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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Outcry over Outing
To the editor: Jeff Prince’s Metropolis story, “Sex, Politics, and Journalism” (May 31, 2006), was a great exposé regarding the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. They’re losing subscribers, advertisers, and the integrity that was once the cornerstone of their success as a newspaper. They now pander to political groups and organizations that contribute to their avarice. To hell with objectivity, diversity, and a balanced editorial board, which seems to be an anomaly if ever exercised at this juncture in their journalistic protocol.
The Star-Telegram borrowed from the National Enquirer mentality and wanted to sensationalize Mr. McBee’s “outing” to sell newspapers. What’s behind their closet doors, other than a repertoire of vitriol?
Pat Patton
Fort Worth
To the editor: The Star-Telegram has hit an all-time low. It seemed that Louis McBee’s qualifications were not mentioned so much as his sexuality. Talk about mud-slinging and demonizing someone on an issue even his opponent didn’t bring up!
I have seen Mr. McBee at Eastside functions but never met him personally. Danny Scarth is in a wheelchair, and for anyone to judge him on that issue would be offensive. Both candidates presented their qualifications in the Meadowbrook News, and at no time did either candidate bash the other. The Star-Telegram acted differently.
I have never liked the Star-Telegram because they are so biased. This had to be the most hateful thing this paper has ever done. Mr. McBee’s private life is his business and no one else’s. I hope that someday Louis will run for mayor and win it.
Eric G. Bingham
Arlington
Biblical Recruiting
To the editor: I was at the induction center in the federal building in Dallas that Laray Polk refers to in her letter “Keeping Us Safe from Citizens” (May 31, 2006) about a year ago to witness an induction ceremony. The room where recruits sit to read and sign their papers overlooks Dealey Plaza and is filled with desks like those so many of us sat in during public school. On most of those desks there was a Bible — no, not a Bible, just a New Testament — with camouflage-design covers in different colors, mostly desert camo.
Could this help explain why our soldiers are murdering innocents in Iraq?
Gerald Blow
Dallas
Up with Thrift Art
To the editor: Regarding your Kultur column about thrift art (“Story-Fronts,” May 24, 2006), I’ve been into this for over three years. Kudos to you on the “knocking down of walls” verbiage. I think that making art accessible to all is the key, and I hope I’m contributing to that in my small way. I sincerely feel our galleries are the same in North Carolina, trying to train folks about what is “art” and telling them what they should like.
I had an opening on Friday, June 2, in Greensboro. I’ll let you know the outcome. Much of this art is getting a “second chance.” Thanks again.
Larice White
Artists’ Resource Center
Greensboro, N.C.
Blogs Forever
To the editor: I am certain that the staff of Fort Worth Weekly and Prof. Tracy Everbach are pleased that her “Second Thought” column for this week (“Blabosphere, June 7, 2006) has been making the rounds among Texas’ lefty bloggers. However, I feel you and she would be less than pleased with most of what has been said about the column.
For my money, Everbach’s piece has some kernels of truth: I can argue neither with her Pew Internet & American Life Project statistics nor with her statement about “gossip, scandal-mongering, and trivial pursuits” (although I disagree with her application of those descriptors to a majority of the blogsphere). With just about everything else she has to say, however, I am in total disagreement.
Since she bemoans the “era of corporate media, watered-down news, and pompous pundits,” I find it puzzling that the majority of blogs she mentioned are (with the exception of the well-written Dallas Blog) creations of that “corporate media” filled with “watered-down news” and written by “pompous pundits.”
I know for a fact there are many other weblogs in the Metroplex that are both widely read and full of far better content than what one might see on the corporate media blogs.
A letter to the editor is not the proper format to give publicity to these blogs, but I assure you they exist. (I met many of the bloggers in Fort Worth this weekend.) If you would like to see them in action, please visit my blog (www.CapitolAnnex.com), as most are linked there. Furthermore, the vast majority of blogs I read on a daily basis (and I’m a former mainstream journalist) do in fact include original reporting, thoughtful commentary, and a host of other features that are more along the lines of what the professor seems to think blogs should do. Toward that end, need I remind her and the Weekly that it was bloggers and not mainstream journalists who broke some of the most important stories from the 2004 election cycle? Let’s hope not, since she is a professor of journalism.
As one of the more than 20 bloggers from across Texas who visited Fort Worth this weekend and worked as credentialed media at the Texas Democratic Party Convention, I find Prof. Everbach’s column less than a warm welcome. I encourage her to visit many of the fine political blogs Texas has to offer and then, perhaps, write a more informed and balanced column.
Vince Leibowitz
Grand Saline
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