iowa underground blog

Okay, so I open my Sunday NY Times and find this piece of actual reporting:

Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat
A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final

Then I open my DSM Register the next morning, and this is how the newspaper Iowa Depends on covers the story:

Dems jump on report linking war to terrorism
WASHINGTON – Democrats yesterday seized on an intelligence assessment that said the Iraq war has increased the terrorist threat, saying it was further evidence that Americans should choose new leadership in the November elections.

The Democrats hoped the report would undermine the GOP’s image as the party more capable of handing terrorism as the campaign enters its final six-week stretch.

That’s the way the Des Moines Register works. They don’t cover the story; they cover the spin. After all, what Democrats say about the report is far more important than, um, national security.

$%#@*&!

Not that I am accusing the Register of bias. I certainly wouldn’t do that after the paper lead last Saturday with the results of a mock poll that had McCain and Guiliani outpolling John Edwards by a few meaningless mock points over two years before the election. And that’s LEAD, as in this completely non-news story is the most important thing of the day. And I certainly wouldn’t accuse the paper of spinning instead of reporting when last week it LEAD with a poll showing Iowans had upped their approval ratings of Bush by a few meaningless percentage points (which were well within the poll’s margin of error).

That’s LEAD, mind you; that’s splash a poll result all over the front page and call it news. That’s report a story of national importance as if it were so much partisan squabbling while elsewhere the paper’s editors hypocritically dole out a rose to an Iowa candidate who resigned his party rather than engage in partisan squabbling.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: you can learn a lot from a newspaper if you read it with the proper contempt, but the Register is sadly beneath contempt anymore. It’s now just a hack paper floundering to get suburbanites to read it by covering football tailgating parties, drunken bike rides, and Oprah-esque abuse stories.

Yeesh.

• profo

Thanks to Rising Hegemon (Hi, Scooter!) – is a good example of what’s wrong with the American media. Which of these things is not like the other?

• Sousy

Three cheers for the Cedar Rapids Gazette. It would appear she of the prodigious adam’s apple has reached a tipping point in her career – and is finally pissing off and offending those to the right of the political spectrum. It’s not quite ‘ding dong, the witch is dead’ yet, but it’s atleast a start, eh?

Via Editor & Publisher

By Sarah Weber

Published: July 12, 2006 5:05 PM ET

NEW YORK Ann Coulter is no stranger to controversy, but her latest adventures have several newspapers questioning whether carrying her syndicated column is worth the trouble. The Shreveport (La.) Times is currently leaving the decision of whether or not to keep Coulter up to its readers. But the first newspaper to officially drop Coulter’s column since the latest uproar began seems to be The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she had appeared for about 14 months.

Opinion Page Editor Doug Neumann told E&P, “Our decision was made before the plagiarism allegations. It did come after the publication of [Coulter’s] book, but I would say it didn’t directly play any role on our decision.”

However, Neumann surmised that Coulter’s incendiary book may have played an “indirect” role in the final decision. “I think it was the book that began to unwind support among her readers,” Neumann explained.

“Liberals have never liked her, and we’ve always gotten complaints [from them]. But the complaints that mattered the most were from the conservative readers,” who felt that their views were being misrepresented.

Coulter’s syndicate, Universal Press, cleared her of plagiarism charges earlier this week.

Though The Gazette may be the first to drop the outspoken conservative columnist in recent months, Neumann emphasized, “It’s not uncommon for opinion pages to change their line-up.” The daily has long published conservative Cal Thomas and replaced Coulter with another conservative, David Limbaugh.

“We’ve always had a rich line-up of conservative columnists,” said Neumann, “and we still do.”

related digg thread
Also, via ‘Crooks and Liars’, Donny Deutsch Shatters the Coulter Myth

• pdx

So.. did anyone else catch the fake news/advertising section in the Des Moines Register yesterday? Two stories written in “news” format with headlines, and author and a byline appeared hawking an arthritis drug and collectible money sheets or somesuch.

A note to the Register editors: it does not help your reporting credibility to print “newsy” looking pages with a bare minimum notice that the “Unversal Media Syndicate” advertisements were paid advertising. Not only do such things look like you’re making poor editorial decisions, it makes it look like the Register has an interest in the sales of the nonsense products as well.

• Sousy

Interesting story via Media Channel on editorial cartoonists and the like who’ve begun blogs this year and increased interaction w/ their readership as a consequence.

By Dave Astor
Source: Editor and Publisher

At least three syndicated creators started blogs this fall—joining a small but growing group of cartoonists and columnists who have taken that online plunge. Syndicated creators already have a public forum via their newspaper features, so why a blog, too? The reasons are many.

“I’m finding that, creatively, it might be the most fun I’ve had doing anything,” said “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams, who began his blog Oct. 25. The United Media cartoonist explained that composing short blog entries—containing personal anecdotes, behind-the-scenes stories about how his syndicate edits “Dilbert,” and other topics of interest—is easier than writing a book and less confining than writing a comic strip that has room for only a few words and certain restrictions on what Adams can say.

“There’s no one checking my work in the blog, and no limit to what I can write within the confines of PG,” said Adams, whose blog can be accessed at Dilbert.com.

Mike Luckovich, who launched a blog Oct. 14, has a forum to offer his opinions as a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Creators Syndicate. He said one purpose of the new blog (at AJC.com) is to give his readers a forum, too. “I can comment, so why can’t they?” noted Luckovich.

The cartoonist added that a blog allows him to bring certain things to the attention of readers. For instance, Luckovich said he was thinking of posting a 1990s cartoon lampooning President Clinton to show that he satirizes politicians in power—not just Republicans, as some of Luckovich’s conservative critics claim.

Akron Beacon Journal/Creators editorial cartoonist Chip Bok said his “Bokbluster” blog, which launched Oct. 11 at his paper’s Ohio.com site, has several benefits. “Sometimes readers don’t understand my cartoon, and this gives me an opportunity to confuse them more by explaining it in writing,” he joked, adding that the blog allows him to link to old cartoons when they apply to a new event, promote his books and appearances, and more…

Oh, that Dilbert guy writes funny enough cartoons I suppose but you knew he was just another corporate shill, right? Check out Norman Solomon’s book The Trouble With Dilbert to learn more about that dynamic.

Someone care to translate this?

• tristero