But first: Why is lemon juice mostly artificial ingredients, but dish-washing liquid contains real lemons?
Back to the headline. Al Cross, president of the Society of Professional Journalists, and a political reporter for the Louisville (KY) Currier Journal said, “Americans are intelligent enough to sort propaganda from truth and they ought to have the opportunity to do so.
“The White House should run the war and leave the reporting of news to reporters and editors.”
Right!
Leave the news reporting to prejudiced writers who more and more want to inject their opinion into what should be straight news stories. Like this plain ‘ol drug testing of welfare recipients story. A three-judge panel ruled testing of welfare recipients for drugs is legal.
The Detroit Free Press reporter said in his story, with no quotes or attribution, “The three judges were all appointed by former President George Bush.”
It’s my intelligent opinion that is a deliberate attempt to put a liberal, Democrat slant on this news story. This addition has to make a reader think that had the judges been appointed by President Bill Clinton the decision would have been the opposite.
So very many of today’s bylined news stories have reporter opinion added. You know, like your bottle of ketchup, or whatever, artificial flavoring added.
Many of us who read newspapers on a daily basis do so for all sorts of reasons, including seeking editorial opinion. Of course, we readers expect the editorial opinion to be on the opinion page. We expect news stories to be straight reporting without a twist, innuendo or direct insert meant to convey the reporter’s view.
The good news is many of we readers are more scanners than absorbers. The bad news: These inserting reporters are growing in number, which leads, when they are promoted to editors, to opinions and slantings becoming more frequent and obvious.
Maybe when they are obvious enough readers will rebel. H-m-m, maybe readers are rebelling, ’cause a great many daily newspapers are losing circulation (which is why they are now using how many readers they have versus how many subscribers they have) .
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The above welfare-drug testing story also had a quote from the U. S. District Court Judge whose decision was overturned by the three Bush appointments.
In writing her opinion, Judge Victoria Roberts said the testing was “likely unconstitutional.”
Funny, the reporter didn’t say who appointed Judge Victoria.
But, that’s beside the point. What bothers me here is that a federal judge, or any judge, would rule something “likely unconstitutional.”
If a judge doesn’t know what is and what isn’t constitutional they should be removed from the bench, and put on a job that forces them to put in 40 hours a week with 2-weeks vacation.
Of course, all this is my opinion (and note, it didn’t start on the front page and jump inside like the welfare-drug testing story did).
This is also my observation: You never see a motorcycle parked outside a psychiatrist’s office.