Arizona's Own Espresso Pundit

Blurring the Lines

The Republic is trying to draw a brighter line between its News and Opinion sections by adding banners over the opinion pieces. 

I'm sympathetic to this problem.  After all, it's difficult to lay out a website in a way that naturally distinguishes between hard news and opinion.  However, the Republic will need to take a few additional steps if they want to draw a line between the opinion and news sections.  Take this Tweet from Laurie Roberts for example.  

This is a classic Laurie Roberts Tweet in which she once again insults the Governor and accuses him of cowardice.  This is part of her "grow a spine" "trembling hands" "baby steps" "punts" series.  Laurie doesn't make actual arguments in these columns, she is simply throwing red meat to her base--the Tweet is designed to appeal to the reflexive Ducey haters.

Notice who else it appeals to?  That's right, Republic reporter Craig Harris "Likes" this Tweet.  Reporters claim that "retweets are not endorsements" but no one can claim that "Likes are not Likes."  Harris likes this red meat Tweet and he wants the world to know that he likes it.  This lack of boundaries makes it clear that Harris is a hard left partisan.  Which of course undercuts his claims that his attacks on, say, Charter Schools is anything other than partisan talking points.

If you want to see how partisan his "likes" look, check out this Tweet.    

Obviously Craig Harris didn't know that Rebecca Rios was going to "Like" the same Laurie Roberts column that he "Liked." And the odds are that mine is the only feed in which their Likes appeared side by side.  However, the juxtaposition helps to drive home the point that Harris is not objective.  He is unable to avoid partisanship on Twitter and frankly, the evidence that he provides of his hard left bias gives us more ammunition to claim that his reporting is just as partisan.  Furthermore, Harris's public displays of overt partisanship also serve to bolster my point that the Republic's news and opinion sections are actually a combined partisan effort.  I would argue that Harris is not the outlier; he is simply the most obvious--and undisciplined--example of a hard left news department coordinating with a hard left opinion page to present a uniformly hard left final product.  

Maybe the Republic should just put the banner over every article on AZCentral. 

Tucson Radio

I had an opportunity to be on KVOI with Matt Neely and Brush Ash.  It went a little something like this.

Espresso WUT 7-28-20

 

The Most Disgusting Tweet

This used to be the most disgusting Tweet in my files.

Set aside the fact that Mark Curtis doesn't know the difference between "sew" and "sow" and focus on what Curtis is saying.  He's saying that the dead hunter DESERVED to die.  At the time, this level of cruelty surprised me. 

No longer.  Reporters on Twitter have reached a new level of cruelty.  Check out this modern version of the "Elephant falls on hunter" story.   

This is a "reaps what he sows" story that glorifies the death of a 37 year old Navy Veteran.  That's the only reason Dan Nowicki Tweeted it.  The only national news value is to revel in the irony that a guy who famously refused to wear a mask died of COVID 19. 

The cruelty is compounded by Craig Harris clicking "Like". 

Unbelievable.  

Elite Opinion

I'm sure that you've heard the term "flyover country".  That's the derogatory term that elites use to describe the part of the country that they are forced to fly over while jetting from LA or San Francisco to New York Chicago or Boston.  Expressing disdain for the most of the country is a form of virtue signalling.  Sure, you might have to cover events in, say, Albuquerque or Tulsa, but you don't like it there.  You are "in" but not "of".

This embarrassment/animosity applies equally to reporters who actually live in flyover country.  Rather than admit that they are part of the community, they cover it like a foreign correspondent reporting on a local backwater.  Here' s great example from the Star's Tim Steller. 

I'm from Tucson, and my parents still live there.  I don't consider meth seizures to be a defining feature of Tucson*.    Facebook isn't the only thing that's driving newspapers into bankruptcy--condescending, virtue signaling columnists drive away readers.

When I started writing Espresso Pundit in 2004, Lee Enterprises' stock was trading at $47.00 per share.  Today it is trading at 86 cents. 

*The three defining features of Tucson are Mountain Views, Monsoon Storms and untimed traffic lights.