…and it’s not pretty.
My attention was called to the 32nd Legislative District Senate Democrat endorsement in The Stranger. I have not read The Stranger for many years. I had no time for the quantity of uninformed twaddle found in its pages. To the people who called my attention to the endorsement article, thank you for reminding me of why I haven’t bothered with The Stranger for all these years.
Were the endorsement article to be sophomoric drivel, it would be improved. The author may imagine being a crusading reporter, a modern-day Edward R Murrow, uncovering and fighting the evil of a repressive, autocratic, egotistical maniac like Joseph McCarthy. However, if this person even knows who Edward R Murrow was, emulating his role is pure fantasy or delusion, like that of El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha. The repressive, autocratic, egotistical maniacal Maralyn Chase represented in the endorsement article is certainly a product of delusion.
The author, the editorial staff, and the publisher may consider the style of writing exhibited in the endorsement article to be hip, since it extends to other areas of The Stranger, but is far from hip or even acceptable writing, even in the ghetto neighborhoods of Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Boston, et al. It merely reinforces the impression of sophomoric drivel. The author is in no danger of winning a Pulitzer prize for the egesta of this article and may not be in danger of passing the entrance writing exam for Fayetteville State University (https://owlcation.com/academia/The-10-Worst-Colleges-In-America)
The author claims to have been insulted and implies that the article is retaliation. In the first place, Americans tend to be insulted too easily in general. However, a professional journalist should be objective. A professional journalist should not use his/her position of power to carry on a personal vendetta. There is a great difference between being published and being a professional journalist, however, so perhaps one should look to the editors and publishers of The Stranger for the abusive content responsibility.
The author’s use of distortion and outright lies to carry on the personal vendetta from a position of power is unconscionable. If the author is going to set distortion and outright lies to be an acceptable standard, at least study such conduct in publications such as Washington Post of New York times, where bias in such content is at least obfuscated. Whatever the influence that led to the publishing of this reprehensible purgamentum, cash, favors, position, or a stick of bubble gum, the writer and the editors should be a little more discrete than presenting disparaging remarks about both candidates, then endorsing one of them. The discrete way would be having no endorsements for the position. Broadcasting the obvious bias of the writer, the editorial staff, or the publisher is just such an amateur approach.
As a matter of information, I am supporting Maralyn Chase. This is the first political campaign I have ever worked on and only the second I have actively supported, the other being Bernie Sanders. I have a high standard that just has not been met by any other candidates I have encountered. I have been relegated for decades to picking the moderately better or less dreadful candidate. Bernie and Maralyn are a refreshing change from the norm of US politics for the past five decades.
The author and The Stranger editorial staff and publishers are reminded that the power of the press lies with he who owns one…and in the 21st Century, that covers a lot of people.
Thos
-30-