Check out this obnoxious "worst of" list in the Trib...

[eyesroll]

OK, most of it is your standard dumb criminals, gee-isn't-Arnold-cute stuff. But one entry just made me mad.

From yesterday's Chicago Tribune (free registration required), in a story entitled "2003's supid (and sometimes splendid) human tricks":

WORST FUNERAL STUNT
Democrats attempted to use a memorial service for Sen. Paul Wellstone into a campaign rally for Walter Mondale. Not only was it tacky, but the Republican won Wellstone's seat anyway.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-0312310210dec31,1,216950.story

First of all, Campaign rally" is at best an exaggeration and at worst and outright lie, but to trivialize Wellstone's life and death this way? By using him as a "funeral stunt" on a ha-ha list?
:grr:

Second, and this in my opinion, may be even worse: Wellstone died in 2002. The Trib either lacks fact checkers, doesn't care, is too stupid to care, or just wanted to pee on his grave one more time.

(mods: Headline all capped in original)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. This deserves a letter

But of course, isn't the Chicago Tribune a Hearst paper, and therefore about as trustworthy as The Onion?

You're absolustely right. The Wellstone memorial was on October 29, 2002, and anyone who believes the right-wing lies needs to read the relevant chapter of Al Franken's book, since Al was actually there that evening.

[baby_bear]

10. Being a Hearst paper has nothing to do with

The Tribune, as with the Seattle P-I and other Hearst papers, have independent management, including editorial page editors. Thus, the Chicago Tribune, not Hearst, is responsible for this reprehensible piece of crap.

Make sure to focus the criticism where it's deserved. And this really does stink.

s_m

[greatauntoftriplets]

15. The Tribune is not a Hearst paper and never was.

Here is the paper's (repuke) history. It has always been locally owned. Chicago Today (once Chicago's American, Chicago Herald-American) was an afternoon paper owned by the Tribune until they shut it down in the early 1970s. Chicago Today was a far more progressive paper and at one time, it was a Hearst newspaper.

History
Timeline of significant events in the company's history

Tribune is a media industry leader reaching more than 80 percent of U.S. households through newspaper publishing, television and radio broadcasting and the Internet. Operations are concentrated in the nation’s major markets, including the top three, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The company was founded in 1847. That year, on June 10, the Chicago Tribune published its first edition in a one-room plant located at LaSalle and Lake Streets. The original press run consisted of 400 copies printed on a hand press.

In 1869, the Tribune erected its first building, a four-story structure at Dearborn and Madison Streets. In October 1871, when the Great Chicago Fire raged through the city, the wooden building was destroyed, as was most of the city. The Tribune reappeared two days later with an editorial declaring "Chicago Shall Rise Again." The newspaper’s editor and part-owner, Joseph Medill, was elected mayor and led the city’s reconstruction. A native Ohioan who first acquired an interest in the Tribune in 1855, Medill gained full control of the newspaper in 1874 and guided it until his death in 1899.

Medill’s two grandsons, Robert R. McCormick and Joseph Medill Patterson, assumed leadership of the company in 1912. That same year, the Chicago Tribune’s first newsprint mill opened in Thorold, Ontario. The mill marked the beginnings of the Canadian newsprint producer later known as QUNO, in which Tribune held an investment interest until 1995.

http://www.tribune.com/about/history.html

[baby_bear]

21. Thank you, greatauntoftriplets

I didn't do my homework and assumed that the claim that the Trib is a Hearst paper was true. Shame on me!

s_m

[BOSSHOG]

2. Did they list a Best Funeral Stunt?

Like bush never showing up for one for fear of having his picture taken next to a flag draped coffin of an american servicemember he had killed for personal and political gain?

And The Dems did not do as the Trib suggests, just as Al Gore never said he invented the internet. Keep keeping an eye on em DUers.

[eyesroll]

4. Oooh. That's a good point.

I'm trying to write a LTTE. Mind if I use your point? (I'll probably tone it down a little.)

[BOSSHOG]

8. Please, be my guest

No need to tone anything down. Sharpen the point; better to poke them in the eye.

[RandomKoolzip]

3. That's fuckin' low.

Kicking a man when he's dead. That writer's got a lot of heart, dunnee? Can you believe the nerve of those Democrats?

