LA Times Readers' Rep responds to a complaint. (If I did this, you can, too! )

[EFerrari]

DUers:

This morning, an article was put up that seemed to misrepresent an Obama rally in IN -- the attendance, the mood of the crowd, the behavior of the candidate. It seemed skewed to depressing.

This is the link to that thread so you can read for yourself:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5662207

So, because I'm a big loudmouth, I emailed the Readers' Rep at the L.A. Times. Here is our correspondence:

From: Elizabeth Ferrari
Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2008 5:24 AM
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Corrections to Peter Nicholas 4/23 story "Barack Obama appears frustrated"

Hi there,

The report at the following link seems to contain several errors:

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-obama23apr23,1,7095215.story

Mr. Nicholas' account contradicts the account of several people who attended this event. Apparently, the crowd was at capacity, which is over 12,000, and was not subdued in any way. Also, this event was a rally, not a townhall, and questions are generally not taken at rallies.

While the mischaracterization may fit with Mr. Nicholas's narrative, it is inaccurate.

Elizabeth Ferrari
(contact info deleted)

Response:

Dear Ms. Ferrari,

Thank you for writing and I'm passing your comments along.

For what it's worth I thought I should mention that I read Nicholas' observation about Sen. Obama taking no questions as being a comment about his not taking questions from the news media that evening. (You probably already know this, but a contingent of reporters has been traveling with Obama while covering the race and regularly speaks to him and his aides about it.)

Also, I read the reporter's assessment of the mood as being in comparison to the many other Obama rallies he's covered over the campaign's course.

I get that you saw them as off the mark, though, and I appreciate having your impressions of the article so that I can share them with editors.

Thank you again.

Kent Zelas
Asst. Readers' Representative

* * *

I appreciate Kent's response. Let's not forget we can push back, okay?

:hi:

[panader0]

1. Way to go! Don't give the bastards a break! Rec'd

[EFerrari]

3. Can you imagine what would happen if we took a minute to do this

once a day?

LOL! No wonder these creeps hate the tubes. :hi:

[EFerrari]

2. I'm going to kick this a few times because

our candidate will be smeared from here to November and whatever we can do to push back is a good thing.

So, kick!

[izzybeans]

4. Cool great work.

By the time that Obama got there many people had been waiting for hours, so hopefully the reporter can forgive the supposed subdued nature. Also apparently John Mellencamp had just proved yet again what a massive ass he can be. He played one song and then spun his record for two hours before Obama got there.

[EFerrari]

6. Email him if you get a minute. Think of it as practice for the Fall.

[e-mail]

:hi:

[izzybeans]

8. I will.

Thanks! I think I might need to talk to my family a little more to get some specifics.

They had been out all afternoon canvassing before the event and where exhausted. The tickets to the event where their reward. I wonder how many others did the same.

[EFerrari]

9. You guys, go, izzybeans!

:woohoo:

[izzybeans]

13. Well they sure are going.

I'm here in Chicago at the moment.

[EFerrari]

14. No matter where we are, we can push back on the net.

And the net has a heckuva lot more viewers than the corporate media.

Isn't that something?

Keep the faith. :)

[RBInMaine]

5. Good Job. Thanks.

[EFerrari]

7. Email him if you can. You can speak much better than those of us

who weren't there. :hi:

[olkaz]

10. The Hillarati do this ALL the time

Every time there is ANYTHING disparaging to Hillary, the Hillary forum goes into overdrive, and they get as many emails sent off as possible.

When they post the emails that they sent, that's my favorite part. They're not too coherent, so the editors must have a blast reading them.

[EFerrari]

12. LOL! I bet you're right.

Some of my English students used to have King Lear wandering around the Forest of Arden. I always appreciated that. :)

But, can we get offa our remotes just for the exercise? :hi:

[olkaz]

15. I love reading bad papers and whatnot

Sometimes I find finals that students never pick up left in classrooms at the college I'm attending.

Reading them is a joy. The idea that some of these people receive passing grades is amazing to me.

[Cali_Democrat]

11. Good work

This shows that we can all make a difference simply by typing an email.