There is no question that local efforts to repeal key provisions of the NDAA and recent editorials opposing those efforts helped galvanize people to participate in a recent demonstration at The World newspaper but the pot had been simmering for a long while. Any organization that resorts to name calling to make a point is deserving of derision although conversely barely worth the bother.
The demonstration allowed an opportunity to bring attention to issues of local concern while pointing out that democracy is alive and well in Coos County regardless of what the editors would like its readers to believe. Democracy does require a fair and open press, however, to be really effective and in the minds of those attending and judging from the honks and thumbs up from passersby many agree The World does not fulfill that necessary role and even mocks the democratic process.
In Saturday’s “Cheers and Jeers” section of the paper the editors gave faint praise to the protest and in so doing confirmed my last statement.
Thanks for reading
We applaud the individuals who took time out of their busy days to assemble outside The World’s offices last Wednesday. Seriously, we do applaud you. That’s what being an American is all about. There are too many places in the world where where such an assembly couldn’t possibly happen.
A term “cheap grace” was coined in the early 1900s to denote taking the easy route to convincing oneself you are doing the right thing. Cheap grace can be likened to covering your car with support the troops magnets to make yourself feel good and to give the appearance you support the troops whether or not you actually do anything to support the troops. Cheap grace is like taking communion without the confessional. The paper applauds the demonstrators because such an assembly is what America is all about and too many places wouldn’t allow it. So the paper gets to sound all patriotic and pro-democracy without actually being patriotic or engaging in democracy… in other words, cheap grace.
The real dig, in my opinion was the headline, “thanks for reading”. What they are really saying is it doesn’t matter what they write we still read it anyway and they aren’t going to change, not for us, not for democracy. Business is not a democratic construct and The World is a business first a newspaper second.
Someone told me that one of the reporters said they do not consider MGx news. On this we can agree, I do not consider MGx a competitor of The World because we do totally different things. MGx may publish things that are news to some but what I try to do is provide analysis of reports published at news organizations and pubic meetings or at least raise questions that invite public debate about complicated issues, something the paper does not do. In my opinion, much of the reporting at The World is not news either and is more like press releases but that seems to be what passes for reporting in many papers these days.
For democracy to thrive we need a free press and so I hope more and more citizen journalists and activists work to pick up the slack left by papers like The World. Meanwhile, the paper still has the biggest bullhorn around but I will attempt to stop reading the editorials as long as people don’t send them to me and I encourage everyone else to do the same. Support alternative independent media and support democracy.
Ha ha, I quit even my limited perusal of the World a long time ago…around the time Al & buddies were championing ORC and the “living wages, good schools and safe communities” that the mining company would bring. How’d that mining=jobs thing work out for us?
Good advice, Mary. Since you were the one who got loose with the facts in the first place, providing Aghast with an out is probably the least you can do. But seriously – this banter has been going on for three days and all you have is “trust me – it’s there”.
For such a busy CEO you sure spend a lot of time on pointless niggling. You have had your run, Al, but you are just boring and you don’t contribute anything useful to the conversation. Find another blog, you will not be able to post here any longer.
par·a·site
ˈparəˌsīt/Submit
noun
1.
an organism that lives in or on another organism (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the host’s expense.
You can find the link to your comments about public employees “living off the back’s of others”, the very definition of a parasite here –
http://mgx.com/blogs/2011/08/23/structure-committee-member-thinks-public-employees-are-parasites/
You know, M, Al was pretty entertaining. I hope you didn’t ban him because of me
Entertaining sometimes but most of the time boring and just looking for a tit for tat battle. Dull, dull, dull and tedious and unproductive
Aghast – not only can you not provide the proof of your earlier “quotes” but now you’ve gone off and accused me of calling you a liar!
More of the same!!!
aghast!, don’t bite. Everyone else remembers and he is being deliberately or naturally obtuse but you have to give him credit, he does it really well
Aghast! – since you can’t provide the locations for those “quotes”, a simple apology will do.
Thank you.
I don’t have to provide locations to you, al but for anyone else who might have forgotten read Al’s letters to the editor in the Register Guard and his comments on this blog about a year ago.
You can apologize anytime Al for having a short memory and for calling me a liar
YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH !!!!!
How’s that for a truth Little One?
Aghast! – Exactly the kind of comment that demands apology. You quoting a couple of Mary’s literary liberties simply compounds the problem on this blog. Too much conjecture and not enough facts and truth.
You are pretty pathetic to not even know the meanings of your own statements. It’s all on the internet for everyone to see so deny it all you want, it is still out there
How sweet, Al is still trying to BE SOMEBODY isn’t he? Poor little feller. You KNOW they are worried when they send Fredo out.
What a crock of crap that “Cheer” is. “Thanks for reading”? The headline in no way relates to the stated “cheer”. Says volumes about the new editor. To me it reads – I don’t care. Regarding the penultimate paragraph above – any person who still must buy that paper should compare the timeliness of “news” reported here and in the paper. Compare the article content. Where is the emphasis on local news promised by all seven editors employed by that paper during the past ten years? Who really believes that Walworth and Campbell worked their entire professional life so they could end up in the boonies with a thing masquerading as a newspaper? And there are more people carrying the title editor at that paper than at the NY Times. Count the number of daily retread (news that you got days ago on the Internet) AP stories vs local factual news on each page of the paper. For ten years I have said that John Gunther who gives us a quality and timely product should be the papers leader.
“Any organization that resorts to name-calling to make a point is deserving of derision although conversely barely worth the bother.”
Is this a confession and apology?
From the guy who accused public employees of being parasites and called magix a dog. You can’t blame magix for the comments made on her site