Dallas Morning News

[Charlie Monoxide]

Does anyone else read this newspaper (DMN)? Other than the Fort Worth paper, it's the only game in town. It's not a bad newspaper. The science section is pretty good. Somehow DMN puts way too much emphasis on TV shows as news though (IMHO).

The best section is the editorial pages. The DMN is a major Bush/Republican newspaper. The editorial cartoonist has consistently puts anti-Kerry political cartoons over the last few months. This is somewhat balanced by Doonesbury though (on opposite page).

I always enjoy the "letters to editor" section. Here's one that was in todays newspaper (BTW it's bizarre because the DMN is very right-wing):

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I've put you on notice

About 12 years ago I quit taking the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I felt that the paper was severely slanted toward the liberal point of view.

The Star-Telegram has tried every thing in its power to persuade me to begin taking the paper again; months at a time of free papers at my door, numerous direct mail pieces, free giveaways at major malls. It is still liberal to the core.

Now it is time to put you on notice.

Your paper, day in and day out, attacks President Bush on the front page and has a few positive comments hidden deep inside the paper. I am sick of the total disregard for a fair and balanced approach to reporting the news. Either change it or I will quit taking The Dallas Morning News and get my daily news from either Fox News or the Internet.

Bob Gaines, Southlake
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and this one (ah, this is more like it):

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Wake up, America

I cannot believe that John Kerry is even being considered for president of the Free World. How can that be? I am sure that W. has to play politics on some of the issues of the day, but at least he has integrity and a spine. Honor, integrity, core beliefs, all these things do matter.

The hatred of the president by the Democrats is sickening. The total hypocrisy of the Democrats is scary. They behave like brats on the playground.

Wake up, America. Wouldn't it be better to have someone who understands economics running our economy? Duh.

The left wants to give our country away. Please don't let that happen.

Nancy Dekker, Plano
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I still love Texans ....

Charlie (on the grassy knoll or up the 6th floor) Monoxide

[UndercoverElephant]

Hey, it's a funny old world.

I learned to speak in Fort Worth, came to the internet on a crusade to rid the world of creationism and now I think the Christian Science Monitor is the most objective (="aware of the international context") news source in the US.

Texas.... :confused:

As for Bush and economics.... :confused:

***print*** @@@more@@@* $$$dollars$$$

(that'll fix it) ;)

http://www.markswatson.com/Depression1.html
http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_03/lafleur062003.html

[Charlie Monoxide]

Yup, the Bush + Economics knowledge = Good Leadership amazed me as well.

I did pop over to the Christian Science Monitor and read there mission statement (or whatever). It's worth reading to see who the woman and her purse is. They are trying to be a secular newspaper, and their reporting does seem to be objective.

Still, I'm the biggest cynic when it comes to news media. But, like a crack-head, I'm filling my pipe hourly with it.

Charlie (I can quit anytime, I'm in control) Monoxide

[Frank Newgent]

http://i.esmas.com/image/0/000/002/833/brozo_N.jpg

¡Viva El Independiente (http://www.elindependiente.com.mx/index.php)!

El Independiente was launched 10 months ago, under the motto "Journalism the Country Needs," accompanied by a nationwide publicity blitz and employing some of the country's best and most well-known journalists. It was a serious daily newspaper with national distribution and an investigative bent. Ahumada, a construction magnate who owns a couple of soccer teams and dabbles in the poultry business, invested millions of dollars and promised to keep his hands off the paper's content. In the beginning, the formula worked.


SNIP


But an odor of corruption leaked out under the owner's door from the start. In the month the paper launched, Carlos Ahumada found himself involved in a scandal over his purchase of a soccer team. Rivapalacio says he lobbied Ahumada to sell the paper immediately, but without success.

Then, at the beginning of March, the grainy black-and-white video of Ahumada was all over television. The videotape that sent Ahumada into flight was actually the third in a series of secretly recorded tapes shown on Mexican television. On March 3, the Mexico City mayor's closest political ally, Rene Bejarano, went on a morning news program to decry the shady behavior and outright bribery seen on the first couple of videos. Filming in the neighboring studio was the country's keenest news analyst, Brozo, who happens to dress up like a clown, complete with green hair and a bright red nose. As Bejarano launched into his lecture, a conservative politician handed Brozo a videocassette. Brozo put the cassette in a VCR and suggested that he and Bejarano watch it together.

On the video, Bejarano watched himself accepting what appeared to be a $45,000 bribe from Ahumada and talking about what he was going to deliver in exchange. The money didn't fit in the suitcase, and after a comic battle with the zipper, he resorted to stuffing wads of American dollars into various pockets in his suit. Bejarano departed Brozo's studio looking suicidal; later that day he quit the party after linking a number of other prominent politicians to the money. Soon after, Ahumada absconded to the Cuban resort of Varadero, from whence the Mexican government has been trying to get him extradited.


SNIP


In a few weeks, Ahumada morphed from a slightly shady businessman into the most hated man in Mexico, "the lord of the bribes," as commentators called him. But just days before he fled the country, he still resisted the staff's attempts to convince him to sell the paper, apparently seeing it as the only public platform from which he could defend himself.

Eventually, Rivapalacio and the rest of the paper's staff saw that they weren't going to be able to save El Independiente, so they announced their mass resignation on the front page, leaving the paper to Ahumada's brother-in-law and a skeleton crew he brought in from another daily.


http://slate.msn.com/id/2098595/

[UnrepentantSinner]

I did pop over to the Christian Science Monitor and read there mission statement (or whatever). It's worth reading to see who the woman and her purse is. They are trying to be a secular newspaper, and their reporting does seem to be objective.

Sorry to resurrect this thread but I came across it while doing a Tag search.

DMN is my local paper and I do enjoy reading it. There's usually a copy left somewhere at work and I miss some of the features/sections they had in 2004 (and earlier, the weekly Texanna column was a great read) but they have a great comics section, the letters to the editor are a hoot sometimes and I find the Guide section helpful in adding movies to my Netflix queue.

As far as the CSM goes, it's a very objective paper and one of the best printed sources of international news. In 1991, pre-Interwebs, it was the only source I could find for a paper I was writing on the Nagnorno-Karabach conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.