Tag Archives: Local Media Sucks!

Ginger Gibson Moving On

We knew that after the national media got a look at Ginger Gibson, she wouldn’t be long for this one-horse town.  We got a tip that she has accepted a position with the Newark (pronounced new-irk) Star-Ledger in New Jersey.  This is a shame for Delaware, as she was one of the good reporters over at the News Journal.  Her coverage of the exploits of Christine O’Donnell have garnered her national media attention in the past few weeks.

But prior to that, Ginger has been a good reporter doing the grunt work that is required to cover Delaware politics.  In addition, she has been a pioneer at the News Journal in the effective use of Twitter and Facebook.  I hope that the News Journal will replace her with someone with an equal amount of integrity and tech savvy.

The Perennial Sloppiness of the News Journal Editorial Page

Let us count the ways:

1. Sunday’s paper had a couple of UD Professors of Economics firing up the noise machine for tax cuts to stimulate the economy. Even though two rounds of tax cuts moved the entire budget from surpluses to deficits — and structural deficits at that — that absolutely, positively never paid for themselves. Not in terms of government revenues, not in terms of GDP growth, not in terms of market growth — the only things that grew during this period were the wars we fought (not paid for), the incomes of wealthy people (who got a river of taxpayer money) and the housing bubble (nuff said). There’s a reason why these guys had to do this on a editorial page. And all of you kids out there looking to study economics? Keep away from these two guys. Or even better — ask them to show their homework in explaining how the last tax cuts paid for themselves and employed tons of people overnight. If you can get them to explain it, we’ll post it up here.

2. Who does their cartoons? There is one up on their website now called Corp[sic] (of Engineers) Values. For the life of me I can’t figure out what this is supposed to be saying. Maybe its the doodle quality of the thing (which most of them have). Really NJ, pay the fee to put up Rob Tornoe’s work and double the collective wit on your page.

3. Then there’s Harry Themal’s piece today where he doesn’t seem especially clear on the point that reconciliation is not going to pass the entire health care reform bill, but it will be used to pass the compromise fixes to the Senate bill if the House can pass it. But even better, he talks with our Congressional delegation about the dysfunction in the Senate. Carper doesn’t seem to think that the rules need changing, Kaufmann thinks they should change with each new Congress (they already do) and Castle delivers the kind of BS pablum that gets him his “moderate” cred:

“With true compromise and civility, there would be less need to consistently block the efforts of the other party by holding up a vote or blocking amendment consideration as is so common today.

The next question should have been — And what have you done recently in the House that might demonstrate to people that you’ll be committed to *compromise and civility* rather than what Mitch McConnell wants? Because really, voting mostly with your party certainly doesn’t provide any evidence of compromise. And really, journalists, you have to start asking this question and stop making pretend that Mike Castle has any moderate cred left. A man who has been voting largely with his party should be quizzed in detail on how his behavior will be different in the Senate. Because more of the same obstructionism is not what anyone needs.

Kowalko on TV Tonight

This evening, WHYY debuts their new Delaware-oriented news magazine “First”.  This is apparently a replacement for their daily “news no one watches.”

On the debut episode, John Kowalko is featured to discuss the state budget mess (past, present and future).  Tune in at 10:00 to see what’s happening in Delaware and get some insight from John Kowalko.

Why The News Journal Sucks!

I don’t know if you missed it, but DelawareLiberal has been mentioned in the News Journal twice in the past two weeks.  Both times, we were trotted out to smack us around.  The most egregious was the mention on Sunday about our recent change in personnel.  The mention went out of its way to talk about little BS issues, rather than the things that really matter.  For example, how hard would it have been to weave together the apparent unmasking of Kavips with the unmasking of a blogger by the courts earlier in the week?  But instead, they would rather discuss stupid stuff.

