Why I got this web site, version 2 (last revised 7-4-05)
Because The Dallas Morning News won't print my letters to the editor, so just to have some place to put them other than my file cabinet.
Basically, the way things work with The Dallas Morning News is, if they approve of your ideas and opinions about the events and circumstances of the day, you’re generally going to see those same ideas and opinions all the time in their pages. But if they don’t approve, then they say sorry, they can’t print what you think "due to limited space." Even with something as important as the last presidential election, "it would simply be too costly" to provide more space than their usual half page (less credits and cartoons) to the opinions of their readers. That was what Keven Ann Willey, Vice President of the Editorial Page, said to me in a letter.
Now those same concerns do not in any way limit the amount of space they devote to sports, which they cover in infinite detail, with many pages every day, and with frequent special sections (4 extra sections a week throughout Football season). Indeed, it is Sports that they are talking about when they commend themselves, as they constantly do, for their dedication and commitment to "inclusion" and "the free flow of ideas", so that their readers will "know the full story" (their latest advertising slogan*see note below). As for everything else in the world other than Sports, sorry, limited space.
Therefore, there was no room in 1987 for my idea that we shouldn't be supporting the rebels in Afghanistan, because they really didn't like us; or my suggestion that perhaps sterilization (via an easily-reversible procedure to be developed) should be a standard part of the procedure for those who use abortion for birth control, to be reversed only when a woman can show that she is ready, so you don't have women having multiple abortions to have freedom over their bodies (1988); or my answer to the objection that if you tax rich people's inheritances, you're also going to harm small farmers and business people who want their heirs to carry on their farms and small businesses (11-18-99); or my recommendation that President Bush ought to go talk directly to our antagonists in the Muslim world, man to man (5-9-04), as he should have talked to Saddam before we invaded his country for our best chance for a peaceful Iraq (1-21-04; see also 1-14-03 about N. Korea and 9-30-01 about general foreign policy); or my belief that "if you have organs that can't make it, that's God telling you it's time to go" - concluding my objections to organ transplants (11-8-04), or my suggestion that our whole concept of God as a jealous, wrathful god who desires to be worshipped came out of the more primitive religions, and has nothing to do with God at all (3-12-04; submitted to The Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Dallas Morning News).
Most recently, there wasn't room for my idea that when we find a well-supplied insurgent bunker like we did a few weeks ago in Iraq, we should not broadcast it to the world but wait to see who shows up. And my idea that Kuwait, who we saved from Iraq, ought to be paying a big hunk of the bill for our mission there - especially now that their oil revenues are rapidly increasing with the price of oil - has not been allowed to see the light of day. And how about my idea that we should get rid of local school districts and just have one state-wide school district in Texas, which would be the most efficient way to address the bottom line of education these days, passing achievement tests? Nope. No room.
One time The Dallas Morning News wrote an editorial criticizing the USSR, during "glasnost" under Gorbachev, for practicing censorship by citing a paper shortage (responded to by me in a letter dated 8-28-88 on my letters menu). The difference between us and them is, we're supposed to be the freedom country, leading the world in that direction.
And as I've explained to the editors and management of The Dallas Morning News, it's not primarily my right to have my voice heard in the community where my family has lived and had businesses since about 1940 that is not being served. It is you, the hapless reader, that is denied the chance to hear my ideas whose rights are trounced upon.
Recently they wrote an editorial about the dastardly ways of the Texas Lotto Commission, who on 2 or 3 occasions advertised lotto jackpots that were a couple of million shy of the amount that would have been available had those jackpots been won. It's false advertising, they say. The story has been very prominent in the news lately. But it is The Dallas Morning News who are the experts at false advertising, which enables them to make a lot of money and have a lot of power, as they falsely present themselves as the protectors of our freedom.
More of my thoughts about Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press and how The Dallas Morning News does not fulfill the responsibility it was entrusted with by our Constitution can be found in my letters ("Letters to the Editor not fit to print") with these dates: 6-23-97; 9-27-97; 2-17-02; 3-22-02; 12-7-04. The original explanation that used to appear on this page can be accessed from the link at the bottom of the table-of-contents page for my censored letters. I'll put the link here as soon as I can figure out how to do it.
My feeling is that anybody who reads this who cares about democracy ought to write to Ms. Willey, and to James Moroney III, Publisher, CEO, and descendant of the founder of The Dallas Morning News - a man with very lofty ideals, as expressed by the large words engraved in the front of his building - and call them to task for their disingenuous editorial policies. They can be reached at P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, Tx. 75265. Their e-mail addresses are kwilley and jmoroney at dallasnews.com, respectively (I tried to put their actual addresses here, for your convenience, but Front Page wouldn't let me; they just kept blanking out.)
I did offer to Mr. Moroney to negotiate my portrayal of his newspaper on my web site, but he wasn't interested. Why should he care? He knows nobody is ever going to see it.
Please note: As of 2-5-05 I've finally gotten the ability to maintain my own web site for the first time since 1997, when radicalview.com began (about the first "blog" there was). I'm definitely not a Front Page expert (program used to maintain web sites), so any problems, that's why.
* note on 6-5-05: Oops, they realized their culpability in using this phrase - "Know the full story" - which was prominently displayed in their quarter-page preview ads in every section every day, then it suddenly disappeared from the ads.
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