A Crawford dispatch from the Chronicle D.C. bureau’s Julie Mason, like much of that bureau’s reporting, suffers from some problems.
There’s this:
Sheehan’s 10-day vigil took its new turn when Fred Mattlage, from nearby Hewitt, walked into the tumbledown Crawford Peace House on Monday night and offered his 300-acre Crawford parcel for use by the protesters.
[snip]
Mattlage, who could not be reached for comment, is reportedly a distant cousin to Larry Mattlage, a homeowner near the protest site who last weekend fired a gun in the air near the encampment after expressing annoyance at the roadside activity.
Reportedly?
Julie Mason is a reporter. So is she reporting fact or hearsay? And if it’s hearsay (because it could not be confirmed), then wouldn’t it have been better to leave it out? Because, as we lowly bloggers frequently hear, professional journalism has editors and research staff and safeguards to make sure unsubstantiated allegations and hearsay never make it into print, unlike blogs.
There’s more:
Garth Jowett, a University of Houston communications professor and expert on political propaganda, said that Sheehan’s cause has gained attention because her activisim [sic] humanizes the costs of the war.
Activisim? Whoops.
That is the same Garth Jowett who is chairman of the board of Houston MediaSource, by the way, and who has offered a quaint theory of the First Amendment in order to insist that City Council has no real power to exercise effective oversight with regard to MediaSource. Political propaganda indeed!
The story concludes:
Critics of Sheehan’s protest also have done an effective job — of vilifying her as “a crazy lady” who is being manipulated by liberal organizations such as MoveOn.org and by the news media. “If Bush meets with her he will have conceded that she has something to say to him,” Jowett said. “She has her bona fides: She lost her son and she has a real issue, which I think really annoys the right.”
On his Monday talk show, radio personality Rush Limbaugh noted that Sheehan’s son volunteered for the Army. He disparaged the “squatters” in Sheehan’s entourage.
“There’s no meaning to what she’s doing. She’s a pawn, she’s a tool of a bunch of fellow crackpots upon whom we couldn’t depend if our lives were at stake, and that’s why they are so few and far between. Thankfully, they are not anywhere near the majority of people in the country,” Limbaugh said.
Recent polls have shown a majority of Americans no longer support the war in Iraq, with Bush’s approval ratings for his handling of the war as low as 38 percent.
Note how Mason has shaded her coverage. Professor Jowett, “expert on political propaganda” is allowed to present his perspective on the critics of Sheehan (they’re mean, annoyed people who are “vilifying” a woman with legitimate complaints), but no local expert is found with an alternative view. Instead, Rush Limbaugh’s radio show is cited, and the final sentence seems intended as a rebuttal of the quote offered from Limbaugh.
That’s not very subtle of Mason, but it’s another example of why serious news consumers don’t have much use for the Chronicle‘s D.C. bureau. Jeff Cohen should consider shuttering it and redeploying the resources at the city and state desks.
