Winter in Vermont is still here…

Brother ~ 1963

Don’t miss Odum’s explosive expose on Green Mountain Daily today: Second Vermont Republic/Vermont Commons Tied to White Supremacists

And now today’s…

Barack the House Link Party

Tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. EST tune in to C-SPAN (either online or on the T.V.) to see Barack Obama’s announcement speech. It will apparently also be available at the official Obama site (but those big online events almost always get overloaded — I’d stick with C-SPAN).

But you can go on this lower traffic day for a preview from Obama himself. And note his comments about what to expect from the new site that will launch tomorrow. Seems to be a very positive sign that the Obama campaign will indeed make excellent use of the possibilities of online organizing.

Obama about to bring out the big gun: his wife
Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney,New South Wales,Australia
Michelle and Barack Obama at a Los Angeles awards ceremony for African-Americans in the entertainment industry in 2005. HER admirers say Barack Obama’s wife …

Obama: Full of hope on a tough road
St. Louis Post-Dispatch - St. Louis,MO,USA
Barack Obama will embark on a grueling, nationwide quest that will test the depth and endurance of his instant celebrity. …

And today I wrote to the Chicago Sun-Times to complain about an opinion piece, entitled Obama campaign dares to make most of parallels that was the featured story in their online news section today.

After a back and forth with the writer, Jennifer Hunter, she suggested I contact Don Hayner, the managing editor. So I did…

Mr. Hayner,

I wanted to bring to your attention the fact that Jennifer Hunter’s opinion piece “Obama campaign dares to make the most of parallels” from today’s online edition is not correctly labeled as opinion. In fact, it is quite prominently featured in the news section.

I submitted a comment about this issue through the online feedback form and to Ms. Hunter, herself. After realizing that I was correct about this oversight, she suggested that I bring this to your attention.

I know in the grand scheme of things this is perhaps a small matter. But, I hope that you will take steps to make sure that it is corrected.

Respectfully,

Neil Jensen
Vermonter for Obama
http://vermontersforobama.org

Here is my original email to Ms. Hunter…
___________________________________________________

Hello,

I wanted to briefly object to your piece, entitled “Obama campaign dares to make most of parallels” from February 9th, 2007.

While much of the information provided here is of interest to readers, the underlying tone (and particularly the final sentence) is inappropriate in a “news” context. This piece should be correctly labeled as “opinion.”

To accuse Obama’s campaign strategists of “hubris” is way over the line and should have no place in a supposedly objective journalism piece.

Thank you,

Neil Jensen
Vermonters for Obama
http://vermontersforobama.org

(A modified version of this has been sent to “news editors and reporters” via the online feedback form).

I am somewhat pleased to report that some of the changes necessary to ensure that this opinion piece is correctly identified have been made. Though, at the time of this writing, it is still the top story of the news section.