Friday, December 14, 2007

Tip: Des Moines fallout amid Kucinich protests

A Des Moines Register tipster says the paper has been hosed by protesters after its controversial decision to exclude Rep. Dennis Kucinich (below) from yesterday's Democratic presidential debate.

"The protest disrupted the newsroom for two days, jamming the phones,'' the tipster writes today. "After the Kucinich Iowa website announced he wasn't being included in the debate panel, Kucinich supporters posted protests on the comment areas tacked on to any news reports or blogs. Among their suggestions were calling the newsroom (keeping three executive assistants and a news editor busy answering, explaining the criteria, expressing regrets and trying to disengage). They posted every news executive's phone number and many newsroom numbers on the Internet, posted the numbers of the Register's Internet advertisers and suggested people call them to complain and even asked Kucinich supporters to get phone numbers from Register classified ads and call to protest the Register's handling of the debates."

Sounds like a community conversation powered by you and the Des Moines Register, eh?

Use this link to e-mail feedback, tips, snarky letters, etc. See Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

10 comments:

  1. I was tempted to send a letter to the editor myself. Kucinich deserved to be in the debate. He's running fourth in most legitimate polling. It was a travesty that the Des Moines paper left him out.

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  2. I hate your new look. Seriously, if you would like to improve your avitar, I'd suggest Spiderman-type stuff... everyone love Spiderman nowdays. Spiders are so silent and secret they can even be a "she".

    OK...OK... the Invisible Man or an Aqua Man (or the sexy female counterparts) would be cool too. Need me to send you what I think would be a good avitar? Please know, if I do, I will be drawing you a damn good one!

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  3. You don't like my new avatar? Hmmmm. I was inspired by Des Moines Register Editor Carolyn Washburn's oh-so-rosy cheeks! Worry not; that's just a temporary avatar. But I gotta stick with my theme, which I hope is obvious: news industry characters. Was Spider-Man some kind of reporter?

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  4. Jeepers: Maybe I'm too old. Does everyone recognize the woman in my new avatar?

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  5. I recognize Lois Lane, but only from reruns :-)

    Come on, Spiderman, Shrek or a ninja turtle next!

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  6. Your avatar is Donna Reed -- or Gisele McKenzie.

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  7. Your avatar is Noell Neill, TV's first Lois Lane (one of them, anyways). And you are dating yourself if you don't know that Spider-man's alter ego is (was?) a big city newspaper photographer.

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  8. D'oh! You are so right. Peter Parker is a photographer for The Daily Bugle. That said, I bow to the wisdom of my readers!

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  9. I don't know about your avatar, but I really appreciate your post about the deluge of protest to the Des Moines Register about excluding candidates from the debate. Mike Gravel was also excluded.
    Linked to The Hankster
    Nancy

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  10. Boo-hoo-hoo for the fracking Register – not! There was no excuse for excluding Kucinich. None.

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Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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