Michael Ryan's Imagined Double Standard in the Media

Re: The section called the bottom line from the January 31st edition of the Augusta Chronicle editorial page.

Mr. Ryan complains that the media ignored James O'Keefe's so-called expose` of ACORN but have been all over the story of his attempted bugging of Senator Landrieu's telephones.

In my opinion the media's coverage of O'Keefe's slander of a worthwhile organization such as ACORN was way overblown. O'Keefe has lied before. He said that none of the ACORN offices turned him away, when in fact, a police report proves that at least one office even called the cops on him. Mr. Ryan claims that O'Keefe "embarrassed" the media "with his takedown of ACORN." I wouldn't call slandering and lying about a worthy charitable organization embarrassing the media.

Mr. Ryan writes "Oh puhleeze," in exasperation when some compare this to Watergate and he makes the absurd claim that it's not clear O'Keefe was attempting to tap the phone lines.

It's obvious to anyone with common sense what O'Keefe was up to--he was using dishonest tactics to dig up dirt on a democrat.

Incidentally, I think it's girly to use the term "puhleeze." Mr. Ryan uses unprofessional, girlish, and cliche`d phrases in his writing. Maybe Alex English, or whoever his boss is, won't fire him for plagiarism, but at the very least, they should fire him for using "puhleeze" in an editorial.

Yuck!

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Re: "Heaping helpings of hate," from the February 1st edition of the Augusta Chronicle editorial page.

Here, Mr. Ryan is just whining. He lists five samples of over-the-top commentary by liberal pundits as examples of a lack of civility. I agree that some of these are over-the-top, especially the one made by Keith Olbermann which Jon Stewart parodied on the Daily Show. I disagree though that Bill Maher's comment should be included in this list. As noted in an earlier blog entry about Mr. Ryan's taking offense to an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Mr. Ryan has little sense of humor. Mr. Maher was joking, and the joke is funny, because it's true. Glenn Beck is a psycho--the guy sees ridiculous conspiracies in everything. Mr. Ryan doesn't like it because Glenn Beck is one of the sources he frequently plagiarizes.

Mr. Ryan came up with a list of five. Check out www.mediamatters.org for hundreds of examples of over-the-top comments made by conservative pundits.

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Re: "Even critics should wish the Chronicle owner well in reorganization effort," by Paul Simon also from the January 31st edition of the Augusta Chronicle.

Ah, where to begin? I used to work for the Augusta Chronicle in the circulation department. I have so many stories I could tell about their sorry management. Billy Morris broke every labor law in the book. The working conditions were dangerous, and the demands upper management made on the little guys were outrageous.

I think I'll start by recounting an example of Chronicle stupidity at its finest.

One Sunday, I was scheduled to be off. I was awoken by a call at 2:00 am ordering me to report downtown immediately to the circulation department because the press broke down and the papers wouldn't be ready until 12:00 pm. So they literally ordered me to come in early on my day off to sit and wait and do nothing for ten hours. Logically, they should have let everybody sleep in so we would be well rested to throw all the paper routes the carriers wouldn't be able to throw because the papers were going to be out so late. But logic was not their strong suit.

Maybe Billy Morris should have invested some of his capital on a working printing press instead of his stupid museum of art. That's another thing that always pissed me off when I worked there. The pay and the benefits were so meager, and this fascist asshole is blowing money on art.

Another time I got in big, big trouble because I was honest with a carrier. The management decided to terminate a carrier's contract. So I was supposed to lie to the carrier (by making some excuse as to why I needed to ride with him) and make a tape recording of the route thereby preparing myself to run the route after they cut him loose. I told the guy the truth and still made the tape , thus executing my job successfully.

Ooh man! You would have thought I'd stolen $10,000 from them. Three supervisors grilled me for being honest. The carrier had sent a letter to the Vice President, praising me for telling the truth and condemning the higher ups. It was well-meaning on his part, but bad for me, because he didn't realize the Vice President would come down on the side of the dishonest business practice. The supervisors told me lying was justified because "this is a business." That was their sole reasoning.

The last time I got in trouble while working in the circulation department didn't bother me too much but illustrates how poorly run that business is. In the wee hours of the morning the papers for about 50 routes were dropped at a warehouse on Reynolds Street--a high crime neighborhood. Nobody had a key so we always had to leave the warehouse unlocked. This went on for 6 months. The accounting department didn't like it because they had a computer and other equipment in there that could have easily been stolen. So finally one day, they had a meeting and passed keys out to the circulation managers. I missed that meeting because my wife had a stroke that day and almost died. No one told me about the keys. A few days later, I was the last person to leave the drop and I left the warehouse unlocked. The next day, a homeless wino slept in the warehouse, and he was there when the papers were delivered in the wee hours.

Oh, they were furious. Who left the door unlocked? They figured out I was the last one at the drop and they came down on me. I was in trouble because the door was unlocked...but it had been unlocked for 6 months!

Anyway, I explained why I didn't have a key, and they gave me one.

I was polite enough not to tell them to take the key and shove it.

It's no surprise to me that the Chronicle is bankrupt.