Wisconsin Daily Asks Readers to Send Pro-Bush Letters

Published: May 11, 2004 10:07 AM EST

NEW YORK According to polls, President Bush's popularity has been dwindling since the Iraq war heated up again last month, but has it really come to this? A Wisconsin daily newspaper, in a novel twist, has resorted to asking readers to send in pro-Bush letters to the editor to balance out the many critical of the President.

In a notice to its readers, The Post-Crescent of Appleton, Wis. (weekday circulation 54,193), observed that with the presidential race heating up, the editors have found themselves in a "quandary." They feel their Views page takes "the political and social temperature of the Valley." But now the question is: "How can we balance the perspectives and topics of our letters when many of our submissions have been coming only from one side?"

"We've been getting more letters critical of President Bush than those that support him. We're not sure why, nor do we want to guess. But in today's increasingly polarized political environment, we would prefer our offering to put forward a better sense of balance ... Since we depend upon you, our readers, to supply our letters, that goal can be difficult. We can't run letters that we don't have. If you would like to help us 'balance' things out, send us a letter, make a call or punch out an e-mail ... We'd love to hear from you."

In a letter responding to that editorial published Tuesday, Ellen Kunz of Neenah wrote: "Could it be that you are ignoring the current temperature of the Valley? If you are getting more letters critical of Mr. Bush, it is likely because the Valley is more critical of him. And for good reason ... If you are receiving so many letters, indicating an imbalance of opinions, it is because your readers feel they need to do your job for you. They are telling you that there isn't enough public scrutiny of this administration's policies and actions."

Also on Tuesday, Della Besaw of Appleton asked: "Whose bright idea was it to solicit reader support for Bush? Was it a P-C executive decision, or Gannett headquarters?"

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000507940

"We've been getting more letters critical of President Bush than those that support him. We're not sure why, nor do we want to guess."


Uhhh, Hey dumbassess! Did you ever stop to think that maybe there's hardly a soul out there that CAN defend the moron? And the one's that do defend him are more than likely incapable of writing a coherent letter!

You don't want to guess why? Assholes!

these people are lost, really. Not of this planet. :crazy:

"Balance" - the last retreat of a corporate journalist scoundrel.

instead of trying to create it?

I am ashamed of my country.

If Appleton hates the Chimp, then he IS toast!

were high?

Something tells me they didn't.

EXACTLY like that.

Who until last year had a six foot bust of himself in the local court House.

The community itself is just slightly to the left of the late great adolph hitler.

I don't know where they operate from but I believe the John Birch society was founded here in Indianapolis.

Not that I'm bragging either.

Their president at that time lived in Appleton and moved the HQ here (I think it was in the 80's). He was also president of a large insurance company and lost his job because of it. Apparently, the board felt that they might be identified with the JBS.

I go to their site every now and then and ckeck 'em out.

Did you send yours, Saigon?

Never published. Guess it was too slick for them.

The only sizable bastion of Republican support left in WI would be some of Milwaukee's suburbs. I wonder how gung ho 'Scooter' Jensen's district is to vote for Bush right now?

I'm also wondering what possible support Bush still has in WI if he's lost the Fox River Valley? (I'm sure there's always Elroy, but there aren't many people up in that neck of the woods...).

My partner and I camped at a State Park there last summer. Republican Redneck Country all the way. Thought we were gonna end up squealin like pigs before we got the hell outta there!

While I would say the Valley is predominately Republican, we aren't all rednecks. There is a strong intellectual community here also.

I see where they are coming from, they probably don't want to be labeled a right or a left paper from what I gleen from that article. It's very possible another paper in the area is taking part of their market and they are trying to hold on to as much readership as possible. They aren't denigrating about the anti bush letters, seems to me they just want to offer both sides in their letters to the editor...to hear both sides. I think they should print what they have and if it is all against bush then so be it, but I don't think this is a plot to somehow drown out the anti bush letters. I could be totally wrong but I understand that a newspaper should be objective in their views first and foremost.

The question is, would they ask the opposite if the paper swung the other way?

I would be surprised if they did the same if they received more anti Clinton letters during the impeachment trial.

Just trying to keep The Matrix going.

How many more lies, hamfisted lies, must be told before they understand?

More likely, they are owned and run by Bushfriends who have the same duty to Party the Nazis at Der Sturmer did.

"Could you please send some more anti-Jew letters to counterbalance the decent people who are writing in to say the Jews aren't the enemies of Germany?"

i <3 bush

Basically told them to deal with it. The letter said they wanted "balance," but asked for pro-bu$h letters, I called them hypocrites as well. Also told them they were a joke. I won't believe it if my letter gets in, but if it does, I'll post it here!

