Thursday, September 4, 2008

Complaints and comments

C: Interesting. A day after a historic speech by the second woman VP
candidate in US history, your newspaper chooses to headline your news
article on her speech as " Palin mocks Obama in convention speech." Not
sure if you thought that headline up all on your own or just continued w/
the AP distortion line.
At any rate I thought wordsmith's like yourselves would be interested in
the English definition of "mock". "1. Treat with contempt; "The new constitution mocks all democratic principles"; 2. Imitate (a person, a manner, etc.), esp. for satirical effect; 3. Imitate with mockery and derision; "The children mocked their handicapped classmate".
I guess you are hanging your hat at the " treat with contempt" definition
of the word. Did not see that behavior on her part. On the contrary she
spoke of her opponents experience and positions--not a personal "mockery"
that she has been exposed to for the last 5 days by the news media and
components of the Obama campaign.
I guess this may be beyond your desire, no perhaps ability, but please
in the future do the citizens of Washington and Greene counties a favor.
Please present the news on the front page. Do so in an even hand and leave
the editorials to the second page. We deserve better. - J.M.

A: Our readers expect to see news on the front page of their morning newspaper. Sorry, but "Palin is second woman to be nominated for vice president" would not have been much of a headline because that fact was not news, or at least it was very old news. Our duty was to tell all of our readers who didn't stay up late enough to watch the speech themselves what she spoke about in her acceptance speech. That she mocked Obama for having less experience than she has was the most notable element of her speech.
"Mock" was the correct word, given the tone of her speech.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now I've seen it all--picking apart the headline of her speech, rather than focusing on her obvious lack of qualifications and questionable parenting skills. Has this woman even been outside of the United States?

As much as I admire her for having to have her life disected for this unattainable goal; seems she has her hands full with a new baby and her pregnant daughter.

Maybe Mom should be spending MORE time at home!?

And PLEASE...someone wash Trig's hair after seeing the littlest daughter grooming him with spit from her mouth. Where did she get that from? I'm a Mom to a 16-6 and 6 month old daughters and I have NEVER done that before! YUCK!

Have a blessed day-

Suisun City, CA

Ellipses said...

That last one was really funny :-)

-ellipses

Anonymous said...

A QUOTE BY NONE OTHER THAN PARKER BOROUGHS ON NEWS REPORTING....

"Our job is to tell the story, to report the news."

STICK TO "YOUR JOB". lEAVE THE COMMENTARY/EDITORIALIZATION TO THE PROFESSIONALS.

Park Burroughs said...

First, it's spelled BURROUGHS.
Second, it certainly is our job to report the news. But it is also our job to provide readers with information, and to entertain them, and to provide them with opinion and commentary.
We provide readers with a wide variety of opinion, including our own, in the hope that this with help readers form their own opinions and be able to participate in thoughtful discussion of issues.

Brant said...

Dear Former Subscriber,

To what alleged commentary/editorialization are your referring? We do have commentary and editorial pages. Or is it something else that you have a problem with?

Anonymous said...

If I didn't know better, Former Subscriber sounds like he/she is trying to pick a fight with ORPP. ORPP ain't going to like it ...

Anonymous said...

I would not fight with a six-foot-tall newspaper. It would beat me to a pulp.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like anytime Brant gets the chance, he blows smoke up Parker's Azz.

Brant said...

Actually, I'm just curious about the ex-reader's complaint since I wrote the headline in question, which, Ray Charles could have seen, accurately reflected the story and Palin's speech, which I watched in its totality. Also, you're entitled to your opinions, but they would carry a lot more weight if you had the guts to put your name on them.

Anonymous said...

i thought ray charles died

Brant said...

Which makes it even more impressive. ;)

Anonymous said...

God is love.
Love is blind.
Ray Charles is blind.
Ray Charles is God.
Ray Charles is dead.
You get the idea.