Ellen Kunz of Neenah, Wis., accused the paper of ignoring local
sentiment against Bush in a letter published Tuesday on the paper's
Web site.
"If you are receiving so many letters, indicating an imbalance of
opinions, it is because your readers feel they need to do your job for
you," Kunz wrote.
"They are telling you that there isn't enough public scrutiny of this
administration's policies and actions."
From The Associated Press, 5/12/04:
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/local/8646623.htm
Newspaper appeals for pro-Bush letters, then backs off request
BY JR ROSS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MADISON -
Faced with a scarcity of letters praising the president, a newspaper
in a Republican-leaning district appealed for pro-Bush letters, then
backed off the request Tuesday amid complaints of blatant politics.
Last week in an editorial, the Post-Crescent of Appleton said most of
its letters had been coming from one side and asked readers "to help
us 'balance' things out."
"We've been getting more letters critical of President Bush than those
that support him," the editorial said.
"We're not sure why, nor do we want to guess. But in today's
increasingly polarized political environment, we would prefer our
offering to put forward a better sense of balance."
On Tuesday, the newspaper with a daily circulation of just over 56,000
ran a second editorial stepping back from the appeal.
Executive editor Andrew Oppmann said the paper's intentions in the May
4 editorial had been misinterpreted.
"Hindsight being 20/20, I can see how invoking the candidate's name
read like 'Hey, let's all jump on the Bush bandwagon,' " said Oppmann,
who pointed out that the paper endorsed Democrat Al Gore in 2000.
"But our intent was just to get more readers participating and telling
people, 'Hey, if you don't like what you read, just write a letter and
we'll run it.' "
The newspaper is in a congressional district that Bush won handily in
2000, beating Gore, 52 percent to 43 percent.
Some newspaper readers objected to the appeal.
Ellen Kunz of Neenah, Wis., accused the paper of ignoring local
sentiment against Bush in a letter published Tuesday on the paper's
Web site.
"If you are receiving so many letters, indicating an imbalance of
opinions, it is because your readers feel they need to do your job for
you," Kunz wrote.
"They are telling you that there isn't enough public scrutiny of this
administration's policies and actions."
________________________________________________________________
Sounds like a district heading out of the Bush column.
Harry
.
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