Thursday, March 16, 2006

Raleigh News & Observer puffs for Myrick

At Raleigh News & Observer exec editor for news Melanie Sill’s blog, a reader complains about a Mar. 6 front page story , Mince words? Not Rep. Myrick -- just ask Bush

Myrick, you'll recall, is the Congresswoman who endeared herself to Bush-bashers with her one line letter to the President: "In regards to selling American ports to the United Arab Emirates, not just NO — but HELL NO!"

The reader says the “recent puff piece on Sue Myrick would have never made the cut for any paper committed to real journalism.”

Sill responds: “Re the Myrick piece, any time a member of congress emerges as a potential candidate for governor, that's a good story for The N&O.”

Will Sill tell readers why The N&O’s reporter, while restating the contents of Myrick’s “HELL NO” letter to the President, never mentioned that the “selling American ports" charge was false.

That's important. Why wasn’t it in the story?

Also, Myrick is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The N&O mentioned that but for some reason it decided not to tell readers that Energy and Commerce is one of the congressional committees with primary oversight in the area covered by the UAE deal.

The N&O didn't ask Myrick how she made the "selling American ports" blunder or whether she’s ever publicly acknowledged it or apologized to the President.

Given all of that it's easy to see why anyone would say The N&O’s Myrick story is puff piece Journalism.

The N&O's reporter, Barbara Barrett, did manage to tell readers: “Over dinner at a Capitol Hill pub recently, (Myrick) declined a glass of wine in favor of Diet Coke since she still had work.”

Let’s see what we hear from Editor Sill. I’m sending her and email and leaving a link to this post on the blog thread.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

John, I have no other way to contact you, so even though this is unrelated to Myrick, being the most recent post I thought you might see a comment here more quickly than if I put it where the posts in comments appear farther down the page.

I don't have a clue as to whether my concerns are valid, but my "Incoming" meter goes off the chart whenever Anonymous posts with "hey guys" or "I love this blog" then goes on to tell us how to make money having fun or get free games or some such, then supplies a website to visit to avail oneself of these fabulous opportunities.

I can't help but suspect a trap from which one's computer may not recover after visiting the viral infectious ward. I may be paranoid, but it is the kind of thing some of our hateful anti-liberty bigots would do. I have not made a visit and don't plan to, but wonder if a word to others that read here would be in order.

Forgive me if I seem a little over the top, but I am still alive in spite of desperate attempts by some to correct that oversight and it is almost entirely due to paying attention to that "Incoming!" meter. Well,that and a fair amount of luck.

JWM said...

straightarrow,

You're right about those "Hey, you have a great blog and ...."

I don't go past the first phrase before hitting the "Report spam" button.

The servers will lock the spammers' sites after a while, but they usually reopen at a new site.

They're mostly tring to make a buck.
They're a small bother.

Regarding the Anonymous, he sounds to me too a lot like Pastor Ray.

As regards you intellectual strength and honesty, I think it speaks for itself. One of the nice things about the internet and blogging is that there's a record of what's been said.

People can see.

John