Friday, September 27, 2013

USAT | In today's craziest news selections...

West, Kimmel but not Boehner
Congress is now on a collision course to a government shutdown that could hammer the nation's economy next week. But you wouldn't know it from USA Today's list of nine top news stories right now, none of which include the Capital Hill budget battle.

The paper's priorities offer a window on what the community newspapers will get when Gannett's flagship seizes control of foreign and national news coverage in the weeks ahead.

Among those nine:
In the plus column elsewhere, however, the editorial board zeros in on the budget impasse via an editorial headlined, "House GOP rants its way past fiscal problem." Here's the muscular money graph about House Speaker John Boehner:

"The latest Republican approach, unveiled Thursday, is equal parts bizarre and troubling. It demands — through threats of unleashing terrific economic harm — the accomplishments that the GOP has been unable to achieve through the normal process because it has fared poorly in three of the past four elections."
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7 comments:

  1. Anonymous9/27/2013 10:27 AM

    Supposedly this site eschews partisan bickering and confines itself to gazing into the navel of the "news industry's digital transition". Yet lo and behold, here we find partisan commentary inserted on the flimsiest of pretenses.

    Not to further inflame the partisan bickering, but merely to point out the editorialist's "muscular" illogic: If the GOP had "fared poorly" in recent elections, it would not be in a position to have a say in the matter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous9/27/2013 11:20 AM

      Jim will deny it...and quickly as evidenced by his post below.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous9/27/2013 11:48 AM

      Hate to break it, 10:27, but the premise isn't flimsy. The GOP controls the House and has enough Senate seats to launch a filibuster. That's it. No ability to control the agenda or to override any vetos. All they can do is gum up the works, which they seem happy to do.

      I'm not trying to defend Jim. He's shown he has little ability to provide meaningful analysis of any topic.

      Delete
    3. Jim Hopkins9/27/2013 11:50 AM

      On this USA Today page, both of you can easily write letters to the editor or to the reader's representative, complaining about the newspaper's views, or about errors of fact.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous9/27/2013 12:20 PM

      11:48 AM: Hate to break it, too, but neither the president nor the senate can appropriate a nickel, nor name a post office, on their own initiative. To really "gum up the works" takes bipartisan collaboration (notwithstanding the Official Media Narrative).

      Delete
  2. Jim Hopkins9/27/2013 10:53 AM

    I'm neither endorsing nor opposing the paper's view.

    I mentioned the editorial because it was the only budget-related article on the newspaper's homepage at a time when it was devoted precious real estate to a lot of lightweight stuff.

    Also, my use of the word muscular is describing the tone of the editorial. I'm not accustomed to seeing such forceful language at the paper. Perhaps this is part of the publisher's drive for more "pronounced" voices.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous9/28/2013 3:18 PM

    News judgement at Usa Today has always been suspect under the assorted leaders. It defintely has been thrown out the window on-line due to metrics and the naive staffers who run the web ops.

    ReplyDelete

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