The other mention seems trivial, but it is a little more insidious.  Smitty saw it and pointed it out to us.  The discussion of DL was that we were trading in baseless rumors.  What was ignored was that the post in question went up at 6:25PM on August 6th.  This was just minutes after we got the tip (it came in at 6:15).  As the post was being typed, I was on the phone with the Coons administration to get confirmation.  Coons’ office denied it outright and I let the team know that it had been denied.  21 minutes after the original post (and 30 minutes after the tip), we had updated the story and informed our readers.

Why misrepresent our reporting? How long does it take the News Journal to update their information?  I just wonder if they are taking pot shots at us, or they just don’t understand how this series of tubes work?

Kowalko Suits Up For Battle

John Kowalko has been fighting tooth and nail with the Governor (against the across-the-board pay cuts) and against the Republicans that don’t think that we should increase a single tax (even a small tax on alcohol and a larger one on cigarettes).  But now, it’s crunch time.  By midnight Tuesday they need to have a solution.

This administration has unfortunately chosen to misrepresent “fairness of burden sharing” and refused to address the avenue of seeking relief from the wealthier corporations in Delaware. It seems apparent that the News Journal has decided to ignore the reality of the discourse and only publish the slanted, fear-inducing perspective that misreprersents reality. An honest accounting of all sides and positions being taken in this debate would better serve the interests of all the people and businesses of Delaware rather than a selective attempt to influence and distort the reality of this very serious problem.

Specifically, he is asking for a correction from the News Journal, which seems to be taking liberties with the facts.

Your recent article on “Tax Hikes” in the Sunday News Journal presents a false, misleading and harmful slant as to my motives in fighting the proposed State salary cuts and supporting tax increases. My wife has never been a public school teacher nor does she receive a state pension. She works in the private sector and no one in my family works as a state employee other than my position as a legislator.

I am not retired, nor eligible for any pension. My motive in fighting for a true “fair shairing” of the pain is a responsible look at economic consequences of our actions. I also stated to the reporter that we must look at revenue contributions from the corporate sector first, not from individuals. The corporations that I referred to are 1500 of the richest companies incorporated in Delaware with a minimal stock asset value of $660 million. I would be curious to see the family incomes and connections of all those other persons quoted in the article.

It’s on.

Wrong Williams Channels Seinfeld-Writes Column About…Nothing

El Somnambulo is suing Williams for the 2 minutes of his life he wants back after wasting it reading his quote column unquote this morning. 

‘Bulo will not provide a link b/c it will only encourage Williams to continue writing the thinnest gruel around, and he doesn’t wish to inspire further lawsuits or wastes of time, for that matter. Even though he opposes ‘tort reform’, ‘bulo favors ‘columnist reform’.

Williams wastes about 16 column inches writing about the amazing coincidence of bumping into 2 long-lost friends in Delaware. Seriously, that’s the column. Because that’s never happened before to any of us in Delaware. Except every week.

Actually, the Beast Who Slumbers is being unfair to Williams. He only wasted about 14 inches on that story. He does unsheathe his mighty journalistic sword (2 inches is more than enough room for Williams to unsheathe his mighty sword) to praise a former Delaware cop who ‘Coons ran out of town for political reasons’. Seems that he’s working wonders in Bluffton, S. C. (Pop. 3300, Tip of the ‘Bulo Sombrero to Geezer). We get it, Ron. Gordon=Good, Coons=Bad. Next columnist, please.

Inspirational Verse: “Why must everyone laugh at my mighty sword?”-Randy Newman

Celia Cohen: A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of the Delaware Way

One of the first businesses affected by the downturn in business was Celia Cohen’s Grapevine “blog.” Perhaps Celia had seen her 401K get large enough that she didn’t have to work any more. Who knows. But one thing is certain, she wants back into the game.

We know Celia for the fawning, inside baseball, incumbent-lover that she is, but apparently not everyone feels that way. DelawareLiberal.Net has obtained a letter that has been mailed to the Delaware Way crowd to ask for a bailout for Celia. The authors of this letter are the two opponents for Delaware’s lone congressional seat… in 1974… Pete duPont and Prof. Jim Soles.

