How long, O Lord, how long before the editors of this state's newspapers finally get this story right?
The Port Huron Times-Herald still believes Fake News. Note to the editors: it's impossible to be wise to drop something when you were wise enough never to propose it in the first place.
At the ever so cheery Detroit News, while the editors are not still responding to Fake News, they continue to publish letters that slam Democrats in response to Fake News. The Detroit News loves nothing more than to slam Democrats, even when the slamming is based on false premises.
Over at the LSJ, on the same day they published this piece of Fake News, one of their own journalists published this lucid mea culpa on his blog.
Attention Michigan newspaper editors. Repeat after me:
"There never was a plan to give every child in Michigan an iPod."
Saturday, April 14, 2007
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Cross-posted at MichiganLiberal.com in response to Dear Anti-tax Leader Leon Drolet's comments in "Dawson Bell Responds (but just raises more questions)" http://www.michiganliberal.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=8630 :
iNuts
Leon, you sound like my kid sister.
Yeah, life is unfair. So what? The only people I know who consistently repeat this cliché are my Republikaner friends - as if it was a justification for treating someone like shit.
Let's review some facts about the iPod story and the ensuing media "frenzy" as you call it:
(1) The first published article concerning the iPod "giveaway" was in The Detroit News on April 6, 2007, titled "An iPod for every kid? Are they !#$!ing idiots?" Authored by George "!#$!ing" Bullard, the opinion piece - not a news article - left the reader believing that the iPod plan was proposed by the House Democrats and the Speaker Andy Dillon. Besides a fusillade of insults ("excess of idiocy," "hare-brained idea," "increasingly erratic," "beyond cluelessness," "bone stupid" and "stupidity"), Bullard gave no facts beyond his mere accusation. Well, OK, apparently it wasn't meant to be a "news" article but a newspaper version of the insult game, "The Dozens."
Interestingly, The Detroit News did not publish any news articles on the issue until six days later on April 12, 2007 ("House Dems, Apple mum on trip - Company subsidized visit fuels questions over $38 million iPod plan; House speaker to address issue today"). San someone say, "wag the dog?"
(2) No other major Michigan newspaper published a story about the deal until four days later when the Grand Rapids Press published a news article on April 10, 2007, titled an "iPod for every Michigan student? - Critics exaggerate, Democrats say; others say focus is off." The article reported that "some Democratic lawmakers" were supporting the plan to buy iPods for Michigan students but the paper failed to find any. Yeah, some media frenzy. Looks like most of the sharks were sleeping on this one.
(3) A search of the Michigan Legislative site for newly introduced bills failed to find any of the search terms "iPod," "MP3," "digital player," "electronic player" or "digital music player."
So, yeah Dear Anti-tax Leader Leon, it doesn't look to us like The Detroit News or Bullard were confused by moon-beam visions but purposeful in their disingenuousness. Certainly readers can also judge an opinion piece as disingenuous where the author spends most of his time dissn' government for governing. ("Oh, Georgie! Maybe we should have The News or Gannett run the State! Then we really wouldn't have a government anymore. It could be just like the JOA! Oh, never mind - that looses money too!")
Finally, as for your own "anti-tax leadership" - what does that really mean Dear Leader? Huh? What does being anti-tax do? Hell, it sounds to us like saying you're "anti-food" just because there are a few fatties in your neighborhood. Fundamentally, your anti-tax stand is anti-democratic (small "d") because it pushes the argument to the extreme in one direction: taxes always bad, government always bad. You must obviously know that isn't always the case.
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