BTW, welcome to DU!:yourock:

there always has to be balance -- between:
1) left and right;
2) good and evil;
3) right and wrong;
4) science and nonscience.
And now, it's not enough to balance what they publish -- they also want balance in public opinion.

Of course, not all the media is at fault -- the RW media doesn't believe in balance at all.

Lobby / Latest General Discussion
Message


SoCalDem (1000+ posts) Mon May-10-04 10:17 PM
Response to Original message

16. Dear Editor:


Dear Editor:

I can sympathize with you. It's getting harder to find Bush-supporters every day. Of course when one watches the deliberately skewed polls and the corporate-owned media, one would think that he is still the best thing since sliced bread. I guess the "real people" of the country are starting to figure out that they have been hoodwinked,conned,hornswaggled..(insert favorite colloquialism for defrauded here).

His presidency has ushered in an era of death, dread and doom, and I guess we have all just "had it up to here" with it...and him..

The Berlin papers must have had a similar problem as WWII raged on. Eventually even the public turned against Adolph..

Chin up, editor... It's not a bad thing to report the actual feelings of the public..

If you do a story about a mean old serial killer, we do not expect you to do one about a "cuddly, cute" serial killer too..

We ARE smart enough to see the truth and recognize it.

Cuddly serial killer....I'll have to remember that one for future reference.

:thumbsup:


DWolfman

http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/opinion_16065323.shtml

Posted May 11, 2004
Editorial: Another swing at the plate on letters to the editor

... Unfortunately, we weren’t clear enough in our intent. Many readers perceived our plea in the editorial for greater reader participation as an unabashed solicitation for people to weigh in on the side of the incumbent president. We should have done a better job stating our case.

But by invoking the name of a candidate, we came off as trying to beat the drum for him.

Hindsight being 20-20, we can now see how it was taken in that vein, even though our editorial track record has been critical of the administration’s execution of the war in Iraq; the historically high federal budget deficit; the Medicare prescription drug plan and a proposed constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage, to name a few.

more

...our editorial track record has been critical of the administration’s execution of the war in Iraq...

Yet, not critical of the fact that the invasion and occupation was and is illegal under our own and international law.

Fucking corporate media.

The Post Crescent is my local newspaper. They posted the apology on their web site but not in the printed version of the newspaper (unless I missed it).

Since he's such an ardent supporter of the resident, and all...
:evilgrin:

but the paper's policy is not to publish any letter written in crayon. Hey, I guess that's why there are no favorable letters published supporting Bush*.

:evilgrin:

which is my local paper, their letters and calls have been running very much against Bush and they are printing them nearly every day.
I guess they are not getting many for Bush so they don't want to appear one-sided.

You can only publish one letter per month, so the few Bush supporters must have already written their for the month.

I love it! This is a very conservative area also.

b*sh supporters can write?

as the media and polls would have us believe.

If I only had the time I may do it myself. Some bright DUers should consider writing some pro-Bush letters that would be sarcastic, but look authentic enough to be missed by a newspaper editor. For example, someone could praise Bush's virtue for closing Hussein's torture and rape rooms. My example may not be subtle enough to be missed by an editor, but it is only an example and I am sure that many here could do a much better job. Done correctly, these letters could be very effective.

My guess is that many of you have thought about this before, but this post made me think deviously.

LOL! }( Good idea.

Something along the lines of, People should get off poor George's back. He's doing the best he can with what he's got. How could he know the damage all that alcohol and drugs would do to his thinking? At least he's not out having sex with Asian prostitutes like his brother!

:kick:

Dear Editor,

I fully support our Great President George Bush. And don't let people say that he wasn't legally elected and shouldn't be our president. He was too.

If he wants Donald Rumsfled to torture Iraqi prisoners, why not? So what if that will just make them hate us more and attack more U.S. soldiers? Bring 'em on!

Remember how great he looked in his flight suit on the aircraft carrier? And that was not a sock, either.

How could you not admire such a man?

LOL

When they can't think of anything nice to say about the Chimp, they just write long letters saying "Kerry is a flip-flopper" fourteen different ways.

I saw one the other day that was listing all of Bill's dastardly deeds all over again.

Meanwhile, our daily ignores most letters from anyone to the right of Rush. The really sad part is that it is a locally-owned paper.

...a great newspaper, as was the West Bend Daily News, when both were owned by the Torinus family. Both are now just garbage.