When you think of the Chronicle, what’s the first thought that comes to mind? Bloodhound – right!
The online Merriam-Webster dictionary defines bloodhound like this:
1 : any of a breed of large powerful hounds of European origin remarkable for acuteness of smell
2 : a person keen in pursuit
That’s just what I was thinking. No local media outlet can match the Chronicle for its instincts to go after a story, just like Chronicle reporters did with Enron, and a little old lady who had information related to some fake memos. Oh, and let’s not forget the Chronicle‘s relentless pursuit of MetroRail. Yep, bloodhound.
Which explains why the Chronicle put Julie Mason on the case of the Crawford, Texas, newspaper that endorsed John Kerry.
This is really important stuff.
As Rob Booth pointed out, this is so important that the Chronicle ran an AP story online Tuesday, then printed the Julie Mason-authored story on Wednesday.
The Chronicle says that the Lone Star Iconoclast has a circulation of 1,000, which is probably being generous. Newspapers have been known to err on the side of inflation when it comes to circulation numbers. Regardless, how odd is it to get all excited about the editorial position of a newspaper that reaches maybe 1,000 people?
The majority of the Chronicle story is Democrat press-release journalism, but at the end are two interesting paragraphs:
Around Crawford, a few residents, who would not give their names, said they read the Iconoclast but ignore the editorials, which they generally described as more liberal than the town.
News of the endorsement was sent to the press Tuesday by the Democratic National Committee, the Kerry campaign and America Coming Together, a liberal policy group.
Oh, well that explains the Democrat press-release reporting. The DNC helpfully provided the talking points. And I thought the campaigns weren’t supposed to coordinate with those 527 groups. Probably just a coincidence.
Hugh Hewitt (why can’t some Houston radio station pick up his show?) has a biting piece in the Weekly Standard:
IT STARTED on the Late, Late Show Monday night. Drudge posted a link to a picture of John Kerry’s suddenly orange face on Tuesday, and Blogs for Bush, Blogs of War, and Best of the Web started an Oompa Loompa meme Tuesday afternoon. I played the Oompa Loompa song a few times during the afternoon drive in scores of cities across the United States. Then Jay Leno opened his monologue with a combo botox/tan-in-a-can joke. Tens of millions of Americans kicked it around, and went to bed.
And the morning papers–except the New York Post– said not a word. The Boston Globe, the Chicago Sun-Times, and other old media found space to cover the decision of the Crawford, Texas’ Lone Star Iconoclast–circulation 425–to endorse John Kerry, but refused to acknowledge a genuine, though bizarre, story that is actually having an impact on the race–because they collectively don’t think it should be having an impact on the race.
The Iconoclast‘s circulation is 425? Wow. You know, I didn’t see the media get this worked up when some Democrats publicly endorsed Bush.
