The Long Beach City Council used harsh words and a unanimous vote against its erstwhile hometown newspaper Tuesday night, resolving to “reevaluate” the hundreds of thousands of dollars it spends with the Press-Telegram every year, now that the paper will be operated by the publisher of the Daily Breeze in Torrance.

The move is intended to pressure Dean Singleton — the corporate raider CEO of the Press-Telegram’s parent company, MediaNews Group, Inc. — to reverse his Feb. 29 purge of P-T publisher Dave Kuta and managing editor John Futch and his transfer of Long Beach’s century-old daily to executives of its sister paper in Torrance. The City of Long Beach is one of the P-T’s most-lucrative clients, spending over a quarter-million dollars on legal notices, public relations, announcements and other communications.

But the discussion in a council chamber crowded with sign-carrying P-T staffers, alumni, civic activists, members of various union across town and just plain readers quickly morphed into a brutal critique of the Press-Telegram’s steadily declining quality — which everybody seemed to attribute to drastic cuts in staff and callous treatment of employees. Mayor Bob Foster called it “a death spiral.” The newsroom lost a dozen other staffers along with the publisher and managing editor, and today a dozen more will be informed whether they will be out of work or transferred to the Daily Breeze.

“We’ve prided ourselves for a very long time on having our very own paper here in Long Beach,” said Tonia Reyes Uranga, the Seventh District councilwoman who made the motion. “But as the Press-Telegram has diminished we’ve depended more and more on alternative news sources, like The District and LBReport.com.”

First District councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal agreed with Reyes Uranga. You read that correctly. “I agree with my colleague, Councilwoman Reyes Uranga,” said Lowenthal — and perhaps nothing better exemplified the mood of unity on this issue than the sight of those particular councilwomen, who are waging a contentious battle for the 54th Assembly District seat, sharing smiles, echoing one another’s opinions and generally making nice. “And I am definitely going to support her motion,” Lowenthal added.

“We need a hometown newspaper, and these changes at the Press-Telegram are extremely disturbing,” Lowenthal continued. “Lately the paper is full of stories about Torrance and the San Fernando Valley that are completely irrelevant. Meanwhile, local stories are being missed because there are not enough reporters. And the cutbacks and the reduction in wages mean the loss of middle-class jobs. P-T reporters have not gotten a contract in a year and they are earning less than they were 10 years ago, when Dean Singleton bought the paper.”

Press-Telegram executive editor Rich Archbold was the only person to speak in opposition to the motion. He denied that the Press-Telegram is no longer based in Long Beach, expressed admiration for Singleton’s style of journalism, attributed the firings and redeployments to tough times in the newspaper business and blamed the controversy around them on “misleading statements” and “misconceptions.”

”The Long Beach Press-Telegram is here to stay!” asserted Archbold, an executive — as managing editor, editor in chief and executive editor — for 30 years, who during that tenure has implemented most of the changes that have led to the paper’s decline. ”We’ve been here 100 years! We’re not going anywhere.”

But Reyes Uranga took issue with Archbold’s pronouncements.

“You say you’re not going anywhere,” she chided him, referring to the once-ample staff that has shrunk to 10 reporters, “but some of you are already gone.”

Taking note of the passionate protest around him — including incisive indictments of the P-T administration’s long, relentless assault on the paper’s newsgathering operation by veteran reporters like Joe Segura and Tracy Manzer – Archbold tried to approach the situation magnanimously.

“Let me just say this: I’m glad my staff is here and talking,” Archbold began. “They are concerned about the paper, and so am I. We have a tremendous staff of people. The changes [that have just occurred] are painful to me. But not one reporter has been cut.”

Archbold expressed personal regret about the loss of P-T publisher Dave Kuta and managing editor John Futch, but suggested that the actual impact of their departure would be minimal.

“Kuta is being replaced,” Archbold said. “Its just that instead of two publishers, we’ll have one.”

Archbold didn’t come right out and say that the one will be Mark Ficarra, publisher of the Daily Breeze – and whose familiarity with the local scene is even more scant than his title insinuates. Ficarra has only been on the job in Torrance since January, and most of his resume was built in Arizona; he’s the former general manager of a Pennysaver in Phoenix.

Instead, Archbold summarized the impact of moving the guts of the Press-Telegram’s production — publishing, copy editing and page design responsibilities – out of town with this sentence: “That simply means I’m going to be on the phone more often than I would normally be.”

