A letter to The Oregonian's public editor

Periodically, I'll be posting e-mails I've sent to The Oregonian (either letters to the editor or to the public editor, Michael Arrieta-Walden.)   I will categorize them in "The Oregonian newspaper Aaaarrrgghh!" where they will be archived.  I hope this will inspire those who have not ever contacted The O to join in.  This one is to the public editor:
(This is where I got the numbers I'm referring to in the letter.  Note that the ABC.com article was posted on 12/27/04, before 35 million had been pledged.)

Dear Mr. Arrieta-Walden,

In Friday's (12/31/04) editorial, "Measuring American
Generosity" it states that the UN's Jan Egeland
citicized the wealthy nations after Bush had pledged
35 million dollars.  This is incorrect.  On Monday
(12/27/04) when Egeland made the statement, Washington
had only pledged 15 million.

Based on all the reports and stories I have read in
the last several days, the media has all but forgotten
that the first pledge was 4 million, the second 15
million, and the third was 35 million.  It's good that
the amount has increased, because it was embarrassing,
to say the least, when it was clear what the
devestation was and only 15 million had been pledged.

I've seen The Oregonian editorials missing facts
before, but the editorial on Friday was outright
dishonest.  It's shameful journalism and I'm not sure
now whether I can trust anything written by your
editorial board.

You're journalists.  Get your facts straight or print
a correction.

Comments

[neo]

It is not just _The Oregonian_ that is engaging in this kind of revisionism. NPR has been continuously using the phrase "[...] the *initial* 35million pledge [...]"; the operative word being "initial".

Perhaps Michael (son of Colon) Bowell called up NPR to warn them that their licenses would be revoked if they do not drink the Kool-aid.

Classic Nazi modus-operandi---keep repeating a lie, and within a week, the population will accept it as gospel.

[Sid]

I know, it's all of them doing the revision. It makes me sick. I'm battering the O on this one because they are local.

[Phoenix Woman]

Good luck on getting them to listen! Too many journalists nowadays are too damned lazy to factcheck and too damned arrogant to accept correction from those of us who still make such pittances that we're subject to payroll taxes.

[Sid]

Yeah, they do have problems factchecking, bigtime. But why is it that the same journalists who wrote just a little over a week ago that Bush had pledged 15 million are now writing that the initial pledge was 35 million. They're Bush's propaganda slaves.

[Paul Bonneau]

It's worse than you think.

I have written many letters to the editor of the Oregonian over the years. When they printed them, they were often edited, and poorly, too. I just wrote it off to be some harried opinion page editor trying to cram enough letters into a limited space. But on two separate occasions where I took care to keep the letters concise, they were edited to be *longer* as well as being dumbed down! Now, these letters were in opposition to gun control, and the Oregonian loves gun control. Yes, that's right, they modified at least two letters to make the writer appear uneducated, when the letters were in opposition to their positions on issues.

No wonder I tell my wife, "Ah, the daily pack of lies," when she brings this paper home from work.

Moral of the story: check what they print, if you've sent them a letter - especially for length.