Defenders of the Faith

Dear Ms. Editor in Chief,

What a thrill to read your stinging rebuke in today's lead editorial of the scum, right wing of course, who purport to be journalists. However, I couldn't find the part about JournaList, the newly exposed consortium of 400 left wing journalists who emailed each other during the 2008 campaign with advice as to how to elect Obama. When the Reverend Wright thing was boiling over, one of their genius ideas was to change the subject by calling Karl Rove and Fred Barnes "racists." Were any Strib journalists part of that group?

And where was the mention of Eric Weidel (sp) the recently canned Washington Post reporter who covered the conservatives and wrote nasty blogs about them to his buddies?

And then of course, there's Cohen v. Cowles Media, where the Strib was found liable for lying to me.

Perhaps you should rethink your self-appointed status as judges of journalistic integrity.

Awaiting your reply, I remain, your faithful reader

Dan Cohen

Israel Editorial in Today's Strib

"Don't Equate Israel With South Africa." Well, it's a nice headline, I have to give the Strib credit for that, and for criticizing the Presbyterian Conference's referring to Israel with language all too similar to that they previously used to describe the aparteit regime in South Africa. Beyond that, the editorial was vague to the point of mush. The Strib editorial writers seem to be trying out a kind of faux diplomatic jargon for this one. "Concessions" must be made? What concessions? By whom? Apparently by Israel, and apparently, land, but this is not clear. However, settlements on what the Strib refers to as "disputed land" in East Jerusalem, seems to be a tilt towards the Palestinians. What about Hamas? Hezbollah? The "right of return"? Recognition of the legitimacy of the state of Israel itself? How can you have a "two-state solution" without confirming the legitimacy of both states? Syria? Iran? Nothing.

But let's give them passing marks for putting a toe in the water without locking themselves into positions from which it will be difficult to retreat.

I cringed at the recent meeting between Obama and the Saudi ruler. Powerful third parties discussing the fate of countries not present at the meeting smacked too much of Munich 1939 for my taste.

Why Europe Loathes Israel

Fantastic article, perhaps the best I have ever read on the subject. The tag line says it all: "Europe will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz."

By the way, I seem to have been banished from another member of the ranks of the rag. Scott Gillespie, Steve Berg, Steve Brandt, Kate Perry, have now been joined by djtice as those who will not take my emails. So sad.

Gore Uncovered

I have to admit I have not followed the story beyond the headlines, but it occurs to me, that the local rag has not had a single item about Al Gore's alleged sexual exploits while Drudge has run it as a lead item nearly nonstop for the past week. Can you imagine what the Strib would have done if they had unearthed a photo of Bush shaking hands with a woman not his wife?

Nancy "Digger" Barnes Neglects History

Dan Cohen writes in response to this Star Tribune story by Nancy Barnes:

Dear Ms. Barnes,

In today's Strib you write: "Every election season, we run a public records check on every candidate fro a major statewide office and publish any significant records that we find, whether the candidate is a Democrat or Republican.""

Unless you care to maintain that a misdemeanor conviction for theft is "insignificant," that statement is untrue on its face.

The facts are these:

In the 1982 statewide gubernatorial election, DFL candidate for Lieutenant Governor, Marlene Johnson had been convicted of shoplifting, pled not guilty, and was convicted on June 3, 1970. No record of that arrest was published in your paper until I provided official public records of the incident to your reporter a week prior to the election in return for a promise of anonymity. Within twelve hours, your paper had broken the promise in a front page article headlined "Marlene Johnson arrests disclosed by Whitney ally."

As a result of your betrayal, I sued. The case eventually made its way to the United States Supreme Court as Cohen v. Cowles Media, 501 U.S 663 (1991), where I won what has become a landmark decision of First Amendment law. The Court held that notwithstanding your plea of freedom of the press, you have no freedom of the press to dishonor your contracts.

You also do not have the freedom to iterate false and misleading statements concerning your checking and publishing public records without being called to account.