Media Sane Letter of the Day
posted by on October 29 at 19:28 PM
The Seattle Times was in dost-protest-too-much mode today regarding its Mike McGavick endorsment. There’s an editorial by James Vesely explaining the endorsement process … plus an article by Mike Fancher tediously explaining the division between editorial and news.
The separation between editorial and news (yawn) and the Seattle Times endorsement process are both way off point when it comes to the criticism—at least the one I made —of their McGavick endorsement. The criticism was this: The endorsement contradicted basically all of the board’s previous editorial postions. In short, they failed to explain why they liked McGavick better.
Anyway, I was cc’d on this letter to James Vesely today:
Dear Mr. Vesely,I read your column this morning with great interest. I realize that the Seattle Times has been taken to task by many in the local and national media for the paper’s election endorsements and understand your need to respond to the accusations of these critics.
I am afraid, however, that your characterization of their key complaint misses the mark. The reason that they attribute other “motives” to the Seattle Times’ endorsement decisions is not because they disagree with them, it is because they are poorly written and the arguments are insufficiently justified. Such gaps in logic inevitably lead readers to conclude that there are issues in play other than those suggested in the text.
When I was a young lad, my teachers always instructed me to “marshall my evidence to buttress my conclusion.” This is what you and your cohorts at the Seattle Times have failed to do, leaving yourselves open to such accusations of dishonesty. And I am not sure what to make of your “boil and simmer” technique — it would seem a poor analogy for any cognitive process and certainly no recipe for structuring an argument. It sounds more like a means of obfuscation or mental disintegration.
Jim Demetre
Publisher & Editor
Artdish
Hear, hear, Mr. Demetre.
a fancher article tedious? who knew?
How's it goin Josh? We're almost wrapped up here; there isn't a classic rock celebration of November, is there?
Alright to business: the link of your article (...THE ONE I MADE) concludes with my favorite quote of yours, "Unfortunately, they failed to tell readers what 'most of it' is."
Isn't it actually "Fortunately"? I mean, how else could you feel proud of your dilligent reporting if they didn't provide such "outlandish" convictions?
No, I'm not Your definition of sane.
Vesely never once mentions the Estate Tax in his commentary, which is the other criticism that has been made about these endorsements.
So the Seattle Times Editorial Board agrees with Maria Cantwell on almost all the issues and praises her job performance, but they endorse Mike McGavick, without any justifications, based on their "gut."
It's sad that politicians and the media today have been reduced to open, shameless lying. What a disgrace.
Jim Demetre certainly had a much more adult response to the article than I did; I read that "boil and simmer" bullshit, and Fancher's article, then threw the paper down screaming, "What a load of horseshit!" I then went and started a fire in my woodstove with that section.
I wish the Times would quit whining and snarking about how people are picking on them for their poorly-justified and poorly-thought-out endorsements and just have the courage of their convictions. They need to stand up straight and tall and say, "We can't see anything of any particular value in Mike!, but he's anti-estate tax, so Frank told us we had to endorse him, and you all can just shut up about it."
I cc'd Mr. Feit because Mr. Vesely is too hen-hearted to answer his questions on the phone or address his charges directly on the pages of the Seattle Times. By choosing to disparage the "checklist" method of making endorsement decisions -- a not-so-veiled reference to Mr. Feit's sound, Aristotealian approach -- without explaining his own decision-making process, Vesely reveals not only his foolishness, but also his cowardice.
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