Regarding the 'Twin Cities Pioneer Press,' there is an on-line poll where you can vote about viewing the WC...right now 46% at "severe torture." Go vote and turn the tide...show your support. http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/sports/
i found your post was counterproductive ("Non-constructive"). speaking as someone who's worked political campaigns and isn't entirely cynical about public activism, letter writing does in fact help. public opinion relies almost entirely on perceptions. sure, writing a letter may do nothing to change the views of the troglodyte columnist, but what it does show to the other readers of the newspaper (and the pioneer press has a fairly wide distribution) is that people care enough to call the columnist out on his bullshit. it also reassures the other readers out there who read powers' article, felt infuriated, but did not bother to write in themselves. it provides a counter to what is otherwise a one-way medium of communication. and, believe it or not, when enough people respond with outrage or disappointment, editors do pay attention. bitching is endemic to online fora, bigsoccer certainly included... but this is one case where it's fairly easy to do something about the issue at hand.
Yes, that (the bold part of your post)may be true for replies that are printed in the paper. The ones sent by email to the editor and/or columnist, on the other hand, will not be seen by other readers. Notice at the end of the article: Tom Powers can be reached at ........... These replies are for his consumption only.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/editorial/14755287.htm some very reasonable and well thought out responses to the tom powers article. obviously not written by bigsoccer hotheads like myself.
thanks for the link. everyone should read these well-written replies. nice to see the Pioneer Press print them. i'm wondering how many letters of support for the orginial piece they received.
Good, I'm very happy to see all those replies which got printed. I had sent a reply myself, although I don't need to post it here. I wonder what kind of a place this world would be, if everyone was like what bbsbt advocates. It would be like a place inhabited predominantly by sheep, with no hope for any change, no activism, nothing.
Hard to believe anyone but a total nitwit would think that article was good. I think if the paper had any favorable letters, they would have printed them, too. Let's hope Powers gets assigned to cover the Minot, North Dakota demoliton derby championship and is never heard from again on these boards.