We all know Pete, but Professor Soles is interesting. He has two positions at UD named after him and he contributed heavily to Barack Obama in the election. He is a little suspect, since Celia called him “a bi-partisan Democrat” Celia has written about him several times, including a post about his current gig.

The letter lays out the wonderful things that Celia brought to the table, such as the quote “Democrats like politics. Republicans like winning.” I prefer Celia on Rudy Guiliani in Delaware:

The Republicans also could console themselves that they were seeing something their Democratic counterparts most likely will not — a potential presidential candidate who comes to court them.

Classic. How can we all help get Celia back in the saddle so she can dish on all of the people that used to be relevant? By sending her money, of course. The letter claims that the Grapevine will be hosting the website at Delaware Today, which means that the money must be going to Celia’s salary. I’m thinking that no one kisses ass like someone with a dozen sugar-daddies to please.

Celia can’t make on her own, she never could. She had to rely on some angel (perhaps duPont?) to keep paying the bills for her, since she never attracted advertisers to her site. So now she is hoping that the subscription model will do it for her. She is kind of like NPR, but with only a column a week about your fellow subscribers, is it really worth it?

Best of luck, Celia. If you can take a few rich people for 50 grand a year to write about their social events, more power to you. But never try to pawn yourself off as an even-handed journalist, we know how this works.

The NJ Endorsement of Castle was Designed to Drive Me Nuts

From the headline on it is just a bunch of flat out lies and bullshit.

Mike Castle’s moderate pragmatism is working for Delaware in Congress

Really? I guess the economy in the toilet is a good thing. I didn’t get that memo. Also, what moderate pragmatism? Has enyone at the News Journal EVER looked at Castle’s voting record? I doubt it.

U.S. Rep. Michael N. Castle, who is seeking re-election to Congress, has some important draft legislation pending the outcome Nov. 4.

Okay. He has sucked ass for 8 years but he is going to start turning it on now. We promise!

As a rare Republican moderate, he is influential as a centrist negotiator on amending the No Child Left Behind education law, energy and the environment, and now structuring the government bailout of failing financial institutions.

Oh yeah! those centerists skills were a huge help passing “No Child Left Behind” debacle and all of Bush’s energy and evironmental policies. Way to go Mike!!

Mr. Castle’s pragmatic and principled willingness to get beyond partisanship may make his role tough in Washington, but he remains popular in Delaware.

Tough? Yes. It is tough voting against the President when the ourtcome is not in doubt and voting WITH Bush ever time the vote is close. That is a tough balancing act Castle is great at.

He deserves a ninth term in the U.S. House of Representatives.

He deserves a gold watch and a rocking chair.

New media watchdog feature: Props and Flops

In the spirit of Stephen Colbert’s “Tip of the Hat/Wag of the Finger” I’ll be comparing and contrasting instances of Delaware’s crappy msm journalism with instances of Delaware’s even more crappy msm journalism. Volume 1 Number 1…here we go

Props to NJ Blogger Ryan comier for this observation:

“Oh man, I wish I could go back in time. I’d take state.” | 6/15/2007 01:38:00 PM

If Uncle Rico from “Napoleon Dynamite” cleaned himself up and ran for governor, he would look just like Lt. Gov. John Carney.

I’m just sayin’.

Flop = Frank Gerace filling in for Loudell

Wdel’s Gerace is a freaking idiot.

When driving home from work last night I heard abject moron Frank Gerace ask this question during drive time yesterday,

“Don’t you think the unpopularity of Congress is also due to the Alberto Gonzales hearings and the fact that no crime was committed, but the Democrats were playing ‘Gotcha’?”

Holy crap, I nearly drove off the road. There is so much wrong with that “question” (which is not a question) I have to pick only one item.

If the DOJ used political criteria to hire and fire, then a crime WAS committed you moron. Don’t simple take everything you hear on the Laura Ingram show at face value you idiot!!

Allan Loudell must never take time off.