Jonas Rushman – 6/8/06

This page was last updated on June 8, 2006.

Traitors? Loonies?; Jonas M. Rushman; Beaver County Times; June 8, 2006.

This is the fifth letter during the last couple of years I’ve noticed from Mr. Rushman. In addition to being a consistent Bush basher, two of those letters claimed there is no liberal bias in the media and that “Fahrenheit 9/11” is a good source of documented facts.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Several letter writers in the past week have called The Times ‘traitors’ and ‘un-American’ for airing editorials contrary to the warped Republican view.”

[RWC] A search of the Times website did not find “several letter writers …” I found two letters, one by Mike Musolin (The Times is anti-American; May 22, 2006) and another by Emma Dietz (Traitors, all; June 5, 2006) agreeing with Mr. Musolin. Neither letter referred to the Times as “traitors.” Though one letter title used “traitors,” it’s my experience the Times itself authors the titles.

Not to be too picky, but how does a newspaper “air” editorials?

“I beg to differ.

“Just because The Times is not in lock-goose-step with Faux News, Rush Limbaugh and the other right-wing propagandists, members of its editorial board are not ‘traitors’ nor are they ‘un-American’.

“To the contrary, they are one of the few places remaining where opinions differing from the same-old warmed-over right-wing pabulum can be aired without censorship.”

[RWC] From where does Mr. Rushman get his opinion fix? If Mr. Rushman believes the predominant opinions expressed on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, et cetera are “warmed-over right-wing pabulum,” his positions must be somewhere to the left of Karl Marx. <g>

Regarding no censorship, the Times chooses the letters it publishes. Not all letters it receives are published and there’s nothing wrong with that. As a private business, that’s the Times’ right.

“Remember freedom of speech? It has been a while since the Republicans took that away, but some of us remember America how it used to be.”

[RWC] Mr. Rushman, if Republicans took away free speech, how were you able to have your letter published?

“Having said that in a public forum, I’m sure my name will now appear on an NSA ‘terrorist’ list. I am also sure that somewhere, Joe McCarthy is smiling.”

[RWC] Yeah, I’m sure the NSA cares about Bush-bashing letter writers.

Regarding Joe McCarthy, Mr. Rushman needs a history lesson. Though liberals like to attach Senator McCarthy to the House on Un-American Activities Committee, as the name says this was a House of Representatives committee. Senator McCarthy was, well, a Senator. With respect to communist spies in the federal government, decoded Soviet Cold War-era cables (the NSA’s VENONA program) released during the 1990s show Senator McCarthy was right.

“Yes, the loonies are taking over. They control the White House, Congress and most of the public airwaves.”

[RWC] What is the common denominator in the above paragraph? All of these “loonies” were elected. In the case of the “public airwaves,” those “loonies” wouldn’t exist if there weren’t a lot of listeners. Remember, though, Mr. Rushman includes ABC, CBS, NBC, et cetera to be anti-liberal.

“They are now trying to mute one of the last bastions of free speech. I applaud The Times for not surrendering our basic rights as easily as other media outlets have.”

[RWC] Is Mr. Rushman claiming the Times is “one of the last bastions of free speech?”

You probably noticed Mr. Rushman didn’t provide any examples demonstrating the takeover of the media by those with whom he disagrees.