The press is liberal, it knows it, but it will never admit it

The press is liberal, it knows it, but it will never admit it
EDITOR:
The recent CBS News fiasco involving their use of forged documents to attack President Bush should be the final proof, as if any was needed, that there truly is a liberal bias in the so- called mainstream news media. When the story first broke, the mainstream media attacked those who uncovered the fraud as & quot;partisan political forces. & quot; And it turns out the truth was with those & quot;partisans. & quot;
CBS and Dan Rather were so busy drooling over the prospect of sticking it to President Bush that they ignored questions about the authenticity of the forged documents from their own news staff.
Liberals love to complain about FOX news and Rush Limbaugh. But Limbaugh is a commentary/entertainment provider, not a news outlet. And Fox has committed the transgression of actually presenting both sides of an issue. The smoking gun that liberals see as a FOX bias is that a conservative owns the company. But somehow in liberal-land, that logic doesn't apply to liberal Ted Turner owning CNN. Go figure.
Dan Rather helped raise $20,000 for the Travis County, Texas, Democrat party in an event run by his daughter, yet he claimed he didn't know it was a fundraiser. ABC uses Clinton aide George Stephanopoulus as the & quot;moderator & quot; of its Sunday morning & quot;news & quot; show. John Kerry considered NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw to be his running mate. Was that because Brokaw is impartial and above politics, or because Kerry knows what the elites will not admit: Brokaw is every bit as partisan as Kerry. How could anyone NOT detect a bias here?
I have never heard about the & quot;Religious Left & quot; nor of news shows denouncing & quot;Reverends & quot; Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton using their religious status for partisan gain. Why not? They do it. But we hear ad nauseum about the & quot;Religious Right, & quot; and Jerry Falwell and how terrible it is that THEY mix religion and politics. Ever hear the mainstream media refer to an office holder as & quot;far left & quot; or & quot;ultra liberal & quot;? Me neither. But we all know the phrase & quot;ultra conservative & quot; and & quot;right wing of the Republican Party & quot;.
There is no conspiracy among the newsies, but they do approach their reporting from the same point of view, liberal, and consequently the result is reporting with a liberal slant.
MATT DITCHEY
Youngstown
Documents are fake, but story could still be true
EDITOR:
Dan Rather admitted that he erred when he ran with the Bush National Guard story before fully investigating to verify the authenticity of four documents. Since then he and CBS News have been mercilessly kicked around on Internet blogs and right-wing radio and television shows for it, but there are still many questions that remain unanswered by the Bush administration about Bush's so-called honorable military service in the Air National Guard.
For instance, while he served in the Texas Air National Guard from 1968 to 1972, President Bush received positive evaluations, but after transferring to the Alabama Air National Guard, he began missing duty to help a friend run for a seat in the Senate and for almost a year there is no record of him reporting for duty. In 1972 Bush failed to show up and take a mandatory physical and was subsequently grounded and suspended from flying. Bush said the reason for this was that his own personal family doctor was unavailable at the time of the physical. Then in 1973, Bush moved to Massachusetts to attend Harvard Business School and promised to register with a local guard unit in that state, but never did.
Now there is growing pressure coming from the White House to investigate the origin of these proven to be fake documents presented to us by CBS and Dan Rather. They want the truth to be fully investigated by a congressional panel, yet there are still dozens of military records sealed by the Bush administration that may or may not prove that, although the CBS documents are fake, the information in them may reflect the truth of the context of Rather's story.
FREDRICK P. HOWK Jr.
Youngstown
Cal's looking in wrong place for Al-Qaida's likely favorite
EDITOR:
Usually I just skim through Cal Thomas's column or skip it all together because I find his tirades uninformative at best. However, I feel I have to respond to Thursday's column about terrorists preferring the election of Mr. Kerry as president.
As I see it, the election of George Bush would be preferred by Al-Qaida and other terrorists; his actions in Iraq have been an excellent recruiting tool for them. Terrorist acts have become more common since his violent ventures in the Middle East. Iraq, which had no significant connection to the Taliban or Bin Laden or 9/11 before the U.S. invasion, now is a magnet for terrorists and their supporters.
Thanks to President Bush's exploits in Iraq, resources have been diverted from Afghanistan, where the Taliban are again making inroads, and which has returned to its position as the number one opium producer in the world.
Yes, contrary to Mr. Thomas's assertion, it is actually George W. Bush who has done more to further terrorism in the world. And his re-election would assure that the U.S. would continue its downward spiral into violence and bloodshed at the expense of international cooperation and diplomatic efforts toward peace and justice.
Sr. ELAINE M. BERKOPEC, OSU
Youngstown
Flooding problem in Poland affects all, can't be ignored
EDITOR:
I live in the Canterbury Creek Development in Poland. I would like to urge you to listen to our concerns about recurring flooding in our neighborhood. Although my home was dangerously close to flooding, I was one of the fortunate ones, who did not sustain severe water damage. However, I watched helplessly as some of my neighbors were evacuated from their homes; some with little babies in hand.
I watched as the man across the street from me worked feverishly to avoid damage to his home, only to see his garage door buckle and water come gushing in like a raging river, flooding his garage and basement. Some homes sustained major damage, such as, basement walls that caved in, 6-7 feet of water in basements, or flooding on the main levels of homes. Our street was impassible for more than 12 hours. I am very worried about the next big rainfall.
I am deeply concerned about the flooding problems, and about what this will do to our property values, whether you have flooding in your home or not This is a major issue. Someone made the statement to me recently, "Everyone knows Cobblers Run is a flood zone. The only people, who will buy a house there, are people from out of town."
My husband and I bought our home in Poland, because we thought it was a great place to raise a family and also as an investment for our future. Each time our community floods over, our property value depreciates significantly. I implore our elected officials to take steps to rectify the flooding in our community as soon as possible. It really doesn't matter to me who the fault lies with, whether it be the builder, the developer, the engineers, or the township -- just fix the problem, please.
DONNA DETWILER
Poland