Open Letter to Sandra Shea, Philadelphia Daily News Editor
My friend Scott asked that I augment the Christine Flowers smackdown by pointing out who lets her get away with this kind of racist, hateful, worthless spew.
That person is Sandra Shea, who has been running the Daily News op-ed page since July 2006. In that time, Christine Flowers has been nothing but the voice of hate and intolerance, advocating retributive violence against all black Philadelphians in response for the crimes of a minority of thugs; attacking single moms as sluts and feminists as prudes; defending Catholic priests who molest children; and stalking bloggers like me. Why does Ms. Shea allow this to continue?
I don’t know, but I can tell you this. In response to a Christine Flowers column attempting to portray Obama as pandering to Latinos (and really Christine, how stupid do you think Latinos are? Do you suppose they didn’t notice the “Minuteman” movement, or the ICE raids, or the way their families were systematically torn apart, all cheered on by Republicans and their nativist allies as if the brown hordes were coming to carry off our women and force our children to speak Spanish?), I sent Sandra Shea the following letter. It has been nearly a month, and Ms. Shea has not bothered to respond: what does that say about Sandra She’as tolerance for deliberate lies and distortions in her department?
Dear Ms. Shea:
Why do you persist in allowing Christine Flowers column space on your page? That she is consistently wring is one thing: that she is dishonest and spews predigested GOP talkign points that aren’t even true is another. For instance, last week’s piece on “lipstick on a pig”: by the time the article was published, even John McCain had said that’s not what Obama meant. Flowers’ “article” was nothign hut a rehash of debunked talking points.
This week’s piece, “An Obama-nation” (quoting Jerome Corsi’s utterly discredited book of the same name) is more of the same:in fact, her first commentor points out that Obama and McCain voted the same way on the Immigration reform
[Source]
Why is Flowers allowed to spew misinformation like this? As an immigration lawyer, there is no doubt she’s fully informed on policies affecting her clients: why is she misrepresenting the facts on your page, and more importantly, why are YOU letting her get away with it?
A few days before that Flowers’ incoherence surrounding reproductive rights left some of us casting bets as to wether she’d condemn Bristol Palin as a slut for getting pregnant before marriage, or turning on a dime and putting her on a pedestal for respecting “the culture of life”.
I’m not writing because I have political differences with Flowers: I also disagree with Michael Smerconish most days, but at least he has a respect for facts and presents honest arguments. Christine Flowers is irresponsible and deliberately spreads misinformation and lies: I always thought that it was standard practice to check facts and to issue corrections when the paper is wrong, even when op-ed columnists are involved (see William Kristol’s near-weekly corrections in the NYT).
If that’s not the case at the Daily News, please let me know: I could use some extra money and can make up stuff just as well as Ms. Flowers. Given the opportunity, I would love to do some cut-and-pasting from questionable sources and write a column slamming John McCain for going insane in Viet Nam and fathering a black child out of wedlock. My column would be every bit as truthful and well-researched as anything Flowers writes. Also, I guarantee I can beat her prices. Otherwise, shame on you and shame on the Daily News for publishing Christine Flowers, who traffics in lies and distortions.
Sincerely,
Brendan Skwire
In closing, I ask again: why does Sandra Shea allow a serial liar, someone who has no regard for factual accuracy, to publish her increasingly unhinged claims on the pages of what should be a respected big city newspaper?
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October 19th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
[...] open letter to sandra shea, philadelphia daily news editor that person is sandra shea,/a>, who has been running the daily news op-ed page since july 2006. in that time, christine flowers has been nothing but the voice of hate and intolerance, advocating retributive violence against all black … [...]