Easing In

When you get in a swimming pool, there are 2 ways to do it: 1) Jump in. 2) Ease in gradually. I have chosen to do the latter with respect to my return to blogging...

This morning's DP/RMN letters page has an example of someone who does not understand media bias:

Bad news all 'round
Re: The Post's front page, Dec. 16.

Does anyone else see the eerie convergence of issues on the front page of Thursday's Denver Post? Bush's multibillion-dollar missile "defense" system fails; United says it has to renege on labor contracts or it will go bankrupt (and Denver, which has subsidized the airline heavily, will be out thousands of jobs, not to mention being left with an overbuilt terminal with no flights); money intended for scholarships at CU has gone to booze and country club memberships; and Bush wants to limit the little guy's ability to sue the almighty corporation.

The 70 percent of families living paycheck to paycheck? They can go to a "blue Christmas" service, which "offers hope to the joyless."

How many examples of greedy leaders with misplaced priorities do we need before we change our leadership?

Anne Button, Denver

Anne, do you really think that these are the only 5 stories in Colorado and the world that were worthy of the front page of the DP? Perhaps it's less an issue of leadership in the government and more of an issue of the media reporting only the bad news to influence our views of our leaders.

Now for the part about easing in...

All I had to do was look to the previous page in the newspaper to see Dave Kopel's most recent column on the media:

...If you don't think that the Iraq war has been an unmitigated disaster, then you're irrational, claims News columnist Paul Campos ("At the breaking point," Dec. 7, and "Who killed Cody Wentz?" Dec. 14). As a columnist, Campos was merely articulating, in an especially blunt way, the general view of the mainstream media. And if all you knew about the Iraq war came from the international news sections of the News and Post, you might agree...

...Thanks to weblogs, you can read the actual views of real Iraqis, rather than relying only on Western reporters who don't speak Arabic or Kurdish. The Iraq Blog Count (www.iraqblogcount.blog spot.com) provides a consolidated list. While Iraqi bloggers have never been shy about criticizing what they see to be errors of the American occupation or about arguing Iraqi politics, the vast majority of them are delighted that the Saddam regime is gone, and that free elections are near...

Thanks for backing me up, Dave.