A subscriber called to complain this morning that "almost every single day" we run a photo of Barack Obama on the front page of the newspaper, and none of John McCain. I told him I thought he was exaggerating. "Go ahead and look yourself," he told me. "Almost every day. It's unbelievable."
Well, I went back through all the papers in a stack going back to July 6, and I counted four photos of Obama and two of McCain. These were all thumbnail mugshots. I also counted three of State Rep. Bill DeWeese, and two each of Fed chief Ben Bernanke and Gov. Ed. Rendell.
I expect some readers to keep track of such things, in hopes of discovering some bias on our part. And I expect some, like this caller, to not even bother to keep track.
By the way, when McCain made a visit to the area (South Park) recently, we had planned to have reporters and a photographer cover his visit, our local coverage of which would have been played on the front page. Unfortunately, the McCain campaign refused to allow our reporters and photographers to attend the event.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Is it me or are people complaining about really stupid things lately?
Too many pictures of him...kids having fun...
Maybe more of the complainers should try a new hobby or spend time with a terminally ill person; and be grateful!
Touche' ----Enough said....
Perhaps what is most sad about this caller's observation is that he or she felt it was so pressing.
Selective memory.
What was McCain's excuse for barring the o-R?
McCain was originally scheduled to visit Southpointe. His campaign people said that media coverage would be by a pool reporter (at a campaign appearance, if you can believe it). Of course, they chose the Post-Gazette to be the pool reporter, and photographer. Then the campaign stop was changed to South Park. We got the pool reporter's notes, which did us little good. Somehow, the Trib was also allowed to be there, perhaps because its editorial board had been granted an interview with the candidate the day before.
In this business, you learn to choose your battles. Had this been a really important news event, not just a run-of-the-mill campaign stop, we would have fought our way in.
Freedom of (some of) the press in action. This is why I favor cellphone cabs & Youtube -- keep 'em honest.
Post a Comment