Like most of us, I get the morning fish wrap and I’m disappointed in the news coverage, save the sports page. But if the news coverage is disappointing, the editorial section is infuriating. Well, the Ft. Wayne, Journal Gazette is the worst of the worse when it comes to its editorial section. It willfully ignores or misstates facts that do not support its editorial position rather than explain or argue against those facts.
The J-G is so wrong so often on its editorial page that I’ve come to refer to it as The Daily Punctilio (DP) the paper of record in Lemony Snicket’s clever, creative, funny, exciting etc. etc. Series of Unfortunate Events. The DP gets every fact, from the most mundane – names, dates and locations – to the most important – who killed who - wrong. The story reader, as an outside observer, can see how misleading and dopey the DP is, but the players in the story unwittingly believe what’s in the DP – even though every bit of it is wrong. The consequences in the story are the exact same as they are in real life, lives are ruined, heroes are vilified, villains are glorified and the public is ill served.
So I’ve decided that I’d do a Weekly Punctilio award for the J-G where I’d take one of the dopiest things appearing in the paper and comment on it.
This is the first Weekly Punctilio Award for the Ft. Wayne, Journal-Gazette. On Saturday in its “Weekly Scorecard” section under the sub-head of “Losers” the J-G aka the D-P printed this about our Republican Congressman Mark Souder:
“Even fellow Republicans are talking about how mean, spiteful and just plain weird his radio commercials have become.”
Lex fired off the following e-mail to the Punctilio:
Does anyone at the J-G find it ironic that this fish wrap would run a “Weekly Scorecard” where it places public figures in a category called “Losers” then in that very section refers to a person as “mean and spiteful”? I’m sure the alert staff of top-notch “journalists” employed by the J-G considered conventions such as rising and falling; peaks and valleys, after rejecting the more pedantic up and down but settled on winners and losers for this section while slugging down a cup of Joe and chewing the fat with the sports guy.
The reason Mark Souder’s ads sound “weird” to you is that he plainly states his position on the issues of the day and contrasts his position with that of his opponent. Phew that is weird! Plain talk from a politician? That’s weirder than a visit from the Easter Bunny.
By contrast a visit to the Hayhurst web site finds the following “issues” listed: Affordable health care (i.e. public health care), Veterans, Jobs and the economy, energy (see below), and immigration (i.e. amnesty). What about that little thing going on in Iraq, the war on terror and taxes? Aren’t those “issues”? What’s Hayhurst’s position? Hayhurst’s site doesn’t say. But, he’s a Democrat. So, we can assume the answers are as follows and in order: Cut and run. What war? And, they’re going up.
If you can scare up a real journalist somewhere around there, send him out to talk to Hayhurst about his energy plan which calls for a light rail system in northeast Indiana. Questions:
Q: What population and/or industrial centers will the rail system connect?
A: We plan to spend several million dollars and three years studying that.
Q: What supporting public transportation systems (buses, taxis, metro systems etc.) are in place or will be required at those centers to move light rail riders to their final destinations?
A: Supporting public transportation? Hmm, I never thought of that. We’ll add $20 million and throw that question into the study.
Q: How much will it cost to build a system to connect those centers?
A: We’ll add another $50 million to the study and I’ll get back to you on that in ten years.
Q: How will the fare rate be structured so the line can turn a profit?
A: Well, like all public transportation it’ll be free to those who are already on the public dole and unaffordable to everyone else. The free riders will tear the system up in three years so that no respectable person will ride it. Then we’ll fund a study to fix the project. But, like most public transportation, my vision of our light rail system is one where it will definitely be cheaper and more convenient to just drive yourself.
Q: How many profitable light rail systems are there in the US today serving areas with populations of less than, say, 3 million?
A: Oh, nearly one.
Q: Have you ever heard of AMTRAK?
A: Huh?
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