Comments on: Conservatives Need Higher Standards http://blog.techfun.org/2007/11/conservatives-need-higher-standards/ Linux, Politics, Whatever... Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:23:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: Techfun http://blog.techfun.org/2007/11/conservatives-need-higher-standards/comment-page-1/#comment-173 Techfun Fri, 23 Nov 2007 18:12:55 +0000 http://blog.techfun.org/conservative-need-higher-standards#comment-173 I think the biggest problem with columnists on the right or the left is they are preaching to the choir and the writer is telling them what they want to hear or they are saying things that fit into people's preconceived notions. Since the message confirms what people are ready want to believe they don't look at it critically. Ann Coulter has a history of this and even her book publishers didn't bother to check her assertions: Here's what Coulter wrote in Slander: <blockquote>"The day after seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt died in a race at the Daytona 500, almost every newspaper in America carried the story on the front-page.... It took the New York Times two days to deem Earnhardt's death sufficiently important to mention it on its front-page." In fact, like "almost every newspaper in America," the New York Times published a front-page obituary for Earnhardt the day after his February 18, 2001 death. The lead described him as "stock car racing's greatest current star and one of its most popular and celebrated figures."</blockquote> It was eventually retracted in the next edition of Slander. I think the biggest problem with columnists on the right or the left is they are preaching to the choir and the writer is telling them what they want to hear or they are saying things that fit into people’s preconceived notions. Since the message confirms what people are ready want to believe they don’t look at it critically.

Ann Coulter has a history of this and even her book publishers didn’t bother to check her assertions:

Here’s what Coulter wrote in Slander:

“The day after seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt died in a race at the Daytona 500, almost every newspaper in America carried the story on the front-page…. It took the New York Times two days to deem Earnhardt’s death sufficiently important to mention it on its front-page.”

In fact, like “almost every newspaper in America,” the New York Times published a front-page obituary for Earnhardt the day after his February 18, 2001 death. The lead described him as “stock car racing’s greatest current star and one of its most popular and celebrated figures.”

It was eventually retracted in the next edition of Slander.

]]> By: Will http://blog.techfun.org/2007/11/conservatives-need-higher-standards/comment-page-1/#comment-172 Will Fri, 23 Nov 2007 18:01:32 +0000 http://blog.techfun.org/conservative-need-higher-standards#comment-172 Great analysis, JD! Although this is pretty tame stuff by Ann Coulter standards. It is "correspondents" like her, whether on the left or the right, that even turn off thinking people to U.S. politics. Facts are easy to manipulate and everyone in politics has done it forever, but some do it in ways that seem designed mainly to bring notoriety and fame to themselves at the expense of a rational opinion. -Will Great analysis, JD! Although this is pretty tame stuff by Ann Coulter standards.

It is “correspondents” like her, whether on the left or the right, that even turn off thinking people to U.S. politics. Facts are easy to manipulate and everyone in politics has done it forever, but some do it in ways that seem designed mainly to bring notoriety and fame to themselves at the expense of a rational opinion.

-Will

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