Friday, February 02, 2007

The N&O flacks for Edwards

Do you know Raleigh News & Observer managing editor John Drescher?

Drescher recently told readers:

”[The N&O’s] reporting was hampered by the unwillingness of the Duke players, their parents and their lawyers to speak to us.
That’s false, as Drescher knows.

It was the N&O which, among other flagrant violations of the standards of truthful journalism, suppressed news of the players cooperation with police; promulgated the falsehood that they were stonewalling; and withheld from readers and the rest of media the news that during her anonymous interview Gail Crystal Mangum had identified the second dancer, Kim Roberts, and made charges about her.

Enough with the Drescher introduction. This post is about the N&O’s flacking for former Sen. John Edwards’

I just sent Drescher the following comment on the thread of the N&O’s Editors’ Blog post: “John Edwards’ new home.”

______________________

Editor Drescher:

You say: “Now Edwards is running for president again. His critics say we give him too much coverage. I disagree.”

The problem is the N&O suppresses, underreports and spins news to help Edwards.

During the ’04 presidential campaign you ran many stories (it seemed like at least one every day) telling readers why Edwards' presence on the ticket was sure to help Kerry in North Carolina.

Some stories even included speculation that Edwards' presence had made NC a "battleground" state.

When President Bush carried NC with a landslide margin as big as the one he received in ’00, you said nothing that I recall about why Edwards was no help to Kerry.

In your story on Edwards' 30,000 sq. ft. mega-mansion, you didn’t ask a single environmental leader what he or she thinks of Edwards’ building such a large home.

Why didn’t the N&O ask a few of its Democratic allies from groups such as the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace to comment on the house?

Readers would have been interested to know what environmental leaders think the house tells us about Edwards’ “commitment to the environmental cause” and his “stewardship of the earth.”

Why didn’t you ask them what effect they thought Edwards’ house would have on global warming?

The N&O’s owner, The McClatchy Company, has a national news staff. Did you ask one of its reporters to contact former Vice President Al Gore to get his opinion of the house?

What about Edwards’ former running mate, Senator John Kerry?

The N&O should have reported what Kerry, who has a total of five large houses and vacations homes, thinks of Edwards’ trying to get by on just one house and one vacation home in a beachfront gated community.

John in Carolina

PS - When do you plan to disclose to readers and the rest of media what the False Accuser said about Kim Roberts during the interview you partially reported on in your discredited Mar. 25 story which you said was about a night that ended in "sex crimes?"














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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

John,

It looks as though Edwards has another problem, that being his main blogger, Amanda Marcotte, who has openly declared the three Duke lacrosse players of being rapists. Like all the other outside enablers, she mangled the facts of the case and then declared that Nifong had "dropped the ball" because he was seeking a "speedy trial."

There are so many things in that line that need addressing, but I think you get the point. John Edwards, the attorney and former law partner of Wade Smith, apparently has hired someone who hates all of the bedrock principles of law. Great choice, Edwards. Tells us everything we need to know about this ambulance chaser.

Anonymous said...

Doubtless you heard the NPR broadcast today

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7138250

Here's what Burness said (my bold)

The President makes his judgments based on what he believes is the right and fair thing to do and that is exactly what he did in this case and those who would allege otherwise simply are wrong.

Here's what Board Chair Robert Steel said in August (my bold)

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060904fa_fact

When Brodhead cancelled the season, he had said that the moment was too serious to be playing games. What he meant, in part, was that Duke could not be seen to be playing games. From the start, Brodhead had been forced to navigate among several potentially hazardous interests—lacrosse parents who felt angry and abandoned by the school, dismayed alumni and donors, the agitated citizens of Durham, the clamoring press—while protecting what is known in the Allen Building as “the Duke brand.” On that fitful weekend in late March when the TV satellite trucks hit campus, the lacrosse team could be seen practicing for the Georgetown game, a scene that became an endless video loop suggesting institutional indifference. “We had to stop those pictures,” Bob Steel says. “It doesn’t mean that it’s fair, but we had to stop it. It doesn’t necessarily mean I think it was right—it just had to be done."

Can't these people at least get their lame excuses on the same page?

Anonymous said...

Can John or anyone shed any additional light on the late March N&O stories? Those stories may have been pivotal to Nifong and his enablers. More needs to be known about the N&O's early rush to judgment.