Editor,
I enjoy reading the Indy and Stu News. They are the “go to” for local community news and Laguna happenings. What I don’t enjoy, and what is disappointing, is that the local news, and the Indy in particular, has become a political tool in our nation’s politics.
Frankly, my dear, your bias is showing. Last week’s article innocuously entitled “Activists Recruit Afield for Town Hall”, was yet another hit piece on Republican Rep. Dana Rohrbacher.
There have been so many since the 2016 election it is hard to count. The comment that two people were spotted “wearing Trump gear,” but there were “no disruptions” was intended to insinuate that Trump/Republican supporters were going to be the troublemakers, when in fact it’s the Democrat/cats-in-the-hats who are the ones causing the trouble far and wide, harassing elected Republicans at their offices and at their homes, acting rudely and behaving like angry mobs. Squashing free speech, unless it’s leftist speech.
This anti-civil behavior is being played out all over the nation, and is destroying our hard earned democracy. The statement “we really wanted him (Rohrbacher) to show up” was just a blatantly false invitation for civil discourse. If honest, what they should have said was “we really want him to show up so we can continue to harangue, harass and shout at him.” They don’t want meaningful dialog; they want to attack.
So kudos to Rohrbacher for not taking the bait. Why would any self-respecting person attend a lynch mob as guest of honor? I’m disappointed that the Indy continues to print these “news stories” masquerading as Republican hit pieces.
I’m disappointed that my local paper, which is supposed to be about local Laguna news, has fallen to the low level of media bias on national politics. I felt compelled to write this letter to the editor to point out the obvious, because I’m not afraid to say what so many people are thinking in the privacy of their homes, lest they be “outed” by their neighbors. So please, local media, keep to the facts and local news, and keep your political bias in check.
P.S. Part of me hopes these mobs keep doing what they are doing, because I predict it’s going to backfire on them. Less and less people are getting their news from the mainstream media these days because they realize it is neither factual nor “news”, and the backlash is going to be strong. Quiet, but strong, just like the last election.
Jennifer Welsh Zeiter, Laguna Beach
Well said.
The “Mainstream Media” is defined as that which mirrors a person’s personal opinion.
To be fair, Rohrbacher isn’t known for being willing to dialogue or meet with constituents who don’t share his views. How is it wrong to point that out? Also, regarding your comment on the election, please don’t forget the results of popular vs. electoral.
[…] Local Media Shows Bias I enjoy reading the Indy and Stu News. They are the “go to” for local community news and Laguna happenings. What I don’t enjoy, and what is disappointing, is that the local news, and the Indy in particular, has become a political tool in our nation … lagunabeachindy.com2d Global Warming […]
I could not agree more with you on the left shutting down free speech. Bad move, and a stupid move that will ultimately be used against them. The First Amendment was drafted to protect minority speech, and the exemptions from that protection— slander and obscenity— have a long and complicated legal history. I am of the opinion that the obscenity clause has to go at some point because it has been used historically to target gay people, women and minorities, by the policing of “pornography.” And hate speech— well it needs to be protected because hate is in the eye of the beholder.
You lose me, however, when you call the left a lynch mob. This is simply not the case. The antifa are not a part of the left; they are anarchists who believe in the. abolition of the state, or where libertarianism meets original Marxism and we all know where old school Marxism led us— Stalin, for example.
If the local media pays the most attention to the antifa, and they do, then they are complicit in shutting down dialogue and Rorhbacher seems to support this use of media as a tool for propaganda — the propoganda reads as follows: The left are a bunch of radical lunatics who do not love their home, respect other people’s rights or property and with all due respect, that is nonsense,