, but his actions weren't worthy of a full column of public chewing in the Washington Post. He's gotta wonder how thick the ice is now.

Whaaaaaa.

At least he's making it obvious where he is on the learning curve.

I'm starting up the Narcissistic Egocentric Blogger Coalition (NEBCO)...

And it's gonna be all about ME!!!!

Thank God for Digby. I was watching Hardball, and Kate O'Beirne was so delicately offended by Jimmy Carter and the Reverend Joseph Lowery's simple political comments at a funeral attended by President George Bush. Oh, the partisanship. Oh, the lack of tact and civility and manners. Oh gracious. And there was Chris Matthews, nodding his empty head in agreement.

Oh, please. Let go of your guilt, people, see the light, set yourselves free. So the disenfranchised and the unempowered and the disagreeing and even the powerful took the opportunity to make a few, slight, clever, quiet and accurate comments that alluded to the current Presidency at the funeral of a national political and cultural figure. Imagine that. How often does Reverend Lowery get George Bush's ear? How about Jimmy Carter, for that matter? I'll be the first to say it was inappropriate if Coretta Scott King's family comes out and says they were unhappy about it. But that's the point - it is their call. Who the hell is Kate O'Beirne to say? How does she think she owns this event? Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but it's amazing how O'Beirne is entitled to blare her sniffling guilt-racked ignorance on national television.

You gotta wonder what the hell kind of jonesing Chris Matthews has for Kate O'Beirne. Is this some kind of Popeye/Sea Hag relationship reversal? Honestly, he's putting a show together about Coretta Scott King, and it occurs to him that Kate O'Beirne would be a quality guest - with insight into the Kings? How does that happen? What kind of synaptic connection leads to that?

There are really two ways to define "local newspaper". Deborah Howell whiffs on both.

One is based on the geography of buyers. For example, the Carlisle Sentinel is a local newspaper, because their subscribers and advertisers are basically in the Carlisle area. They are in one county. One state.

The Washington Post, on the other hand, by Howell's own description, markets to three states for daily and Sunday delivery. That is a regional newspaper. There is a distinction. Local newspapers basically have one flavor. Regional newspapers create subsets for different sections of the subscriber and advertiser base - which again, Howell explains.

Another way to define "local newspaper" could be to define it by content. Again, Howell claims that the Washington Post is "primarily" a local newspaper because roughly 200 of their 700 professional staff cover local and regional stories. First of all, her point of defining local includes regional coverage - state legislatures, etc. Secondly, 200 is not MOST of 700. If she's going to make a point that the Washington Post is primarily a local newspaper, then she ought to do a bit more digging than some of the newspaper's general statistics, and tell people, for example, how many of the professional staff cover national and international issues. How many newspaper inches per week are dedicated to national/international versus local stories? That might even make her point - who knows? But then she'd have to do some work.

Her effort in today's Washington Post actually does a major disservice to the Post. The Post ought to be known as our Nation's Capital Newspaper, with emphasis on the Nation. It appears that Ms. Howell is not feeling up to the task of ombudsman of a Nation's Capital Newspaper, and is trying to redefine the Washington Post as primarily a local newspaper. It's kind of a shame that the Washington Post would accept being so devalued by their own ombudsman.

Russert name count via Google:

"Tim Russert" - 893,000 posts
"Timmy Russert" - 354 posts
"Pumpkinhead Russert" - 161 posts
"Timmeh Russert" - 56 posts

I have a suggestion for your show.

I think you should create a brand new awards show and hold it on your program one night. This show would actually allow viewers to vote for nominees before the award announcements on your program.

The award? Why, The Toady Awards, of course! These would be given to "news" people who most reverently accept without question the information fed to them from "sources" within the scope of their reporting. Award categories could include:

Toady of the Year (of course)
Best Supporting Toady for Republican Party Spin
Best Supporting Toady for Democratic Party Spin

Print Toady of the Year
Television Toady of the Year
Radio Toady of the Year

Lifetime Toady Achievement
Rookie Toady of the Year

I'm sure there are other categories that would make great television. Before anyone dismisses this as just being mean, realize that these "news" people live in worlds somewhat insulated from readers or viewers, and might find this useful feedback. Or, it could just be funny!