THE UNFAIR AND UNBALANCED ERIE TIMES-NEWS

I recently wrote three letters to the editor of the Erie Times-News.
The first one follows:

"Washington Post Columnist David Broder exhibited a classic
affirmation of the heralded mainstream media bias in favor
of Barack Obama and against John McCain in his latest column
(August 12)which purports to be a balanced assessment of
their respective views on their presidential
campaigns based upon Broder's interviews of both.

“There are several ways to measure this bias, but let's
take the simplest:Direct quotes by Obama: More than
200 words. Direct quotes by McCain,about 60 words.

“Then Broder drives home Obama's final quote in the
penultimate sentence by stating in the last sentence:
"I think everybody would agree to that last
point." I for one don't.

“In addition, Broder erroneously attributes a racial
slur to McCain which actually originated with Obama
when he famously said recently thatMcCain's supporters
would call attention to the Democrat's unusual name
and the fact that 'he is black,' when in fact it was
Obama who invented that slur.”

The "fair and blanced" Times-News's left wing
editorial page editor refused to publish my letter.

Then on August 2, the Times-News published a
letter to the editor bashing syndicated columnist
Charles Krauthammer, calling him, among other
derogatory names, "a partisan hack" because he
presumed to criticize Democratic presidential
nominee Barack Obama.

The letter bore a headline applied by the editor
which read "Krauthammer unprincipaled,"
an adjective which had not been contained in
the text of the letter.

The highly regarded Krauthammer, who is generally
considered a conservative, is a member of the
Washington Post Writers' Group. His
column regularly appears on the Op-Ed page of
the Erie Times-News. He is one of only two
syndicated columnist the Times-News carries
regularly who has received a Pulitzer Prize
for Journalism.

On August 4, in response, I sent a letter to the editor
praising Krauthammer for his column published in
the Times-News that day as follows:

"Once again Charles Krauthammer has demonstrated he's
the most intelligent and insightful pundit around.
(Ecology argument on oil won’t hold, August 4,2006).
His elegant writing style, his uncommon grasp and
marshalling of elusive and pertinent facts into
a synergistic whole leading to an inescapable and
irrefutable conclusion all contribute to making him
the nation's most credible political scribe. He's
neither liberal nor conservative. Just a first
rate thinker and writer who always hits the nail
squarely on the head."

The "fair and balanced " Times-News's far left
editorial page editor refused to publish the letter.

Then on August 11, the Times-News published
another letter to the editor trashing Krauthammer.
Again I sent in a letter lauding him. Again
the "fair and balanced" Times-News's extreme
left wing editorial page editor refused to
publish it.

Apparently, the left wing doesn't know what the
right wing is doing.