Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Bias at the Moscow-Pullman Daily News

Moscow-Pullman Daily News publisher Nathan Alford has repeatedly extolled to me the virtues of free speech and the press. But is the press at the Daily News free of bias?

You read these examples and tell me:

  • In 2005, a letter to the editor from Ed Schweitzer endorsing Wal-Mart was sat on until the day after the Pullman City Council election in which a PARD member was running. The Daily Evergreen published the same letter two weeks before.

  • A reporter from the Daily News wanted to cover my visit to the Wal-Mart Home Office in April 2006, but an editor killed the story.

  • A BREO press release last year about a petition from a group of seniors in favor of Wal-Mart was never covered.

  • Libelous and defamatory comments from PARD members and sympathizers are allowed to be posted and remain posted at Dnews.com in the name of the "Safe Harbor."


  • So when a reader of this blog wrote a rebuttal to Chris Lupke's latest insane rant against me, what did the Daily News do? Bury it.

    Oh, every letter to the editor trampling out the vintage where the sour grapes are stored from Lupke, Orlich, Damm, et. al. gets published. But here's the letter sent in a few weeks ago that you haven't seen in the Daily News:
    I read with interest the letter from Christopher Lupke dated July 5, 2008. In the letter he claims the salary he makes is inaccurate. The information on salaries comes from http://lbloom.net/wsu07.html. The information on the web site is gathered from the Washington State Office of Financial Management and is for 2007. I checked both the salary for my husband and myself. According to the website, both were listed correctly. When the list first came out, I also discussed this site with friends who work at WSU and they agreed that the information was correct. Therefore my question is this…is your listed salary too high or too low, Mr. Lupke? Or is it that you are embarrassed to be earning that much money for only nine months of work? According to Mr. Forbes figures the average Pullman family earns $40,709 a year. It certainly makes it difficult to claim non-elite status when you are earning approximately 54% more for nine months of work than the average Pullmanite makes in a year.

    As for the comment, “This pig needs to be removed from the trough.” It was written by a commentator to the blog, not Mr. Forbes personally. Many people can post to blogs. This is just a typical example of taking something out of context for your own personal end. Rather similar to what PARD did to Pullman for the last few years by their unseemly lawsuits and their claim of representing the common people of Pullman. At any rate, the comment was meant to show some professors are elitists and make far too much money for the work they do.

    If you want the healing to begin, PARD should apologize for holding Pullman hostage and putting our tax base in jeopardy.
    I expect this kind of crap from the puerile Watermelon. But a paper run by level-headed adults? I think we can find a better local newspaper.

    9 comments:

    Red said...

    You left out a few, Tom.

    PARD sweatshop protest. Covered.
    Architorture protest. Covered.
    Tree Nation protest. Covered (in today's paper.)

    I'm sure I could go on.

    Unknown said...

    Good catch.

    It's also looking like the financial scandal at the Whitman County Democrats will receive no coverage either.

    But that's okay. Despite what certain Town Criers have to say, bloggers ARE journalists, and I will cover the story if no one else does. People deserve to know the truth.

    Scott M. said...

    It just seems like they are out to get you. They never interview you or mention the blog. They always let Loopke bad mouth you and don't allow anybody to say different.

    Man, there blogs are boring. Why can't they get you to help? I guess they are jealous.

    I', wishing you a late happy birthday! Your still just a young pup!

    Unknown said...

    Here's the latest. The Daily New contacted me to say that the letter to the editor above was "never received."

    Hmmmm. It reminds of the time when libelous comments about me on Dnews.com mysteriously disappeared and then reappeared and Nathan Alford attributed it to "computer error."

    Scott M. said...

    I'm just embarassed more of us haven't stuck up for you by writing letters ourselves.

    April E. Coggins said...

    I had a letter a couple of years ago that wasn't published. I know they received it because I received an email reply thanking me for the letter. It was during a time that the DN took up to two weeks to publish letters because they had so many.

    Satanic Mechanic said...

    Tom,
    Don't let the Daily News get you down. It's just the ugly little sister of the Lewiston Tribune.

    Unknown said...

    I have given up on the Daily News. They have allowed their print and online pages to be hijacked to settle personal scores that have nothing to do with the community as a whole.

    Chris Lupke's recent letters and Lupke's, Matthew Root's and Chuck Pezeshki's online comments are directed at things that are said ONLY at this blog. I don't mind the publicity, but I can't see dragging everyone else on the Palouse into it.

    If they had any cojones, they would post their responses here, where they belong, or get up off their butts and start their own blog, ihatetomforbes.com (the URL is available.) But no one would bother reading.

    Red said...

    I agree. The MPDN should tell them to take it outside.