Open Left

actually one column from Santorum is a good reason (0.00 / 0)

I moved to Philadelphia three years ago and always thought it was a bad paper even before Rupert-Murdoch-Wannabe, Brian Tierney took it over.  If I'm going to pick up one of the locals, I'll choose the tabloid-style Daily News, because it at least knows what it is and doesn't make any pretensions that it is anything but an outlet for local scuttlebutt.  At least it doesn't mince words when the city does something boneheaded.  

I can say without a doubt that if I had been reading it and saw them giving a platform to Santorum, I would have stopped buying it the very next day.  I subscribed to Newsweek for many years, but will not renew after they gave a platform to Karl Rove over the last 6 or 8 months.  I also thought they were completely irresponsible to recently put out a cover issue declaring "we are all Socialists now."  Nothing that is going on in this country is socialist; that is clear if you just read explanations on the various political ideologies on Wikipedia.  The only motivation for doing a cover piece like that would be to stir up the crazies.

I agree with Arianna Huffington, passionately, that the media instigates the Red State/Blue State divisions, by insisting on turning everything into an issue with a conservative or liberal "side".  Not everything is ideological, in fact, most things within the realm of journalism should be simply fact-based.  For instance, climate change does not deserve right and left opinions.  It is scientific fact and the things we should do if we're serious about combating it are factual as well.

Getting back to the original subject, Rick Santorum, since he was once my Congressman, I know that very little of what he says has any basis in fact, and therefore does not belong in any outlet that categorizes itself as news.

The Inquirer is done, and it deserves its fate.  The real writing talent in Philadelphia is working for the alternative weeklies and is blogging.

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by: alanclifton @ Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 13:43:36 PM CDT