by Pamela Powers Hannley Local firebrand blogger D.A. Morales (AKA the Three Sonorans), who was ousted from the TucsonCitizen.com for his "reckless disregard for the truth," has joined FOX News Latino. Judging by FOX News' reputation… well, you get the picture. Except for Republicans Attorney General Tom Horne, Former State Senate President Russell Pearce, and … Read more
By Bob Lord I’ve been meaning to write on this piece for a week now, and finally found the time: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/entitlement-reform-for-the-entitled/?scp=2&sq=emanuel&st=Search Here, Zeke Emanuel outlines a proposal to reform Medicare and Social Security by basing the eligibility age on lifetime earnings. The more you earn during your life, the later your benefits would kick … Read more
by Pamela Powers Hannley The Congressional District 8 (CD8) special election debate on Wednesday night was the most boring debate I have ever heard. High school graduate Jesse Kelly repeated the Teapublican talking points faithfully– guns, God, guv'ment– but he forgot the gay part of their message. Former Gabrielle Giffords aid Ron Barber revealed himself … Read more
by David Safier
Before carefully and accurately taking apart Brady McCombs' front page article in the Sunday Star, "Seniors' benefits dominate CD 8 race" (print edition only), AZ Blue Meanie accuses me of being a soft old teacher, always looking for the good in people. Guilty as charged. See, the high school English teacher in me saw a marked improvement in McCombs' article on the Kelly press conference in the print edition over the earlier online version. It went from a C- online to a B+ in print. But then he didn't write a similar article, online or in the print edition, covering the Barber press conference the next week even though he was there taking notes. That's a double F for failure to turn in required work. And as the Meanie demonstrates in detail, today's article creates a false equivalence between the truth and falsehood of a number of assertions made by the Barber and Kelly campaigns.
Grading today's article is bit of a stumper for this old teacher. I'll have give it a B+ for style and readability over a D for giving readers the information they need to separate fact from fiction. Since I prize content over style, the overall grade is a C-.
Eight paragraphs into the article, there's nothing but a simplistic "He said, He said" recitation of the way the two sides portray each other on Social Security and Medicare. Since most readers won't get much farther than that, the takeaway is: Both sides are spinning equally, so when you vote, choose the guy whose looks you like the best.
[Note: I understand this is how articles are structured, moving from the general to the specific. But instead of wasting the sidebar with a list of mind-numbing figures, the space could have been used to summarize the arguments on both sides and to rate their validity.]
BlogForArizona Exclusive: By Dr. Richard Carmona The Arizona legislature pushed bad health policy throughout its session, and Governor Brewer just compounded those mistakes by signing a bill blocking access to contraception. This new law doesn't make any sense — and the harm it will cause the women of our state is startling. There is absolutely … Read more