I think my head just exploded
The Rocky Mountain News leads today's paper with a frontpage, fawning profile of Tom Tancredo.Mentions of the fact Tancredo is up for re-election this year? Zero. Mentions of Democratic challenger Bill Winter? Zero.
Keep in mind that the Rocky published a puff piece on Tancredo on December 16, 2005, just six weeks ago. And the Denver Post published their own mash note to Tancredo on November 27, 2005.
I already knew Denver's papers had a conservative bias. But today's article borders on journalistic malpractice. Contact the Rocky and cancel your subscription.
UPDATE: Sometimes I blog when I am mad. Now that I am not, I want to give a frontpage response to some of the criticism I got for blasting the Rocky.
First, Tom Tancredo has let his obsession with protecting his version of our national identity preclude any sort of responsibility he has to the people of CD6. Any article that does not admit this upfront is biased.
Second, most people don't critically read newspaper articles. The frontpage photo is clearly pro-Tancredo.
Third, Tacredo has received a lot of press recently. More than Hefley, Musgrave, DeGette or any other congressperson. Some of his press has been good and some of it bad. But the sheer volume of words dedicated to this loudmouth is staggering. It needs to stop. So I encourage everyone to contact the Rocky and let them know that you are sick of Tom Tancredo.
8 Comments:
I think you're overreacting. That was a negative story about Tancredo, and it was about his role in the immigration debate. It wasn't supposed to be about his re-election or Bill Winter. It was about his immigration tour. You should be happy about this story if you support Winter, because it makes Tancredo look like a fool.
I read the story, and while it does ignore Winter, it takes more than a few shots at Tancredo.
On an interesting side note, it was under the byline of Mike Litwin, who just spoke at the same event Coulter did.
Any story that leads with "Tom Tancredo has gone respectable" is immediately suspect. And I have no idea what "shots" the story takes at Tancredo. The renegade who has forced the fatcats in DC to listen schtick is exactly what his people want him to be seen as.
Did you guys actually see the RMN this morning? The whole front page is covered with a glamor shot of Tancredo. And this is the third piece on the guy in two months. What other congressman gets this kind of favorable treatment from the media?
Did you read the article or just look at the headline? The whole article implies that Tancredo, while getting more notice from colleagues, is still too crazy on immigration. Littwin also goes out of the way to note that only a handful of people showed up at each stop and they were all angry senior citizens. It's not a flattering article by any means.
I just posted a scan of the front page of today's Rocky. They are making a celebrity out of him.
Sure they mention some criticisms of him. But only with the caveat that Tancredo enjoys the criticisms and loves to repeat them.
The only real shot is that crack about the Mexican Revolution and the mention that some of the crowds are small. They certainly poke fun at some of his supporters, but that only makes them more loyal to Tancredo.
On the other hand, the article takes shots at "environmentos." And it mentions that Tancredo may run for President in '08 without mentioning his '06 race.
Yes, I am reading this with liberal bias. This blog isn't called coloradomoderate. But the sheer amount of press Tancredo has gotten is offensive to me.
Thank you for posting. Always great to hear other viewpoints.
I'm reading it with a liberal bias too, and I thought it made Tancredo look like a weirdo driving around talking to small weirdo crowds in the middle of nowhere. I hear what you are saying, though.
Can you really get upset over an editorial being biased? Isn't that sort of like saying your blog or my blog is biased?
Ms. J,
But it was on the frontpage, and the story was on 5A - not in the editorial section. While Littwin is a "columnist," this didn't feel like it was being presented as an opinion piece.
I guess what it comes down to is that I am biased. And so anything about Tancredo that doesn't start with the words, "Tancredo is a nut who is about to lose his CD6 seat" feels biased to me. And there have been a lot of these peices recently in the Post, Rocky and DDN. DeGette (or Hefley) do not get this sort of coverage.
Hey, at least I am honest.
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