As for Singleton, who has built a heavily leveraged national newspaper empire — and a reputation for ruthlessness — by buying community newspapers and bleeding their profits to buy more? Archbold painted him as a saint.

”Dean Singleton loves this business,” Archbold raved. ”Dean Singleton is not doing this because he wants to buy another ranch or a private jet. He loves newspapers.”

Finally, however, Archbold got to the point of his appearance before the council — the taxpayer money it is threatening to take away from Singleton’s income stream. He claimed the recent purges at the Press-Telegram were the difficult but necessary actions of an industry in trouble. “Our business is suffering,” he said, as he presented his opposition to Reyes Uranga’s motion

“I can’t think of a worse idea,” said Archbold. ”We live by our ad revenue and circulation revenue. Do that and all you do is further cut into our budget.”

Archbold then proceeded to make what he acknowledged was something of an unseemly plea for an editor-in-chief, who is charged with overseeing journalistic independence from the newspaper’s financial side.

“I would hope you would increase spending [with the Press-Telegram],” he said, ”and allow me to hire more reporters and photographers.”

But Archbold didn’t hire any more reporters or photographers when the Press-Telegram made $16.7 million dollars with the recent sale of its historic office building at Sixth and Pine. That money went to Denver, where Singleton operates MediaNews Group headquarters.

Lowenthal pointed that out Tuesday night, and the rest of the council wasn’t swayed by Archbold’s reassurances, either. Rae Gabelich, Dee Andrews, Gerrie Schipske and Patrick O’Donnell each spoke forcefully and critically about the corporate export of the Press-Telegram and the drastic decline in the paper’s comprehensiveness during the past decade under Singleton.

“Even though Mr. Singleton has been given major accolades across the nation, he has also torn apart the opportunities for local news,” said Gabelich, who represents the Bixby Knolls-based eighth district. “I don’t think he cares. If we pull our ads, he could walk away and not give a … a … darn.

“I’ve watched the demise of the Press-Telegram. I wish it were the same paper it was even five years ago. It’s gotten physically smaller … It is more ads than news and it is full of stories from the Associated Press and other wire services. We are a large city. How is one end supposed to communicate with the other if we don’t have someone in Long Beach running the local paper?”

Mayor Bob Foster does not have a council vote, but he did have a strong opinion, and he presented it in direct response to Archbold’s endorsement of Singleton’s business strategy for the Press-Telegram. Foster called it “a death spiral.”

“I understand you have to do things for business, because it comes down to whether you can be profitable or not,” said the mayor. “But I think you see the passion here tonight. And I will tell you that we have heard the same kind of comment [as Archbold's] in other industries — like the United States steel industry in the 50s and 60s, when it actually chose not to modernize while other parts of the world did. And now there is no United States steel industry.

“We understand that journalism is changing, that readers want something else, but I don’t know that what they want is less. They want something else, and I urge you to reinvest in whatever that is. You have to do what you have to do, but I would urge you to think about that perspective — maybe that more investment, and not less, is what is necessary. Otherwise, it’s a death spiral, is what it is.”

Tags: 54th Assembly District, bonnie lowenthal, dean singleton, lbreport.com, Long Beach City Council, medianews group, press telegram, Rich Archbold, The District, Tonia Reyes Uranga

COMMENTS

1

Great coverage, Dave. Here’s the latest from Editor&Publisher, the industry journal:

“Each newspaper will continue to publish separate editions, although the District Weekly, a local alternative paper, stated the changes to the Press-Telegram “leaves it as little more than a bureau for the…Daily Breeze.”

The Weekly also stated that “Long Beach lost its daily newspaper today” in a story about the changes, which noted that MediaNews Group fired Press-Telegram publisher Dave Kuta, managing editor John Futch and nine newsroom employees, then placed both papers’ operations under the control of Daily Breeze publisher Mark Ficarra.”

For the full story, go to:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/ar...

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Posted By Will Swaim on March 5th, 2008 at 1:14 am
2

So the king of misleading statements makes yet another one concerning the PT, blaming the City Council’s concerns on “misconceptions.” The architect of the paper’s 30-year decline would have made a great shower-room attendant at a concentration camp.

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Posted By Beachcombover on March 5th, 2008 at 6:24 am
3

(NOTE: This is a modified version of a comment I posted earlier today in the Letters to the Editors section of the Press-Telegram.)

