Friday, November 30, 2007
Tom Toles to the Rescue
Way back in the early 1980s, I discovered the brilliant editorial cartoonist Tom Toles when he was still at the Buffalo News (perhaps because I hailed from near there) and frequently reprinted his work at the magazine I edited then, Nuclear Times. Now he's at The Washington Post and today he bitingly mocks his own paper's front-page story yesterday that played up completely unfounded rumors about Barack Obama being a card-carrying devious Muslim (then claimed it was doing him a favor by letting him deny it). Check out the cartoon at www.washingtonpost.com and my story here http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003679602
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6 comments:
The original article was a disgrace and the fact that the Post is still defending it speaks volumes about the state of that once-proud publication. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Post publish a "balanced" account of the two sides of the flat earth/round earth "controversy."
I am glad the Post is being made to pay a price for this. The same kind of "objective" reporting was done on the Kerry Swiftboat story. By repeating rumors with only a tepid acknowledgment that there is no proof for them, these "journalists" act as an echo chamber for the rumor, rather than a correction to a dishonest smear. At least this time people are speaking up quickly rather than letting the charges go, as they did with Kerry. We all need to be vigilant and respond forcefully to such charges as soon as they occur. And it should not just be when Democrats are attacked. It is better for out democracy if this is never tolerated. Remember the Newsweek GHWB "Wimp" cover? I refused to subscribe to Newsweek after that, and I am a Democrat.
Brilliant response by Toles!
"This discussion has reached a high pitch on the Internet and our editors decided..."
Is this a joke???
Isn't the same distinction they use to NOT run some of the most horrifying stories about Bushco? That they are unsubstantiated internet chatter? Or unproven rumors?
The story looked like something from the NY Post gossip columns, not the Washington Post...on the front page, no less! I certainly hope this is not a harbinger of Swiftboating junk to come.
This was an especially good reponse by Toles.
Bravo to Tom Toles!
The decline of the Washington Post's journalistic standards is one of the tragedies befalling jounalism in the United States.
Harold Shabo
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