I like and admire her a great deal. So it is painful and troubling to know that she is now sick with lung cancer, and that she has that battle to fight from her bed.
But since Dan Carpenter in the Star yesterday referred to the "often vicious" treatment Rep. Carson received from bloggers, I feel a tiny obligation to enter the fray.
The blogs were in fact the only early and consistent truth-tellers about Carson's repeated health problems. The blogs addressed concerns, which now we know were valid, that she was extremely unwell. Before there were blogs, it was readers who called the Star, demanding coverage of the fact that Carson missed, at various times, so many votes in Congress. It was readers who got that story out in the open, not the Star's Washington bureau.
A friend has referred to the treatment Rep. Carson has received at the hands of her many "supporters" as elder abuse. Carson, my friend says, was kept propped up by a staff and others who, it seems, may have had their own best interests at heart -- keeping the machine going, staying in power.
I don't know if that is true. Far be it from me to discern the workings of either Rep. Carson or those who love her.
I do, however, absolutely believe that the Star has been negligent in covering Rep. Carson's efforts to do her job in Congress. I do believe that the newspaper has been her enabler. It is one thing for longtime friends and staff to protect the congresswoman, and quite another for the state's largest newspaper to continually print positive spin without taking a hard look at the facts.
If the blogs were vicious, it was, perhaps, only because they were trying to do the job the Star should have done.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Holladay: Star Acting As Carson's Enabler
Former Star columnist Ruth Holladay defends blogs like this one for seeking for more than a year now to expose the truth about Rep. Julia Carson's health, which she and her staff have gone to great pains to hide from public, and she criticizes the Star for acting as Carson's enabler in hiding the truth from the public. Holladay takes notable exception to Star columnist Dan Carpenter's absurd suggestion in his column yesterday that the blogs have been vicious towards Carson on this point. Carpenter would have fit right in with the reporters in the 1960s who covered up all the Kennedy scandals in the name of protecting Camelot. She writes:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
Ruth's column is compassionate. Perhaps Ms. Carson was a victim of elder abuse by those around her. I have personally witnessed abusive borderline violent behavior by individuals in the machine. And it is no secret that they will play dirty to keep power.
It's columns like Dan Carpenter's among other things that continually show the decreasing credibility of the Star.
They became the cheerleaders for Mayor Peterson during his campaign, so much so Peterson's late TV ads were just quotes from the Star.
They "reluctantly" endorsed Julia Carson in 2006 even though Eric Dickerson was a much better choice. Then the infamous meltdown in front of Matt Tully on Channel 13.
And of course 2007 they endorsed without even bothering to talk to the opposition.
Now why is it people read and believe us bloggers before the MSM?
Well, Hail, part of the reason is simple: blogs are new. To most of us anyway. And they're not understood by many.
That number is growing, but...
As long as there are blogs like IndyU around...the opinion will continue to be low.
And as long as things are posted like your sentence, insinuating the Ballard folks were not interviewed for Star endorsement, when the complete opposite is true, well...blogs have some ground to make up.
I rarely like what the Star prints, but I read it, online of course, because I won't give them my money. So add to the ever-changing media world, the decline in newspaper ad revenues, becuase of folks like me, who used to read three papers a day in print. Now, it's all online.
Blogs don't have the same standard of truthflness in reporting. They just don't. If you find a blatant error in the mainstream media, for the most part, they correct it. I'm not talking about disagree-ments over opinion. I'm talking flat-out errors.
Blogs are a toddler in the media world. They're growing and expanding rapidly.
Mainstream media has a long history. It'll take time for blogs to catch up.
This blog is a prime example. I don't always agree with Gary. His pre-election diatribes against Peterson were tired and repetitive.
But I always read them. And I got the strong sense, if he were to have printed anything false, he'd have corrected it.
I filtered his opinions through my own decision-making process. I ended up about 50-50 on the municipal elections, victory-wise.
This blog, and others, were a vital part of the total media exposure I got. For some, I think it's the only exposure.
If you don't look at more media, especially the ones that challenge yuor beliefs, you're likely to get caught in a thought warp. Try Pat Robertson's Christian News Channel for instance. The news there is blatantly slanted and often flatly untrue. Presented in a very slick format, looking much like evening news on TV.
But if that's your ONLY news exposure for the day, well--see where it can go?
Thank God we still have a nation where freedom of expression is so valued. We're lucky.
"Now why is it people read and believe us bloggers before the MSM?"
Us bloggers? There are many respected and believed bloggers out there and AI is one of them but please don't include yourself Hailstone.
"And as long as things are posted like your sentence, insinuating the Ballard folks were not interviewed for Star endorsement, when the complete opposite is true, well...blogs have some ground to make up."
Did I say Ballard? Tell me where I said Ballard! I was not even referring to Greg Ballard. Put down the blunt. It's altering your perception of reality.
"Us bloggers? There are many respected and believed bloggers out there and AI is one of them but please don't include yourself Hailstone"
Spoken like a true Anonymous Coward. Is this Wilson posting as an Anonymous Nobody?
Anon 4:16
"And as long as things are posted like your sentence, insinuating the Ballard folks were not interviewed for Star endorsement, when the complete opposite is true, well...blogs have some ground to make up."
Hailstone said
"And of course 2007 they endorsed without even bothering to talk to the opposition."
I think HAIL was talking about the Republican CCC Candidate who did not get interviewed by the Star - Not Ballard.
Anybody else notice Wilson's deafening silence on the blogs as of late. Guess the machine finally told him to shut his mouth huh?
Anyone who knows Wilson knows that no one could convince him to close his mouth. ..........as outrageous as he sometimes is, he is nothing compared to the wingnut venom spewing hatemongers on INDY UNDERCOVER
Dumpster diver is posting on Ruth's blog calling us names. Exactly what I expected.
416, blogs are not new. That is like saying YouTube is new. Everybody knows they exist it is just where blogs are fact finding YouTube appeals to the video-driven generation who have limited attention span.
Look, confirmation from Wilson:
Congresswoman Carson is dying
What part of "terminal lung cancer" didn't you understand from the newspapers?
Post a Comment