Regarding the recent layoffs and restructuring at the Press-Telegram I find it very hard to believe and highly unlikely that the Press-Telegram’s editorial board has not received any feedback, positive or negative, from it’s readers.

Since last Friday, five days ago, not one Letter to the Editor or a Speakout comment in response to this restructuring has appeared on these pages.

Has a deliberate decision been made by the gatekeepers of the Press-Telegram’s editorial pages to not publish any of its reader’s feedback on this now controversial issue?

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Posted By Dwight K Snider on March 5th, 2008 at 9:14 am
4

I don’t get it. For years, the PT has covered stories originating with the Valley-based Daily News, and of interest to Valleyites only, but no one made a peep about it. Now it’s become a political hot potato. But does a political body have the right to try to influence how journalists report the news by denying dollars.

It seemed to be a gang-bang on a well-known crappy paper (generally it takes me about 3-5 minutes to reat it at the library), but that’s not the point.

Long Beach gets what it blindly allows to happen. We now have a congresswoman who represents Watts representing the bulk of the city in congress and a paper that reports on Torrance and the Valley that pretends to be Long Beach based, but is in reality to $$$ pipeline to Denver.

BTW, Bonnie Lowenthal, she of the divorced branch of the Lowenthal juggernaut, asked what happened to the archives. How come Archbold was not summoned up to answer those queries? I went by the building on the last few days, and the stuff being left behind was stunning.

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Posted By lbwhiner on March 5th, 2008 at 9:35 am
5

Ok, so one of Rich Archbolds statements at the City Council meeting that was we wern’t losing any reporters is false. The two that are leaving are supposedly to be replaced today internally, either from the Editorial Board or Sports. So thats still losing reporters. Another illusion is if you look at the bylines on the stories and photos and it says ” John Doe/ Staff Writer ” its not necessarily a PT staffer ( i.e. today Sports C3 Laker Story .) Do you think they would send a Pt staffer waaaay up to sacremanto to cover the Lakers? no you are going to get the same story or photo from the same angle same quote that you can get from all it dozens of socal sister papers. Its called clustering or Cluster F*#$. It’s a shell game MediaNews is playing with the emplyees, city council, Long Beach tax dollars invested in the Press-Telegram for less coverage? Thats a bad busness plan for the citizens of Long Beach and they should have a say how their hard earned money is being spent. Why not have stipulations in contracts when you do buisness with the Press-Telegram?.
Pay the Press-Telegram employees a” LIVING WAGE ” comperable to living in Southern California, like 2008 not 1988. Invest in the Press-Telegram and how about standard provisons in contracts with the Press-Telegram. The one thing that is clear is that MediaNews understands $$$ MONEY $$$$ and you now have their attention because your speaking thier language.

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Posted By LB Taxpayer on March 5th, 2008 at 9:48 am
6

Dave, I wonder how much money the Port of Long Beach spends each year with the P-T on advertising and public-relations campaigns.

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Posted By Dwight K Snider on March 5th, 2008 at 10:48 am
7

LB Taxpayer

That’s been their method of choice for years. Offically, they rarely if ever lay off reporters. Instead they just wait for them to quit or retire, then freeze the position and refuse to hire a replacement. That’s how the reporting staff has shrunk over the years. They can tell you reporters aren’t getting laid off, but ask them how they’ve managed to see their numbers shrink by over 50% in the last seven years?

As for Archbold’s statements regarding the web…I wish someone would have pointed out that they DID lay off web staff, and not only that, but the remaining web department is now handling web operations for both the PT and the Breeze. They barely managed to keep the web staff in LB as it is, and the head of web operations (who works out of Torrance, and outranks the PT web boss) has already made plans to poach video production away from LB for more Breeze content.

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Posted By w3 on March 5th, 2008 at 11:01 am
8

HEY HOW ABOUT NON -PROFIT NEWSPAPERS? THE ST. PETERSBURG TIMES DOES IT AND THE COVER THE SH*T OUT OF THEIR CITY. AND BEYOND.

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Posted By LB Taxpayer on March 5th, 2008 at 11:10 am
9

Great job, Dave. It makes me sick to read Archbold’s quotes about Singleton. As a former Press Telegram employee, I love what the paper used to be. All of this is very sad. Singleton is a tool. All he cares about is money and to suggest anything different is a lie.

