Sunday Open Thread

Ogden goes more extremist (4.00 / 1)

Today's Sunday paper is quite redesigned. Instead of the standard "region" section (C), it is now titled "opinion and community". Mike Myer's column is featured on the front page (with a color picture!). In it today, he basically said that hating gay people makes him happy.

We Mountain State residents aren't very healthy in comparison to people in other states. We certainly aren't well-of financially. And in one of the study's gauges, "tolerance," we often score low because, well, too many of us won't give up our old-fashioned ideas of right and wrong."

On the second page of this section, comes the regular Sunday editorials from Myer, himself. Then the columnists: David Broder (whom I can tolerate and respect), Jonah Goldberg (an absolute nobody), Michelle Malkin (a whackjob who is a pathetic spokesperson for her gender and political belief), the ALL NEW Dick Morris (don't get me started), and the ALL NEW John Stossel (a known liar). There's more! Charles Krauthammer and Lawrence Kudlow.

That takes us to page 4: An op-ed by Congressman Charlie Wilson (D-OH-06). A guy from Bridgeport, Ohio (right across the back channel from Wheeling Island). It does contain a picture which is nice and new, but look at the extremism this paper is conveying!

Now, we get to the "letters to the editor" which Mike Myer carefully chooses to print. He rarely prints liberal-leaning letters, and when he does, it's either because a local pastor wrote it or a 9/11 conspiracy theorist is writing.

Today's letters concern a gentleman who calls my man State Senator Jeff Kessler a socialist. The next says Congress Mollohan's vote for the House health care legislation is "bad for seniors". The next demands tort reform in West Virginia from "Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse" (CALA), two local issues, and finally a frequent writer who says the "terrorist trial in NYC wrong".

Are we done? Oh no... the NEW Sunday paper prints twice as many letters as before!

The next one from the YWCA says it was disappointed in the turnout by the public to a local town hall meeting featuring politicians, educators, clergy --- sponsored by the Wheeling Human Rights Commission. Fine.

Now, the whackjob, illiterate, "forger" wannabe politician named Bill Hefner writes:

As I have previously written the governor, the taking of an individual's driver's license for a first offense DUI is excessive.

What's scary is that this particular letter is one of Bill Hefner's more tolerable ones.

The next says we should bomb all the poppy fields in Afghanistan, and the final letter says "test health care bill on Congress".

So that's what I deal with when I get home from church on Sundays --- Mike Myer laying off NEWS writers and printing more guest columnists and letters. This guy mentions in his column that for Thanksgiving, he is grateful for "[having] a job in which [he] can... 'make a difference.'"

Dumbing down the Ohio Valley is what he calls "a difference".

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by: WV26003 @ Sun Nov 22, 2009 at 18:39:03 PM UTC

yikes! (0.00 / 0)

I'm sorry to hear about all that.

I've long since given up on subscribing to the local papers... if I was wealthy with money to burn, I'd buy up (or start) local newspapers and show that people are willing to support better quality with a diversity of viewpoints.

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by: Clem Guttata @ Sun Nov 22, 2009 at 18:58:11 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I don't subscribe (0.00 / 0)

I just happened to come upon one and borrowed the new C section.  

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by: WV26003 @ Sun Nov 22, 2009 at 19:36:17 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Speaking of rightwing publications authored by blowhard know-nothings (0.00 / 0)

Palin's such a quitter that her book tour is already in trouble.

Sounds to me like the Martinsburg Journal has started circling the drain, so that Thanksgiving column you mentioned may be a farewell speech.

I tried to find the column online but I couldn't even find any reference to Mike Myers on their Staff Contacts page, so maybe he's already hit the bricks, at least as far as the Martinsburg Gerbil is concerned.  He is, however, currently listed as Executive Editor on the Wheeling News Register/ Wheeling Intelligencer combined website.

I realize that the Martinsburg rag and the two Wheeling papers are all Ogden-owned cage-liners.  I also noticed that Myers has written quite a bit about the "dangers" of overhauling the health care industry in the Wheeling editions.  Which is only natural, considering that Ogden also provides insurance and financial services.

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by: One Citizen @ Sun Nov 22, 2009 at 21:39:55 PM UTC