2008 Woodie Awards
Lumberjack dropped the Ball on Clinton Story
Disgraceful Reporting on Clinton's Visit
Carl Ratner
Issue date: 2/6/08 Section: Letters to the Editor
Carl Ratner,
Retired Humboldt State professor
Your coverage of President Clinton's visit, in the Jan. 23 issue was remarkable in not spending one single word on what he said! The entire article was devoted to difficulty of people in gaining entrance to the talk.
This is a major lapse in journalistic responsibility. The thousands who could not attend the talk need to know what Clinton said, not who got in to hear him. It is especially important to have this understanding as we prepare to vote this year. Yet the Lumberjack leaves us in the dark on political issues at this crucial moment.
Instead of reporting irrelevant personal stories about members of the potential audience, the Lumberjack could have analyzed the politics of Clinton. It could have reminded the readers that President Clinton started the program of extraordinary rendition, which kidnaps foreigners and imprisons them in torture sites around the world, without any legal procedures. Clinton also made regime change in Iraq one of his agenda items, and imposed sanctions and bombed Iraq costing hundreds of thousands of lives. President Clinton also supported Bush's invasion of Iraq, telling the public to trust the President. It is well known that Clinton is personal friends with Bush's father and regularly calls him and plays golf with him.
Clinton also pushed through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) over union objections. NAFTA was designed and pushed through by corporate interests seeking to reduce the wages of labor by exporting jobs overseas. NAFTA also slashed environmental protections for production of goods, in order to cut costs and boost profits.
President Clinton also laid the groundwork for the current mortgage scandal. He appointed an executive of Goldman Sachs (the investment firm of corporations, not a working class organization), Robert Rubin, as his secretary of the treasury, and instructed him to deregulate regulations on the handling of mortgages by banks and investment companies. Rubin is currently an executive of Citigroup, which packaged and sold high risk, deregulated mortgages and is now being sued by Cleveland and Baltimore for predatory practices that have resulted in thousands of foreclosures and precipitous shortfalls in city revenues that have decimated public services. Rubin will very likely serve in Hillary's administration if she is elected.
The Lumberjack could have detailed the political truth of Bill and Hillary that belie the contrived façade that they are significant alternatives to Bush and are champions of "the people." Obscuring the political truth with personal anecdotes recapitulates the level of commercial newscasts. The readers of the Lumberjack do not deserve to have the wool pulled further over their eyes by irresponsible reporting.
Carl Ratner, PhD.
http://www.humboldt1.com/~cr2
Director, Institute for Cultural Research & Education
Trinidad, CA 95570
Retired Humboldt State professor
Your coverage of President Clinton's visit, in the Jan. 23 issue was remarkable in not spending one single word on what he said! The entire article was devoted to difficulty of people in gaining entrance to the talk.
This is a major lapse in journalistic responsibility. The thousands who could not attend the talk need to know what Clinton said, not who got in to hear him. It is especially important to have this understanding as we prepare to vote this year. Yet the Lumberjack leaves us in the dark on political issues at this crucial moment.
Instead of reporting irrelevant personal stories about members of the potential audience, the Lumberjack could have analyzed the politics of Clinton. It could have reminded the readers that President Clinton started the program of extraordinary rendition, which kidnaps foreigners and imprisons them in torture sites around the world, without any legal procedures. Clinton also made regime change in Iraq one of his agenda items, and imposed sanctions and bombed Iraq costing hundreds of thousands of lives. President Clinton also supported Bush's invasion of Iraq, telling the public to trust the President. It is well known that Clinton is personal friends with Bush's father and regularly calls him and plays golf with him.
Clinton also pushed through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) over union objections. NAFTA was designed and pushed through by corporate interests seeking to reduce the wages of labor by exporting jobs overseas. NAFTA also slashed environmental protections for production of goods, in order to cut costs and boost profits.
President Clinton also laid the groundwork for the current mortgage scandal. He appointed an executive of Goldman Sachs (the investment firm of corporations, not a working class organization), Robert Rubin, as his secretary of the treasury, and instructed him to deregulate regulations on the handling of mortgages by banks and investment companies. Rubin is currently an executive of Citigroup, which packaged and sold high risk, deregulated mortgages and is now being sued by Cleveland and Baltimore for predatory practices that have resulted in thousands of foreclosures and precipitous shortfalls in city revenues that have decimated public services. Rubin will very likely serve in Hillary's administration if she is elected.
The Lumberjack could have detailed the political truth of Bill and Hillary that belie the contrived façade that they are significant alternatives to Bush and are champions of "the people." Obscuring the political truth with personal anecdotes recapitulates the level of commercial newscasts. The readers of the Lumberjack do not deserve to have the wool pulled further over their eyes by irresponsible reporting.
Carl Ratner, PhD.
http://www.humboldt1.com/~cr2
Director, Institute for Cultural Research & Education
Trinidad, CA 95570
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