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Posted By Steve Irvine on March 5th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
10

Stevie! Send me your e-mail address at dave@thedistrictweekly.com

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Posted By Dave Wielenga on March 5th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
11

COMBOVER #2 That comment was over the top and unnecessary. Comparing a newspaper editor to someone complicit in the Holocaust is intellectually and morally bankrupt. I cannot believe everyone else on this thread has ignored it.

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Posted By LBRez on March 5th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
12

You can watch a video of the city council meeting on the city web site.

http://longbeach.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?v...

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Posted By beepbeep on March 5th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
13

LB REZ #11 You’re right. The executive editor of the Press-Telegram would make a great shower-room attendant, period. And don’t think Dean Singleton hasn’t been making plans.

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Posted By Dave Wielenga on March 5th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
14

Dave - - - - - Here’s a thought on revamping the Press-Telegram: Prevratil to the rescue!!! What do you think? NOT!!!!!!!

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Posted By Juan on March 5th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
15

The City should encourage the Los Angeles Times to do more reporting of Long Beach issues. The Los Angeles Times also owns the following local newspapers: Burbank, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, and Glendale. Long Beach is the 5th largest City in the State yet we are depending on small independent reporting venues like The District Weekly and LBReport for our news.

Is it because the LA Times unlike the PT would insist on independent objective reporting on local issues? The PT had become a propaganda machine for the LB Chamber of Commerce, developers, and special interest groups. The City managers have kept LB in a state of financial ruin so that any sort of development or land usage can be justified to benefit the power elite in LB.
Residents stopped reading the PT because it did not accurately report on their local quality of life issues and the editorials reflected current anti-resident sentiment environment LB.

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Posted By Janis Populi on March 6th, 2008 at 7:21 am
16

I have been a Press-Telegram subscriber for many years. I noticed today that the City of Long Beach is considering pulling it’s advertising from your paper due to decreasing local coverage. I have also been considering dropping my subscription to the recent reductions in the quality of the paper.

First to understand what I look for in a paper: I’m a businessman and investor, and I want a real Business section, not 1 page! Also, my wife and I read the paper together every day, and we share stories that we read with our 3 kids, as we think getting and reading the local paper is a basic part of citizenship. However, due to your vastly decreased amount of news and new format, there is really only 1 section of the newspaper anymore, and we now have to take turns reading it, ruining our morning routine. (I used to give her the front page, while I read what used to be a Business and World News section). The tiny “Life” section, is not interesting to us, and we toss the Sports section in the recycle bin straightaway, along with the copious amounts of advertising. So we have to fight over the meager 12 pages of what’s left, in the front section of the paper.

The last straw for us was your removal of the weekly Wall Street Journal supplement on weekends. At first I thought I just couldn’t find it in all your advertising, but it’s gone.

I’m upset enough, that I bought the LA Times today, prior to canceling my subscription with you, and made some comparisons.

Long Beach Press-Telegram (PT) vs. LA Times (Times):
PROS:
PT has done great articles in the past on port pollution, which is the biggest issue this city faces (I have an asthmatic child, and one with chronic bronchitis, both of which are aggravated by the diesel exhaust and other airborne pollution from the port, and may actually have been caused by it)
PT has local editorial coverage, and should have good local coverage of other news, but this has declined drastically.
PT has political cartoons by Oliphant, commentary by George Will, and local humor by Grobaty, all three of which we enjoy.

CONS:

Times has 700% more business news than the PT: 7 pages vs. 1 page.
Times has an 8-page “California” section, that combined with the Business section, gives me something to read while my wife reads the 15-page front page section. (then we trade) We won’t pay much attention to the Times Food, Calendar, Sports and Highway 1 sections.

SUMMARY:
Times has 30 pages of what we want vs. 12 pages in the PT. Cost of the Times is $145.60 per year vs. $120 for PT, meaning the Times would charge us 4.8 cents per page of news vs. PT charging us 10-cents per page of news.

CONCLUSION:
We will be dropping our subscription, and moving to the Times. Even though we get the Grunion Gazette for free, it’s nothing near the neighborhood paper it used to be, and we toss it straight into the recycling bin when it comes on Thursdays. (Circulation is irrelevant if no one reads it.)

