Fed up with The Daily Astorian Liberal Demagoguery

Have you experienced that feeling when you read the newspaper or listening to the talking heads on TV or on the radio blather on and on about something that you know isn’t the right representation of the facts and finally say enough is enough?

Well… I’m here this morning grinding my teeth after reading the column "GOP becomes the party of the 1950's" in The Daily Astorian. It’s another outrageous exercise in Liberal Demagoguery in a line long of Steve Forrester’s (Publisher of the Astorian) columns. Rather than get into all the things of what he said in his column and the countless others that I’ve disagreed with I’d like to address Steve Forrester the man instead.

First I have to say I actually have talked to him first on the phone then later met him personally over a year ago. Since then I’ve run into him 2 other times and had a brief word with him. Each time I’ve seen him I shake his hand and say that he’s doing a stalwart job with his community news sections in the Astorian but still have to civilly disagree with his liberal political columns.

The time I talked to him on the phone was when he wrote a column comparing some dink who had destroyed someone’s private property because they at one time had raised minks to Tea Party activists. I couldn’t believe he’d compare a criminal act to a group of peaceful protesters that to date have not had one single act of violence or criminal behavior. We had about a 30 minute friendly and civil conversation about his column. During that conversation not once did he ever back away from his comments or say that making that comparison was terribly wrong.

Steve is a good man but each time I’ve seen him since he seems uncomfortable, almost to the point of thinking someone like me might attack him physically or give him the plague sense he knows I don’t share his view on politics. I could see his face tighten and redden in what looked like fear doing his best to be accommodating but quickly ready to end any conversation with me.

My point here is we get bombarded with divisive and combative negative politics from both sides on the TV, Radio and the internet 24/7. Why does a small town newspaper editor feel the need to contribute to the daily diatribe we get saturated with everyday? He is entitled to his opinion but he’d be better served to tone down the over the top rhetoric and focus his op-eds to the community based issues instead of the national ones. 50% of the nation doesn’t agree with you Steve and alienation in a small town is a very tough flag to fly.