Irony: 'Bob Barr Blackout Watch'
If you're a regular reader of the comment boards on SLTRIB.com, you're probably anti-Mormon, anti-gun, want every Hispanic to return to Mexico (even if the person's family immigrated from Guatemala four generations ago), livid at the Democrats, livid at the Republicans or you just like reading all the messages from people who fall into one of these categories and wonder what bunker these crazies live in.
You've probably also seen comments like this one.
At July 29, 2008 9:10 AM , tyrannicide said...
Tribune's Bob Barr Blackout Watch: It's been 64 days since the Libertarian Party nominated Bob Barr as its presidential candidate, but the Salt Lake Tribune has yet to report this news in its print edition.
This poster has been railing on the newspaper for not reporting on Barr's candidacy. I can't speak for the entire Tribune, but I get the point. And I like the tenacity shown by "tyrannicide."
But here's the funny thing, I'm waiting on some Barr news, too. No, not in the news pages. Barr is on the list of presidential candidates who haven't responded to my inquires about stances on the Freedom of Information Act.
I'm also waiting to hear from the campaigns of John McCain, Barack Obama and Ralph Nader. The only candidate to respond has been the Chuck Baldwin campaign on the Constitution Party ticket.
McCain and Obama receive lots of press inquiries, so I'm not offended they're choosing to blow me off. Nader keeps himself busy always.
But, and "tyrannicide" should back me up on this, Barr obviously isn't busy with reporters' questions and should have replied by now.
— NC
Labels: Candidates, FOIA
1 Comments:
I just noticed your blog post, and have sent a query to the Barr campaign about the candidate's position on the Freedom of Information Act.
It's a great question, given Barr's experience with the CIA, as a former U.S. Attorney, former Member of Congress, and now a "right to privacy" advocate.
Having followed his campaign for a few months now, I don't know what his position would be on FOIA ... so thank you for asking.
I also posted the following on Mr. Warchol's blog, as my ability to post a comment from this IP address to TribTalk has been blocked until further notice.
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TribCensorsLibertarians said...
Since mid-summer, I've been keeping track of the number of days that the Tribune has not mentioned in its print edition Bob Barr's nomination by the Libertarian Party as its presidential candidate.
Because the Tribune's non-coverage of the Barr campaign to date is part of the dynamic of the 2008 election, I've been maintaining an online vigil by bearing witness to this in the comments section of a (oftentimes) politically-related story.
Here's an example of the text I've used when commenting: "Tribune's Bob Barr Blackout Watch: The Libertarian Party nominated Bob Barr as its presidential candidate X days ago, but the Salt Lake Tribune has yet to inform its print edition readers of his candidacy."
After a few weeks of doing this, The TribTalk administrator will suspend my account permanently, and cite "spam" as the reason.
As of this writing, Barr is on the ballot in 42 states, and is likely to achieve ballot access in 46-48 states ... more than any other presidential candidate outside of the major political parties. This distinguishes him from almost all but a handful of other presidential candidates.
Since their nominations and placement on Utah's ballot, the Salt Lake Tribune has afforded coverage to presidential candidates Ralph Nader (Independent), Chuck Baldwin (Constitution), Cynthia McKinney (Green), and of course John McCain and Barack Obama. But not Bob Barr.
The response by the Tribune's reporters, editors, and Reader Advocate to this disparity in coverage? Crickets.
Dean Singleton, the CEO of the Tribune's parent company, MediaNews, was a significant donor to George W. Bush. You can do the math from there, and answer for yourself why a Bush supporter would work to censor any mention of Bob Barr -- who might to do John McCain in 2008 what Nader did to Al Gore in 2000.
The Tribune has a right to censor content, for any reason or no reason at all. But let my experience serve as an example of how the User Participation Rules are being applied.
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tribcensorslibertarians said...
After a little research, insofar as the Tribune's blogs are concerned, I stand corrected.
http://blogs.sltrib.com/vault/2008/07/irony-bob-barr-blackout-watch.htm
And I've passed along Mr. Carlisle's query on FOIA to the Barr campaign.
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