Ron Schweitzer
261 Roycroft Ave.
Long Beach, CA 90803
562-433-5225
RonRecycle@mac.com

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Posted By Ron Schweitzer on March 6th, 2008 at 9:50 am
17

“Dean Singleton loves newspapers” BULLSHIT! If he loved them he’d leave them the hell alone! The reason newspapers suck is because there is no competition because congloms like Pinche Cabron Singleton turn once-competing papers into “sisters.” Then he cuts staff in each newsroom because some other reporter will provide enough copy for 100 papers. Ugh! Before I left in July, I heard through the grapevine he ordered the publishers of each of his mini conglomerations to cut $1 million in costs. The next thing I know, the copy desk — which was the copy desk for THREE papers — moved from West Covina to SAN BERNARDINO, where there were two more papers being published. The geniuses at the newspaper group thought that would cut costs and make it more efficient. Then they figured it didn’t work and brought the copy desk back.

Then out of the blue the publisher, who hadn’t even been there a year, quit. I, along with others, saw the writing on the wall long before then and jumped ship. I wish I could have taken everyone with me.

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Posted By The Commish on March 6th, 2008 at 10:55 am
18

I can believe Dean loves newspapers…..in the same way that a pimp loves his whores.

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Posted By w3 on March 6th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
19

Ron: I like your analysis, don’t like your conclusion though–being told by the doctor we can save you but you’ll lose your right arm. In this case any thoughts and opinions from the center or the right of center will be lost once the Times/Tribune company has more of a corner on the media market. Not that they are in any great shape with all the layoffs they have gone through as their circulation shrinks and advertisers leave.

The print media has been deathly ill for some time and they are mostly to blame. Dinosaurs who have not been able to adapt to new media, make a place for younger commentary and perspective from folks like those who produce The District, poor reporting that often is editorializing, and failure to admit their biases in an age when alternative opinions and reporting are available with a click. I like reading the P-T with my coffee in the morning, I like getting some ink on my fingers, I like being able to shove a section to my wife or the comics to my kids. I do not want to have to do this with the LATimes but alas once the P-T gets buried I will not have much choice. Yuck.

Someone please make Singleton an offer he can’t refuse! As an avid media consumer I appreciate everyone’s comments on this, many very enlightening for me.

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Posted By LBRez on March 6th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
20

W3….great analysis!!!

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Posted By Kris Hanson on March 6th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
21

Thanks chief.

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Posted By w3 on March 6th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
22

Hey LBRez #19… Just so you know, we at The District know very well that there is no substitute for a daily paper, which makes a community better in so many ways. Its constant presence serves as the public’s stream of consciousness and a unifying force. We at The District also acknowledge quite openly that we do not do what daily papers do — including to strive for that elusive concept of “objectivity.” For the most part, what we do might better be described as “point of view essays.” But just because we have points of view does not mean our reports are not truthful. In fact, I believe that any point of view is only as valid as the evidence that is presented to support it. Thus, we research our reports very carefully and present our evidence. You can either agree or not, but along the way you will likely learn something about the issue — something you can use to form your point of view, whatever that may be. I worked for many years at a daily paper (The Press Telegram) and used that “objectivity” model. I think it has its own value, but at the same time it rarely (if ever) achieves objectivity. Why? Because there are so many subjective decisions to be made along the way, beginning with the decision to write a story about one subject and not another. From there, somebody must decide which facts are relevant, whose opinions are relevant (who will be quoted), how much room must be devoted to the story (thus, what to include and what to leave out). Finally, come the decisions about which words to use to tell the story, and that choice very often colors the impression the story gives. Everything is subjective. An example? Go take a look at the Long Beach Press-Telegram in the 1950s. Read the objective stories. Think you know the city? Hmmmm. How many photos and stories are there about African Americans or homosexuals or Latinos? They lived in Long Beach, too, but you wouldn’t know it from the newspaper, objective as it was assumed to be. Anyway, thanks for reading The District — the magazine and the website. We hope to get better and better, including more and more parts of Long Beach via more and more perspectives from more and more people.

