Sunday, May 10, 2009

Dear Mr. Redifer:

I almost canceled in early 2008. In the course of the Republican presidential campaign, U.S. Representative Ron Paul, R-Texas, created quite a buzz among younger and Internet-savvy voters. He raised questions studiously ignored by political elites and mainstream media--about the U.S. Government's role in the world, the astronomical costs of the U.S. military empire (i.e., 575,000 troops in 130 foreign countries, all of whom hate us for "our" freedom to bomb and blockade them), and the malinvestments generated by the Federal Reserve Bank's fiat currency and counterfeiting schemes.

Rep. Paul finally had a forum for a message he--and other libertarians and Constitutionalists--had espoused for years. He took on Rudy Giuliani before a hostile audience, pointing to 9/11 as blowback and an inevitable consequence of our interventionist foreign policy. He generated millions of dollars in small-donor campaign contributions. He won Internet poll after Internet poll. He even won Fox News polls--to the obvious dismay of leading neocon mouthpieces like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.

So how did my beloved Morning Friendly receive this cleansing breath of fresh political air? Your editor Ron Dzwonkowski's screaming winter 2008 headline said it all: NO CHANCE TO WIN.

I concluded long ago that mainstream media organs like the Detroit Free Press exist not to promote political analysis and debate, but to lend legitimacy to the narrow parameters of "responsible" Establishment discourse--to the detriment of the average American. Diversity should mean more than hiring black and female columnists to repeat the same trite and tired Democratic-Republican, liberal-neoconservative dogmas. I enjoy your comics page and your sports, business and local coverage. You did a bang-up job exposing corruption in the Detroit Mayor's Office and City Council. But I am no longer inclined to spend my hard-earned and now diminishing dollars on welfare-warfare state propaganda.

The Detroit Free Press is part of a dying industry. You can't blame all of the print media's demise on economic conditions. Intelligent and independent-thinking people now recognize the Internet as their only source for real news and views. I wish you well.

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