The New York Times, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and . . .

News That Should Not Be Printed

The mark of a good publication is the quality and topic of the stories it writes about, and also the stories it does not write about.  Some news items are not news, are not relevant to the current discussion and resources should not be wasted reporting about them.  Here are some stories that were written, but should not have been, with no links, because if you understand the point of this Post, why would you want to go to them?

Texas State Library and Archives Commission

Rick Perry, then a State Representative, conferred with his fellow Democrats, Pete Laney and Robert Saunders, on the House floor in 1985.

The New York Times has a story on the early years of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s political career, when he was a Democrat.  He was a member of the state legislature over 25 years ago as a Democrat, and what he did there is totally irrelevant to what he is today.  The Times needs to focus on Mr. Perry as he is now, which is a story that very much needs telling.  Why not do that, New York Times?

Salon has a story on the sister of the man who fathered the baby of the daughter of a prominent political figure.  The story is about the sister posing in a men’s magazine.  Why?

Charles Krauthammer, a formerly respected political writer who has become a professional Obama hater writes in the Washington Post that he wants the GOP to force Mr. Obama to come up with tax reform proposals.  No Mr. Krauthammer, if you want tax reform come up with your own proposals.  Why is this man still writing in a respected (formerly?) newspaper?

The Boston Globe reports on a conflict in the Kennedy family about the disposition of the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s property on Cape Cod.  Haven’t these people had enough of their personal life written about in the press?  How is any of this relevant to anything?

The Washington Post has a story about a fund raising letter that Michelle Bachmann (R, Mn) sent out to raise money for his presidential campaign.  The letter attacks talk show host and academy award winning actress Whoopi Goldberg.  Ms. Goldberg was critical of Ms. Bachmann’s signing of a pledge whose pre-amble stated how much better African American children were under slavery when there was a two parent household. For some reason the fund raising letter was deemed newsworthy enough to be on the front page of the WP web site.  Ms. Bachmann has been featured many times in that paper, and maybe they were running out of real news about her campaign and so had to print that story. 

So here's a bit of advice to the august publications and other others.  If don't have something to say, don't say it.  There, that's not so hard to do is it?

Follow Up:

The Washington Post also has another story on Ms. Bachmann,  this time on why she left the church she was attending and is now attending another church.  This is not news, this is not relevant to Ms. Bachmann's political positions and it is really her own private matter unless she chooses to make it a public issue.  The denomination of the church she was attending apparently holds the view that the Pope is the Anti-Christ, something that Ms. Bachmann has said is not her view, and that should be good enough for everyone.  WP, there is plenty to write about on Ms. Bachmann, so leave her private religious attendance alone unless she makes it an issue in her campaign.