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Posted By Dave Wielenga on March 6th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
23

Dave: If my comments seemed negative to The District I did not do a good job of writing them. You folks do a great job and I very much like your “point of view essays”, the points of view are clear and the information available backs them up. I also do not mind that the vast majority of MSM is clearly biased to the left, I just mind that they say they are not and try to come off as objectively reporting facts. It is damn near impossible to objectively report anything, human nature, but when editors and writers try to claim they are unbiased in their coverage and reporting it greatly diminishes their content. When 90% of a press room has voted against the guy at the podium we are suppossed to believe there will be objective coverage? I just wish they would admit it. I give the P-T great credit for their editorial pages and their use of columnists from both the left and the right-I’m pissed as often as I’m pleased which is good it makes me think and ask questions. Papers like the LATimes do not even try to put forth and opposing view and seem to think their news is the final word and readers need to accept and believe as so.

The District, LBReport, LBPost, LBTalkback (which I think needs more input from community) are all great additions to the community of ideas, varying viewpoints and discussions that are only avaible through the internet. Keep up the great work and once again thanks for making this site available to everyone.

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Posted By LBRez on March 7th, 2008 at 9:40 am
24

” In this case any thoughts and opinions from the center or the right of center will be lost once the Times/Tribune company has more of a corner on the media market.”

Huh? I’m confused. I thought these were right-wing rags. Sure they’re not the Washington Times, but Times/Tribune is right-wing printing with a respectable name, right? right?

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Posted By Kelson on March 7th, 2008 at 10:23 am
25

kelson
theres a vast left wing conspiracy to force lbrez to become a gay communist vegan atheist, he may be on to us thought with comments like that;)

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Posted By howardx on March 7th, 2008 at 10:48 am
26

Howie how do you know I am not gay? Every heard of the Log Cabin Republicans? You sure love your labels, must be in the your liberal, “how to label and then dismiss those with whom you disagree.” Kelson: the LATimes and Tribune are right-wing? Seriously? So is Time magazine, right? And the NY Times, I mean they have to be from the right if the LA Times is. Thank you for showing your frame of reference for everyone.

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Posted By LBRez on March 8th, 2008 at 9:25 am
27

i wouldnt be surprised if you were gay, closeted though im sure.

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Posted By howardx on March 8th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
28

Your tolerance of others different than you is astounding. But were I to be a “gay communist vegan atheist” my views would probably still propel you to derogatory and base comments. Why are you so intolerant of views that differ from your own? Isn’t that what a lot of this discussion on the P-T has been about? People looking for different views, different points of reference? Lighten up Howie and enjoy the view from different parts of the mountain top.

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Posted By LBRez on March 9th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
29

You betray a lack of understanding of the full spectrum of viewpoints if you really think the LA Times, the NY Times, Time Magazine, et al are not center-right publications.

Then again, this is a time when there are a lot of people in office who can publically threaten New Deal programs and somehow remain in office. So I can understand why you wouldn’t agree with me on this one.

Hey, it’s you! I’ve responded to you before! Why do I keep falling for this? Maybe you’re the equivalent of a “secret shopper” but from the IWW, checking in with me to see if I give the right answers! Do I pass? Do I pass? Do I get an A?

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Posted By kelson on March 9th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
30

You are cracking me up with the thought that LAT, NYT, TimeMag are “center-right”. I’m the one who does not understand the spectrum? LMAO! Thanks great way to start my Monday! Have a great week.

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Posted By LBRez on March 10th, 2008 at 10:52 am
31

lbrez
im intolerant of the views that have ruined this country for the last 8 years. no apology forthcoming.

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Posted By howardx on March 10th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
32

8?

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Posted By Kelson on March 10th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
33

Anectdotally Kelson, last night none of the main network news shows identified Spitzer’s party and the NY Times had it listed in the 8th paragraph. On the Larry Craig issue leads were “Republican Senator…” and NYT had it opening 2nd sentence. Just like reporting of any scandals, GOP always listed in the lede, Demos if party affiliation listed at all buried inside the news. But there is no bias.

BTW howie how exactly has your life been ruined these past 8 years? Please present us with how you individually have been ruined, suffered, over the past 8 years because of “views” in this country. And I would not expect an apology because from our current and previous exchanges it is seems you may be a lip-service liberal, espousing ideas of equality and openess only when suited to your own ideals. As I said before, label those you don’t like or with whom you disagree so you can easily dismiss them–how convenient for you!

Can’t wait to read your list that has led to your ruination…

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Posted By LBRez on March 11th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
34

you seem to think you have the right to make demands of me, you dont. i would enjoy it if you never responded to a post of mine again, i will do the same for you following this one.

