This is either blithering nonsense or surrealist artistry on a par with Marcel Duchamp:
In any case, Bob McDonnell should save half his campaign funds in order to play this over and over during prime time television in the three weeks prior to the election.
“I think I’ve made myself clear, young lady.”
Condescend much?
If that were McDonnell, this would be all over the local and maybe even national network news.
And, no, you didn’t make yourself clear.
Linda, Deeds apologized to the reporter, as he should have, but you are right. If this had been McDonnell is would have been another “macaca” moment. Double standard.
I’m posting this here, because I don’t know where else to post it and also because it is very interesting.
Since this is local blog, and we are all aware of the collapse of the local print market – I am wondering if anyone thinks the Loudoun Independent can make a go of it? I am surprised a Republican fundraiser owns it but John Geddie Jr still is the editor, or maybe he just got let go?? If they haven’t let him go, they need to.
Cathymac — I’m going to have to go the other way with you on the Loudoun Independent. I know John Geddie Jr. personally; and, in my opinion, he is a a solid guy. He and Amy Burns have turned that paper completely around. For a long time, I had ceased to read it much. I now go cover to cover. They had a multiple series on the Loudoun County school system containing helpful, comprehensive data and assessments — something I found nowhere else around here. They have had some excellent, continuing features on local history. And they do a pretty fair job of covering local news. I do have a beef about the lack of sports coverage of Park View High School as opposed to Broad Run, Stone bridge, et al. I understand that John has been approached about this and says he is trying to rectify it. One big improvement: the LI website, which is now causing LI articles to pop up on my targeted Google news menu.
There are some who believe the LI political material is a bit slanted. I am one of them. However, when I re-read the stuff I seem to be able to live with most of it. What am I going to exchange it for? WaPo? I’m a guy who used to cuss every week at the Loudoun Times-Mirror editorial page.
Let’s be candid about the Loudoun Easterner. I was frustrated with that paper long before Geddie Sr. opted to go with the Loudoun Independent. There was very little in-depth reporting in the LE and much too little news coverage. It became nothing more than a multi-page advertising flyer. The LE lost me as a reader long ago, even back when Geddie Sr. was at the helm. When Geddie Sr. first started the LI, he appears to have had trouble getting the advertisers to switch over, even the real estate people, who were his special group at the LE. I thought the LI was about to go belly up. Then Geddie Sr. passed away — much too soon. He was a good man. In my opinion, Burns and Geddie Jr. saved that paper and have turned it into something I look forward to seeing in my mail box. Can’t say that for any other local newspaper I have encountered in my 30 years in this community. All of them usually left me hungry for news, with the occasional exception of the Loudoun Times-Mirror — which effectively screwed itself by stopping home delivery in Eastern Loudoun.
Wolv, I agree that the coverage of the schools and even the murder from 100(?) years ago were very interesting, so kudos to the editor for those story selections. His political commentary and liberal bias is irritating though, and he is not 1/2 the writer his dad was, he’s not as nuanced. 2 weeks ago there was a story on Stevens Miller and a story on either Deeds or Shannon (can’t remember) – which was across the page from his liberal editorial column. The page spread was so blatant it actually made me throw that edition straight into the recycle bin.
I’m sure he’s a great guy, and they may well be making a go of it, but pissing off 50% of your readers doesn’t seem like a good strategy.
I haven’t had daily delivery for many years, so a local print paper will have to be pretty darn good for me to stick with it and not head to the internet for something more interesting. This may be a bit generational too, since I know my parents devour the local papers and the WashPo daily. My dad might bitch about slant and a story, but he’ll be back to reading the next day – it’s a habit of 70 plus years.
Forgot my last point, maybe less political commentary from Geddie Jr .
Cathymac — I believe that was a Shannon article to which you refer. I think the LI usually tries to report as best it can on what they see at political events and sticks largely to what the person being interviewed says, trying to avoid corrections or embellishments one way or the other. I must have read that Shannon article three or four times, trying to get a handle on it.
The subject was largely Shannon’s proposals to deal with gang problems in NoVa. After having attended a multitude of community and LCSO-sponsored public safety meetings which included reps from the NoVa Anti-Gang Task Force, the LCSO anti-gang unit, the DEA, the FBI, and even Frank Wolf, I sensed that Shannon was somewhat clueless about the actual state of play on the anti-gang business, especially strategic developments in the Shenandoah Valley. I would guess that, if the LI reporter/writer knew this, he/she didn’t want to get into an on-the-spot argument with Shannon or surface that argument in a standard reporting article. It’s the kind of stuff that comes out in editorials.
Yeah, the LI, in my opinion, sometimes slips and goes a bit too far in one direction; but I am wondering if this doesn’t come about when you get into something like this for the first time and do not quite have a sure feeling for journalistic bi-partisanship — sort of feeling your way around, so to speak. But, what am I talking here? Show me a paper, large or small, anywhere in this country these days which doesn’t go too far in one direction — and not just on the editorial pages. And these are high-priced, supposedly experienced journalists, not the talent at the level of local papers like LI. I mean, we live in a time when Mark Levin invariably calls a certain paper “The New York Slimes” and many refer to another paper as the “Washington Compost.”
But, going back to the orginial subject of this thread. That was a bad moment for Deeds, but I don’t think the temper flash will have much of an effect on the campaign. It’s the basic question of where he stands on raising taxes which is the albatross currently hanging around his neck. We can LOL all we want at this video, but I think it was far from being a so-called “macaca” moment. Nevertheless, I’ll bet Creigh wishes he had that one back.
Wolv, Agreed on the Shannon’s stand on gangs, he seems woefully uneducated about what has already happened with the NOVA Gang Task Force and the existing enforcement in the Shenandoah Valley.
My point was actually that there were 3 articles on Democrats and their positions (to include the editorial, which is always slanted) and nary a story to be had on the other side. I always expect a slant, but if you are already disinclined to read a local paper – as the WashPo correctly points out most in Loudoun are – you better be careful.
To the point of the post though: It will be pretty easy to use this Deeds rambling in a TV ad 2 weeks before the election.
Wolv,
In many cases, it is not the message that counts, but how it is framed. I think running this video in an ad would make the point “What matters is who the candidates are today”.
Creigh says “… the reality is we have major needs in the general fund…”
He makes it sound like the biggest drain on the general fund, direct aid to public schools, is underfunded. The reality is that public schools per-pupil spending has increased from $6,985 to $11,037 under Warner and Kaine.
Hey Creigh, how ’bout spreading the wealth around to other budget areas that have been neglected by your predecessors?
Creigh Deeds, like Warner and Kaine, is a puppet of the VEA.
It is May 17, 2012, 3:46 am
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