RK ARCHIVE - Two Excellent Blog Posts on the JMDD Mailer; What About the Media?

As far as the corporate/traditional media is concerned, so far the local TV stations have done a decent job, especially NBC 4. Also, the DC Examiner has a pretty good article up, quoting Prof. Larry Sabato calling JMDD's actions "a venial sin." In contrast, the Washington Post inexcusably failed to send a reporter to Chap's press conference yesterday and then wrote one of those "on the one hand, on the other hand" articles that prompts many of us to tear the remaining hair out of our head when we think of the corporate/traditional media.

Luckily, we've got excellent blogs like Renaissance Ruminations and Anonymous is a Woman to help compensate for the corporate/traditional media's failings. Unfortunately, that's still not sufficient, as the largest corporate/traditional media outlets (TV and print) still reach far more readers than the state and local blogs.

Their next test? Will they pick up on the important corruption story about Ken Cuccinelli's extremely shady land deal with a far-right-wing lobbyist who's now off in Mexico doing hallucinogenic mushrooms, not to mention "Cooch"'s failure to pay grantor's tax and failure to put required information on his financial disclosure forms? We'll see, but I'm not holding my breath.

Comments

Amy Gardner Seems to Be Bought & Sold by Tom Davis (Not Harry F. Byrd, Sr. - 10/27/2007 5:18:40 PM)

This is what BLEW my mind in addition to the WaPo piece being the only media piece calling it an "unintentional" disclosure. In the piece on Chap, Amy Gardner repeatedly calls JMDD as "MS. DAVIS." Check it out:

http://www.washingto...

In every other Post article I've found, Gardner has called her "ms. DEVOLITES davis."

4/12/07
http://www.washingto...

6/7/07
http://www.washingto...

8/1/07
http://www.washingto...

Channel 9 calls her "Devolites Davis"
http://www.wusa9.com...

So does Channel 4
http://www.nbc4.com/...

WHY THE CHANGE MS. GARDNER??? How much are you going to bias your coverage? Why don't you just call her MRS. TOM DAVIS???

Lowell, You're Obviously Not A Catholic... (HisRoc - 10/27/2007 5:23:27 PM)

...And you are taking Dr. Larry Sabato's quote out of context. When he said that JMDD's actions were a "venial sin," he was minimizing the offense. Under Roman Catholic belief, there are two types of sin, other the stain of Adam's and Eve's transgression called "original sin." Mortal sin is a major transgression that causes a loss of God's grace until corrected by confession, penance, and absolution. Venial, or forgiveable sins, are much lesser transgressions that impede a soul's relationship with God but that do not result in a loss of grace. What Sabato was saying, in PolSci terms, was that JMDD's mailer was regretable but not unforgiveable.

Once again, our intrepid and earnest blogmeister, Don't Overstate Your Case!

Putting Oneself In Another's Shoes (PM - 10/27/2007 7:18:41 PM)

There are a lot of people in suburbia who live for their kids. It's what gives their lives meaning. Outsiders (and I was once one of them) to the family-with-2.5-kids world don't always understand this.

Thinking about JMDD's flier a bit more, I tried to switch gears mentally until I imagined a favorite politician of mine doing what JMDD did.

Imagine if Jim Webb had done something like that to George Allen (and imagine Allen's kids were small -- which means they are especially vulnerable). I think some, maybe many of us would have walked away from that election.

I don't know if I'm overreacting -- but I would think JMDD's going to lose a lot of support. To me it suggests she's not a very empathetic person.

sane Republicans are refreshing (jsrutstein - 10/27/2007 8:06:28 PM)

Lowell, thanks for pointing to Renaissance Ruminations' post on Carmela-gate (I'm still hoping The Sopranos theme catches on). I encourage others to visit and comment to let Bwana know how much we appreciate a candid Republican. I'd have quibbled with his likely fanciful notion (that I've only seen on rightwing blogs) that Jeannemarie had erased a nine point Chap advantage, but I didn't want to put a damper on an otherwise surprisingly pleasant experience.

Location, Location, Location! (AnonymousIsAWoman - 10/28/2007 1:03:53 PM)

As in real estate, the location of a story is an important sign of bias too.

Besides the way Amy Gardner chose to write the story, what disturbed me more was that it was buried away on page 5 of the local section.

I suspect that if the Post could have completely ignored this story, they would have been happy to do so. Considering that it received major coverage by Channel 4, Channel 9 and Fox, was picked up the the Examiner, and got radio air time, that was impossible for the Post to do. But placing what was obviously considered a major story throughout the region on page 5 of the local section should stand as a major embarrassment to the Post. The editor of the Virginia section should be put on the red carpet for his lapse of journalisitic judgment because, in newspaper terms, this is allowing everybody to scoop you.

And it wouldn't have been done for any other candidate, Democratic or Republican. Just what is with the WaPo and the Davis family political machine?