I may have to reconsider my resume...I've been wanting to apply to the Trib for a writing job once I get up to Chicago. I don't wanna work for a bunch of bushco sucking zombies.

[Eric J in MN]

5. Most of the service was spent talking about the campaign workers

Most of the service was spent talking about the campaign workers who died.

Most of the speeches were apolitical.

Given that Paul Wellstone was a political science professor and US Senator, perhaps they should have spoke MORE about politics.

Rightwingers can fake phoney outrage over anything. That isn't a reaons for Democrats to censor themselves.

[buycitgo]

6. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

I was SO PISSED reading that yesterday!!!!

how DARE they inject their partisan pukage into that lameass story.

aside from the Santorum bit, which was aimed more at the wuss reporter than that worm, there were several slimy digs at dems in there.

did you catch the very last little bit?

[buycitgo]

7. THIS made me almost as mad!!!!!!

BEST DISGUISES
*Soldier Field as an alien toilet bowl.
*Saddam Hussein as a homeless guy.
*Howard Dean as a moderate.


do you beLIEVE that gratutitous, also wholly inaccurate swipe


how bout Bush in there as a sentient being?

[nuxvomica]

9. People should write to Trib about this

Nice yet firm objections to the inaccuracies. Tell them how it reflects on the veracity of all of their news coverage.

[kclown]

11. Delightful snip

Rush Limbaugh has spent his radio career excoriating the
personal and political choices of others, but when he returned
to the airwaves in November after admitting to prescription
pill addiction, he opined that "you can't change anybody
else's behavior. All you can do is change your own." But
if he can't change anyone else's behavior, doesn't that mean
he's out of a job?

[rasputin1952]

17. I had to LOL when I read that!...

pill popping conservative from hell. Damn, I thought only Liberals and Progressives were they drug abusers of the world.

Someone should also tell Rush that people can easily b convinced to change their behavior, but certainly not by insulting them; but rational and factual information, will make almost anyone see things in a different light.

O8)

[BOSSHOG]

12. May I politely suggest

FUCK THE NICE STUFF. Enemies of the constitution do not know NICE. They have to know that there are people in this country who have been pushed way beyond polite because of their actions. The constitution will not be saved by NICE actions.

Good idea though.

[Skittles]

14. YES

This is the major RNC talking point - THE DEMOCRATS ARE ANGRY. Yeah? WELL IT'S ABOUT F***ING TIME.

[Indiana Democrat]

13. Sigh...

When is everyone going to allow this wonderful American to rest in peace?

Senator Welstone represented all that is good and great about America. I hope we can all follow his lead.

[rasputin1952]

16. I sent a letter to the Editor...

just to inform him that his paper might lose it's "professional" status if such mistakes were made that pass over a couple of months just to bring in a controversial subject that still has a lot of animosity attached to it.

I did not go into the fact that one of the more "Stupid" things that happened in 2003 was bush invading Iraq, the turnaround of the EPA and NPS on long standing protections.

Nor did I go into detail about letting bush speak in the Rose Garden without tele-prompters to assist his shabby answers to Real reporters in only the third Press Conference he has had.

I could have gone on, but short and sweet is the way to go, all I needed to do was remind the editor that errors are the downfall of media in the first place; no wonder few people trust "journalism" anymore, it has become, "infotainment".

O8)

[rasputin1952]

18. UPDATEon LTTE @ Trib...

I got a reply, in my e-mail, stating that the Editor-in-Chief, would forward my concerns to the editor in charge of the article, and I should expect a reply by tomorrow.

I am somewhat amazed to say the least.

:bounce:

[INTELBYTES]

19. Maybe I'll subscribe...

...just so I can cancel my subscription in protest!

[ma4t]

20. a contrary view

I wasn't at the service but I did watch it on C-Span and I remember thinking at the time that this would not play well. I came up with that thought myself, while watching, before all the pundits had their say. I imagine that I was not the only one who had similar thoughts.

I don't think the article trivializes Wellstone's life and death; rather, I think some of the participants at the memorial service did exactly that.

I had a great deal of respect for Sen. Wellstone. I was saddened that parts of his memorial service were turned into a sideshow.