The Protest was Awesome!
Unless you read it on www.mysanantonio.com
That's right, Jerry Needham, for the San Antonio Express-News, who wrote the story linked above, decided to draw on two 'experts' - John Keeley, a communications director from an anti-immigration think-tank called the 'Center for Immigration Studies'. When I read 'communications director', I interpret: 'Spin Doctor'.
The other 'expert' is "Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Federation for American Immigration Reform". Gee - what do you suppose my political thesaurus says under the heading 'spokesman'?
Thank you, Mr. Needham for your fair and balanced reporting. Working on your resume for FoxNews?
In contradiction to the Spin Doctors' 'analyses', the protest march was on target. There was a great deal of displays of American patriotism and love of this country. Please check www.sayd.org for forthcoming pictures of the event. We had an American flag, as did a great many of the march participants. This wasn't the Hizbollah burning, and dancing on, the American flag, the way these guys are probably going to have you believe.
Anyway, I'll be letting Needham (jneedham@express-news.net) know about this blog post, and I'll invite him to comment.
4/11/2006 UPDATE:
Jerry Needham responds:
However, this was still the article placed front and center on the protest issue on the MySA.com website, on Monday (late) night (ie. Tuesday EARLY morning).
Here's the danger of the 24-hour news cycle. While Mr. Needham is writing for the newspaper - assuming that his article will be placed into the context of the other 7 articles - MySA.com did not post the others at the same time - perhaps because they were still being written. (I don't know when newspaper deadlines are - hopefully sometime before the time that I read it, which around 12:30am - not 10:30pm, which is when the blog timed it - I guess it thinks we're in Pacific time, or something.)
ANYWAY, the 24-hour news cycle - The website is being referred to at any time, not just the morning when the S/A E-N is hitting the front lawns. Therefore, it - and any other 24-hour news outlet, like CNN - will be in need of news 24/7 - and will post that news when it is received. This article, basically poo-poo'd the march. For that to be the first news coming out of the MySA website was upsetting. Someone who participated in the march and felt the energy of the march would probably feel the same way. I hope you'll understand the ire - I am likely not alone.
That's right, Jerry Needham, for the San Antonio Express-News, who wrote the story linked above, decided to draw on two 'experts' - John Keeley, a communications director from an anti-immigration think-tank called the 'Center for Immigration Studies'. When I read 'communications director', I interpret: 'Spin Doctor'.
The other 'expert' is "Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Federation for American Immigration Reform". Gee - what do you suppose my political thesaurus says under the heading 'spokesman'?
Thank you, Mr. Needham for your fair and balanced reporting. Working on your resume for FoxNews?
In contradiction to the Spin Doctors' 'analyses', the protest march was on target. There was a great deal of displays of American patriotism and love of this country. Please check www.sayd.org for forthcoming pictures of the event. We had an American flag, as did a great many of the march participants. This wasn't the Hizbollah burning, and dancing on, the American flag, the way these guys are probably going to have you believe.
Anyway, I'll be letting Needham (jneedham@express-news.net) know about this blog post, and I'll invite him to comment.
4/11/2006 UPDATE:
Jerry Needham responds:
Dear Mr. Wright,Mr. Needham, thank you for your response. He is correct that these 7 other articles did appear in the news and they - collectively - did indeed display broader reporting than this article did on its own. I find this article in the context of the other articles, is proper and warranted to maintain balanced. I apologize for my FoxNews remark, and withdraw it.
I can see from the time that you wrote this that you may have read a
single story on the Web and did not read the package of 8 stories in
today's newspaper that covered the rallies and the immigration issue. My
specific writing assignment for this event was to see if there were
counter-protests and to provide a small story presenting the opposing
viewpoints as a balance in the two full pages we were giving to the
rallies and marches. My story was played at the bottom of Page 8.
As I can tell from your letter that you apparently believed mine to be
the only story we had on the march, I would direct you to today's
newspaper or to another perusal of our Website to see that we had
balanced coverage of the event.
Unfortunately, under the situation in which I was writing this story, I
was not giving a balanced assessment of the issue but letting the other
side have their say to give the overall coverage some balance.
Therefore, in reading my story by itself, it does appear to be a forum
for the other side. Assuming that you agree that the overall coverage of
our newspaper was very fair, comprehensive and balanced on this event,
please don't zero in on the messenger for the message that was delivered
by the people who were quoted in this story.
Thank you for reading and best regards.
Jerry Needham
Staff Writer
San Antonio Express-News
However, this was still the article placed front and center on the protest issue on the MySA.com website, on Monday (late) night (ie. Tuesday EARLY morning).
Here's the danger of the 24-hour news cycle. While Mr. Needham is writing for the newspaper - assuming that his article will be placed into the context of the other 7 articles - MySA.com did not post the others at the same time - perhaps because they were still being written. (I don't know when newspaper deadlines are - hopefully sometime before the time that I read it, which around 12:30am - not 10:30pm, which is when the blog timed it - I guess it thinks we're in Pacific time, or something.)
ANYWAY, the 24-hour news cycle - The website is being referred to at any time, not just the morning when the S/A E-N is hitting the front lawns. Therefore, it - and any other 24-hour news outlet, like CNN - will be in need of news 24/7 - and will post that news when it is received. This article, basically poo-poo'd the march. For that to be the first news coming out of the MySA website was upsetting. Someone who participated in the march and felt the energy of the march would probably feel the same way. I hope you'll understand the ire - I am likely not alone.
posted by Anonymous at
4/10/2006 10:20:00 PM
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