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Posted By howardx on March 11th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
35

Somehow, Mr. LBRez, you conflate the lack of inclusion of Spitzer’s party affiliation with a liberal bias, as if the Democratic party was the definition of liberal, and this favor bestowed upon the party is evidence of a bias.

The fact remains that liberal papers would be covering issues such as the toll of poverty, as it relates to the rigid framework of corporate subsidies provided by the government. Or how federal policies serve to reduce social mobility in this country. Or how large portions of the government remain outside of the system of accountibility that the Consitution affords, in terms of congressional oversight.
Or how countries, such as our own United States, have been making our own laws subservient to the rules of international trade, such that states and municipalities (and their constituent citizens) no longer control their own natural resources.

It could be because many people in this country equate the Decomractic party with liberalism that you have assumed the NY Times has a liberal bias. Too bad, because these papers simply ignore all progressive issues altogether, except when they can do some feature human interes story about a poor person somewhere who gets a free motor to pump a well. Even in those cases, the global contexts are simply ignored.

Just because the Democratic party platform includes improving and leveling access to education and health care doesn’t make it “liberal” per se (though that helps maintain that the party is, indeed, to the left of the GOP). In terms of the spectrum of parties in western countries, the Democrats are pretty much center and even center-right. In this country, there simply is no party that represents the left (though I admit that no such party would likely last very long in this country given that the news media are too biased to the right when it comes to progressive issues). As an example: back when Clinton was president, he gave a speech at some point about how the economy was thriving and becoming more productive “due to worker insecurity.” This was roundly reported without any hints of humor or irony, let alone shock. Welcome to the present-day Democratic party, I guess. Those of us who are really on the left just have to swallow it and vote for them again the next time.

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Posted By kelson on March 11th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
36

Given how you have defined your view of the political spectrum to go beyond the shores and borders of the U.S. I see your point. Thank you for this comment and providing the perspective from which you made your previous comments. I will therefore qualify, within the U.S. and our definitions of “liberal” and “conservative” in relationship to each other within our political spectrum, the media mentioned have a liberal bias. From a global political perspective they show a less than conservative bias. Hows that? Thanks again.

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Posted By LBRez on March 12th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
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To be honest, that is less than satisfactory. For folks like me (and there are more than two or three of us!) that’s a bit like saying that everywhere in the world they may think that 2+3=5 but if you confine yourself to parties in the U.S., we have two parties who argue that 2+3=4 and 4.5, respectively, and one of those answers must be correct since we can only discuss those two answers here within our borders. That progressive issues are kept out of the public sphere rather effectively is not new, of course. And it also means that just because issues are not included in the public discourse, these pressing topics and policy concerns do not exist. It was a long time before social welfare concerns made it to the newspapers, and newspapers and the press always did a great job keeping notions of improved working conditions from the front pages, too. Just like nowadays, when you get little-to-know coverage of the way the policies of our corporations have led to an epidemic of suicides among rural farmers in India (because the policies can be defended as conforming to the trade treaties, countries cannot protect their citizenry against immoral corporate practices). A more local example would be states’ attempts to eliminate the use of MBTE in gasoline. MBTE contaminates groundwater very easily and is pretty nasty stuff — the kind of crap that states have long been allowed to monitor and regulate. However, because of NAFTA (more specifically the way the treaty is written — not necessarily the existence of such treaties on international trade), an international corporation that makes MBTE has sued because these state regulatory attempts create an unfair barrier to trade. There are many examples like this, and the list is growing where local municipalities and states have been losing their abilities to regulate local resources. Anyway, these are all *progressive* issues and they just don’t get covered at a level consistent with their impact on our lives. In the end, the media and the two parties all just want to make sure we just keep buying stuff. One of those parties just happens to also believe in instituting practices that are more in line with my own beliefs when it comes to health care, education, and environmental protections.
By defining progressive views as “outside” out political spectrum you do a a disservice to all those who are fighting to protect *your* drinking water, *your* working conditions, and the safety of *your* food supply.

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Posted By Kelson on March 12th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
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Let me add one more thing: in the above suit with regards to MBTE, it might even be considered reasonable if the suit were in the court system. However, the suit is actually filed with a NAFTA tribunal — so the effect is to completely remove the People’s right to decide the case, but to put the decision in the hands of a group of people who essentially meet in secret. Lovely.

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Posted By Kelson on March 12th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

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